ridiculous not using imac 27 for movies...

[neonkru]

hi! I saw some posts of some people saying "hey yal why would you want to see movies in the imac? just go to the sitting room. well actually i'm buying my imac 27 mainly for watching movies and web surfing, cant wait for it to arrive almost waiting 2 weeks. that way i don't have to spend money in getting an hd tv, then a bluray player or having the trouble to connect the tv to my computer. that's just too troublesome. now i ask, how could you not use the imac 27 for watching bluray movies, with such a beautiful screen? =P and yes you can see bluray movies in mac os, just encode the video with no compression and you have 100% quality of bluray, that's what i do right now with an external bluray drive. i can't go back to dvd now

 

[sparkie7]

I'll be using my EyeTV diversity to watch TV when my i7 arrives and just watch DVD's via the superdrive or as .avi files straight off the drive.

Which external bluray drive are you using?

I wonder how god the blacks are on the backlighting when watching movies with all the lights turned off. And what brightness levels it can be set on the LED screen before the blacks look 80% grey and look crap. I'm really not expecting superblacks on this display. My MBP17 has a LED screen and at 50% brightness is the max before the blacks start looking a bit washed out.

What are current 27" owners experiencing?

 

[robotkiller]

hi! I saw some posts of some people saying "hey yal why would you want to see movies in the imac? just go to the sitting room. well actually i'm buying my imac 27 mainly for watching movies and web surfing, cant wait for it to arrive almost waiting 2 weeks. that way i don't have to spend money in getting an hd tv, then a bluray player or having the trouble to connect the tv to my computer. that's just too troublesome. now i ask, how could you not use the imac 27 for watching bluray movies, with such a beautiful screen? =P and yes you can see bluray movies in mac os, just encode the video with no compression and you have 100% quality of bluray, that's what i do right now with an external bluray drive. i can't go back to dvd now

The screen is too small to watch movies, unless you are sitting right up to the screen. Watching blu-ray on my large screen HD is a far superior experience. I don't miss the lack of Blu-ray in this machine.

 

[No ice please]

I'm still wondering how people watch hd movies on them. The movies are formated to 1080p not 1440p.

 

[panzer06]

The screen is too small to watch movies, unless you are sitting right up to the screen. Watching blu-ray on my large screen HD is a far superior experience. I don't miss the lack of Blu-ray in this machine.

Ah yes another youngster who doesn't remember when a 20" TV was big.

I watch TV & movies on my 24" imac. Looks great from the Lazyboy. Would it look even better on a 42" LCD HDTV? Perhaps, but if your man cave is not so equipped the 24 or 27" iMacs will do just fine.

I bought on of these for $89 to play Blurays under bootcamp (It came as a black drive not white as listed). They raised the price to $114.50 but currently there is a typo that lists $1114.50 but I'm sure they'll fix that soon. The drive inside is IDE but it works well connected via USB.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QA2Y9S/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Cheers,

 

[PsyD4Me]

im curious for those that replace their TVs with the Imac, are you really satisfied with non-HD quality Eye-TV and the likes bring to the table?
I have Eye-TV and while it allows me to catch up on sports while i'm doing research the quality is below average.

 

[robotkiller]

Ah yes another youngster who doesn't remember when a 20" TV was big.

I watch TV & movies on my 24" imac. Looks great from the Lazyboy. Would it look even better on a 42" LCD HDTV? Perhaps, but if your man cave is not so equipped the 24 or 27" iMacs will do just fine.

I bought on of these for $89 to play Blurays under bootcamp (It came as a black drive not white as listed). They raised the price to $114.50 but currently there is a typo that lists $1114.50 but I'm sure they'll fix that soon. The drive inside is IDE but it works well connected via USB.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QA2Y9S/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Cheers,

lol...no, not quite a youngster. Trust me, I remember the days of watching movies on a 19" in my college dorm room. I don't miss it.

 

[pastrychef]

While the screen is great for computing (I love the pixel density), I don't think it's well suited to be a TV replacement. I currently use a 30" monitor with my Mac Pro and have tried watching movies and anime on it. It's not bad, but sitting about 12' away, reading subtitles is not comfortable.

Now, I stream the content to my 37" TV and it's a much better experience. That being said, I hope to purchase an even larger TV in the near future. It's too bad Apple doesn't make an iMac with a screen that's 46-55"...

 

[juliancs]

I lie on my bed, about 4 meters from my 17" MBP and watch movies on it happily. An extra 10 inches will be nice. That's what she said.

 

[Alan64]

I watch DVDs & Netflix streaming and I'm very happy. I'm about 30" away from my 27" screen. In the living room is a 32" LCD TV that's about 9-10' away. The iMac's more impressive, but the couch & 5.1 stereo in the living room trumps it. I'm glad my iMac's not my MAIN movie viewer, but it's still a great viewing experience.

As for being old, I remember going with my dad down to Thrifty's with a few pulled tubes from our TV and plugging them into the tube tester to see which one went bad. I think a quarter bought a triple scoop of crappy Thrifty's ice cream at the time (early 70's).

 

[HLdan]

im curious for those that replace their TVs with the Imac, are you really satisfied with non-HD quality Eye-TV and the likes bring to the table?
I have Eye-TV and while it allows me to catch up on sports while i'm doing research the quality is below average.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Non HD? The 24" iMac has a 1920x1200 screen resolution and that is what is required for 1080p. Furthermore I have the 24" iMac with EyeTV and I watch full 1080p HD TV shows on it daily. The non-HD channels are all in digital so the quality is fantastic. You're obviously doing something wrong with your setup.

 

[dukebound85]

You have no idea what you are talking about. Non HD? The 24" iMac has a 1920x1200 screen resolution and that is what is required for 1080p. Furthermore I have the 24" iMac with EyeTV and I watch full 1080p HD TV shows on it daily. The non-HD channels are all in digital so the quality is fantastic. You're obviously doing something wrong with your setup.

not all eyetv channels are hd. the ones that arent i would hardly call fantastic

 

[HLdan]

not all eyetv channels are hd. the ones that arent i would hardly call fantastic

Correct, my post mentioned that, you must've misread it. If the digital non-HD channels don't appear to be very clear to you then you must have perfect eyes. EyeTV non-HD digital channels look every bit as good as my 40" Samsung LED TV watching the same non-HD channels.

 

[mrsir2009]

Lol I hate watching movies or TV on computers, it doesn't feel right...

 

[bobr1952]

Ah yes another youngster who doesn't remember when a 20" TV was big.

I watch TV & movies on my 24" imac. Looks great from the Lazyboy. Would it look even better on a 42" LCD HDTV? Perhaps, but if your man cave is not so equipped the 24 or 27" iMacs will do just fine.

I bought on of these for $89 to play Blurays under bootcamp (It came as a black drive not white as listed). They raised the price to $114.50 but currently there is a typo that lists $1114.50 but I'm sure they'll fix that soon. The drive inside is IDE but it works well connected via USB.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QA2Y9S/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Cheers,

Yeah--I still think of the $1000 19 inch Sony I bought in the 80s. I also watch movies on my 24 inch iMac and think they look great. Of course, my 46" rear projection TV is almost 15 years old and WELL past its prime so I guess the comparison is a bit one-sided there. But the clarity including end movie credits is amazing on the iMac--even from the other end of my couch!

 

[dukebound85]

Correct, my post mentioned that, you must've misread it. If the digital non-HD channels don't appear to be very clear to you then you must have perfect eyes.

lol hardly perfect

EyeTV non-HD digital channels look every bit as good as my 40" Samsung LED TV watching the same non-HD channels.

I agree that the they look the same but you can definitly tell the difference between hd and non hd channels in terms of quality on a tv

combined with the fact watching tv on your computer screen, you tend to be closer than you would on a tv set, you do see the poor quality easier

or maybe you call non hd channels "fanstastic"?

 

[mrsir2009]

I never watch HD, normal quality is just fine for me

 

[HLdan]

lol hardly perfect



I agree that the they look the same but you can definitly tell the difference between hd and non hd channels in terms of quality on a tv

combined with the fact watching tv on your computer screen, you tend to be closer than you would on a tv set, you do see the poor quality easier

or maybe you call non hd channels "fanstastic"?

I do agree with you in terms of a TV vs. a computer screen. My argument with the other poster is he was asking why would anyone switch from a TV to an iMac that has no HD, and that's just a false statement. The 24's and 27" iMacs get full HD, while either watching shows from the web or EyeTV. I'm not sure what some of you guys want standard def to look like but after my Comcast went all digital it was certainly a 180 going from watching my EyeTV in analog to digital.

 

[wodeh]

As much as I "got by" with VHS and 15" CRT televisions as a kid, you couldn't pry my HD TVs out of my cold, dead hands with a crowbar and a hacksaw.

Then there's 1080p projectors... THAT'S how you watch a Blu-Ray movie. Anything less is a compromise. Too bad they're still generally unwieldy, bulky and expensive... we'll all have ultra-thin 100" LED TVs before projectors catch on.

But, hey, if you're in a dorm room, or a bedroom then I can't see any reason why you couldn't use the 27" iMac for television/movies. Toss an Eye-TV (or SlingPlayer + SlingBox) at it, and you're golden.

Oh how I wish that DisplayPort was HDMI.

 

[Eidorian]

While the screen is great for computing (I love the pixel density), I don't think it's well suited to be a TV replacement. I currently use a 30" monitor with my Mac Pro and have tried watching movies and anime on it. It's not bad, but sitting about 12' away, reading subtitles is not comfortable.

Now, I stream the content to my 37" TV and it's a much better experience. That being said, I hope to purchase an even larger TV in the near future. It's too bad Apple doesn't make an iMac with a screen that's 46-55"...

MPlayer or Movist can increase the font size for subtitles.

I'm sure we can all groan over the lack of Blu-ray and upscaling DVDs too. 720p/1080p media isn't that bad and HD OTV if you have a tuner is great on larger computer displays.

 

[mrsir2009]

As much as I "got by" with VHS and 15" CRT televisions as a kid, you couldn't pry my HD TVs out of my cold, dead hands with a crowbar and a hacksaw.

Then there's 1080p projectors... THAT'S how you watch a Blu-Ray movie. Anything less is a compromise. Too bad they're still generally unwieldy, bulky and expensive... we'll all have ultra-thin 100" LED TVs before projectors catch on.

But, hey, if you're in a dorm room, or a bedroom then I can't see any reason why you couldn't use the 27" iMac for television/movies. Toss an Eye-TV (or SlingPlayer + SlingBox) at it, and you're golden.

Oh how I wish that DisplayPort was HDMI.

LOL harden up I get by on a VHS, a crappy $60 DVD player and a 27" CRT TV that was purchased when I was born!

 

[panzer06]

Yeah--I still think of the $1000 19 inch Sony I bought in the 80s. I also watch movies on my 24 inch iMac and think they look great. Of course, my 46" rear projection TV is almost 15 years old and WELL past its prime so I guess the comparison is a bit one-sided there. But the clarity including end movie credits is amazing on the iMac--even from the other end of my couch!

Exactly, and with my external Blu-ray drive I play blu-rays and they look great. As great as it is I think I need to get up and leave the computer more often. ... and this 24" goodness ins't helping.

Cheers,