There are many DVD players that now upconvert standard DVDs to near HD quality. Are there any upconverting software solutions for the mac that allow one to drop a DVD in the drive and rip/watch near HD quality video or is this too much to ask?
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Upconverting mac software
- Thread starter zorro5069
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I own an upconverting DVD player and an HD DVD player as well as two HD TVs. Upconverted DVD is nowhere near HD quality. It looks distinctly soft by comparison and colour isn't as vibrant either.
As for your question, the DVD player in OS X has a good quality deinterlacer and scaler. Plug your Mac into an HD TV and it will do a good job of scaling the image to fit the screen.
But it isn't near HD quality. Do yourself a favour and have a play with HD DVD or Blu ray on an HD TV. I recommend the BBC Planet Earth episode 3. Looks awesome. I was watching it on my 120" projector last night and this bit as the camera flies over Victoria Falls, well, first time outside an IMAX theatre I have felt vertigo.
DVD Player full screened already upconverts the video... that's all an upconverter is doing, taking a lower resolution video and fullscreening it, with a little bit of blurring to smooth out the pixels.
If you rip a DVD and view it at full screen, you're upconverting.
Yes, many people can't tell the difference between upconverted content and HD content. It's not that upconverted content looks amazing, it's that people can't notice the improvement.
On video games, where lower res content has jaggies, HD make a significant difference in visuals, but 480p video doesn't have jaggies...
If you rip a DVD and view it at full screen, you're upconverting.
Yes, many people can't tell the difference between upconverted content and HD content. It's not that upconverted content looks amazing, it's that people can't notice the improvement.
On video games, where lower res content has jaggies, HD make a significant difference in visuals, but 480p video doesn't have jaggies...
Those people need to see real HD content off HD DVD or Blu ray. I can almost believe it with broadcast HD but off a disc, no way.
Oddly enough, it is with games that I have been most disappointed with HD. Games may be higher resolution but still have jaggies. Anti-aliasing will get rid of the jaggies, not just higher resolution and yet a surprising number of next gen games still have pretty bad jaggies.