Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Does updating your video card help with grainy dvd playback?

Does updating your video card help with grainy dvd playback?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Does updating your video card help with grainy dvd playback?

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silver2442   07-13-2008 at 04:48:04 AM

Bought a new monitor Samsung 2253LW 21.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor. I bought it because it had great reviews for picture quality but dvd's look pretty grainy. Right now I have a radeon 8500 4x agp. Will updating my card improve picture dvd quality?

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grimstar   07-13-2008 at 04:59:29 AM
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Did you make sure to change your resolution to the recommended resolution? (most likely 1680x1050)

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hackztor   07-13-2008 at 05:01:40 AM
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No! That graniness is on 99% of the lcd monitors. CRT never had a problem but lcd apparantly lacks some kind of filter. Only select s-ips panel monitors work correctly. I believe theres about 3 or 4 dif models. But those also cost a fortune.

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bc4   07-13-2008 at 05:17:18 AM
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Try watching it in non full screen mode at its default size--- I'm guessing you went with a bigger monitor and probably a higher resolution. Sorta like watching standard tv show on a hi - def set.

Not that this helps any, but it is common mistake to make.

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Just_An_Engineer   07-13-2008 at 07:50:16 AM
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silver2442 wrote :

Bought a new monitor Samsung 2253LW 21.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor. I bought it because it had great reviews for picture quality but dvd's look pretty grainy. Right now I have a radeon 8500 4x agp. Will updating my card improve picture dvd quality?



Regular DVD will pretty much always look terrible on an LCD monitor. The reason for this is that a standard definition DVD has a resolution of 720x480 and all LCD have a resolution of at least 1024x768, and in the case of your 21.6" monitor, the native resolution is even higher. As a result, when you watch the DVD in full screen the image is stretched to fit and you are likely seeing each pixel of the video represented by 2 or more physical pixels on the screen. That is why the pictures look grainy.

Unfortunately the only ways to get rid of the graininess are to get a higher resolution source (Bluray), get a smaller monitor, or get a CRT for your movie watching. My suggestion however would be to just sit a couple of feet further away from the monitor and you won't be able to tell the difference.

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