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Axemantitan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 16, 2008
536
96
I received a MacBook for XMas, and I noticed that the picture quality on DVDs and especially on AVIs are not nearly as good as on my old eMac. While it's still an outstanding machine, the noticeable difference in picture quality is a bother. Has anyone else has this same issue on their MacBook?
 

SFStateStudent

macrumors 604
Aug 28, 2007
7,496
3
San Francisco California, USA
I use my MB...

I received a MacBook for XMas, and I noticed that the picture quality on DVDs and especially on AVIs are not nearly as good as on my old eMac. While it's still an outstanding machine, the noticeable difference in picture quality is a bother. Has anyone else has this same issue on their MacBook?

for things other than watching movies, and that's the reason I bought a "blue-ray" DVD player. In the beginning, I would burn DVD's using my MB and then use HandBrake to convert them to MP4s' for my iPhone, so I'm probably the last person to ask about "picture quality" since it's not my primary source for viewing DVD's or AVI's. I'll pop-in a DVD this evening. Sorry! :eek:
 

GeneKam

macrumors regular
Feb 3, 2008
221
0
Mississauga, ON
could be the ctr screen against the lcd, the lighting does give a little of a whitish tint to the blacks, sadly i have noticed taht a little as well.
 

menthol moose

macrumors regular
Jul 20, 2006
175
0
If you haven't yet, try using Apple's built-in display calibrator. When I used it it improved the quality of videos drastically, as long as the source is good.
 

nutman

macrumors regular
May 19, 2006
159
0
Maybe because you have more screen estate, and thus the picture is more stretched?
 

TheStu

macrumors 65816
Aug 20, 2006
1,243
0
Carlisle, PA
Maybe because you have more screen estate, and thus the picture is more stretched?

That is probably it, the emac had a lower resolution screen than the macbook, so videos will be expanded to a larger size, and depending on the source, that is usually not a good thing.
 

GeneKam

macrumors regular
Feb 3, 2008
221
0
Mississauga, ON
oh i have done the calibration as soon as i got my macbook, after using macbook pro for a few months, going to this notebook seemed terrible. The quality was no where near as good, at first i brought mine back to the store to see if the whitish tint was really a problem on all or just on mine, sadly its a nation wide poison. Kind of disapointed, i would love to get the pro back, just it is sligtly big to carry around with me, so i have to go with the macbook :(. Still it is not all that bad if you calibrate the lcd to tv like picture :p
 

Axemantitan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 16, 2008
536
96
Thank you all for the replies so far.

I've considered the display, the graphics system, and the resolution. It's not the screen resolution, however. My old eMac had a higher setting of 1280x960 to the MacBook's 1280x800.

It is likely the CRT vs. LCD display. Video professionals still use CRTs, don't they? I wonder if the integrated graphics are to blame. If I could see a Mac Mini hooked up to a CRT, that would prove whether it was the CRT or the IG.

I found this article from Anandtech, discussing the viewing angle. The author put the blame on the TN panel in the MB, versus the IPS in the MBP. My issue, however, is poor video quality looking head on at it. That may also stem from the cheaper TN panel.

I will try the calibration. I attempted it before, but found it very difficult to balance out the different settings and I just reverted to the LCD default settings.
 
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