Optimal resolution for DVDs for playback on computer - Blu-ray Forum

Vidya · 05-23-2016, 09:37 PM

Boy am I confused. What are the ideal resolutions for playback of DVDs on a computer monitor? For widescreen, anamorphic dvds, is 720x480 ideal? Does playing an anamorphic or widescreen enhanced DVD at 720x480 result in a loss of resolution?

For full frame movies and non-anamorphic DVDs, is 640x480 ideal? Or would that also result in loss of detail?

I'm trying to avoid upscaling/downscaling by playing DVDs back at their native resolution. All of this pixel aspect ratio and anamorphic stuff has me scratching my head.

Any info is appreciated.

Pyoko · 05-23-2016, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vidya

Boy am I confused. What are the ideal resolutions for playback of DVDs on a computer monitor?

I'm trying to avoid upscaling/downscaling by playing DVDs back at their native resolution.

What do you mean with ideal playback resolution? Like how big the player window should be to avoid scaling? DVD video is typically stored as 720x480 so that's the answer, however then the content will be either squeezed or stretched; you can't avoid scaling if you want to see it in the correct aspect ratio (but it's DVD, and it's probably already low-pass filtered, scaling it is not going to make a big difference.)

Vidya · 05-23-2016, 10:42 PM

I'm not referring to the player window but the screen resolution itself.

If an anamorphic DVD is stored at 720x480 and my video card is set to 720x480, am I viewing the DVD at it's absolute highest resolution? From my understanding, 720x480 is not 16:9. Would I need to output at 853x480 (16:9) to see the full horizontal resolution?

Also, running at 640x480 while viewing a full frame DVD would result in loss of resolution, wouldn't it? If so, how does a 720x480 resolution image of a full frame movie scale for viewing on a 4:3 monitor? Are the pillar boxed black bars part of the 720x480 image?

EDIT: Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I'm ignorant on the subject of DVD resolution. I think what I'm trying to say is that I want to "unsqueeze" the image just enough to see the full vertical resolution that the image is capable.

Pyoko · 05-23-2016, 11:41 PM

Unless you're using an analog CRT monitor it makes no sense to change the actual screen resolution. If you have a 1920x1080 monitor and you try to send it 720x480 from the video card, then even if the signal were accepted the only thing that would happens is that the monitor would have to scale the image instead, most likely doing a much worse job than if you just scaled the video in the player.

But to answer your question, 853x480 is the lowest aspect ratio corrected resolution for 16:9 (anamorphic) DVDs without losing any resolution (slightly upscaled horizontally.) For 4:3 DVDs it's 720x540 (slightly upscaled vertically.) This is for NTSC by the way, for PAL DVDs the resolutions would be 1024x576 and 768x576.

05-23-2016, 09:37 PM	#1
Vidya Senior Member Member since:Nov 2009 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:-	Optimal resolution for DVDs for playback on computer Boy am I confused. What are the ideal resolutions for playback of DVDs on a computer monitor? For widescreen, anamorphic dvds, is 720x480 ideal? Does playing an anamorphic or widescreen enhanced DVD at 720x480 result in a loss of resolution? For full frame movies and non-anamorphic DVDs, is 640x480 ideal? Or would that also result in loss of detail? I'm trying to avoid upscaling/downscaling by playing DVDs back at their native resolution. All of this pixel aspect ratio and anamorphic stuff has me scratching my head. Any info is appreciated. Last edited by Vidya; 05-23-2016 at 09:48 PM.

05-23-2016, 10:42 PM	#3
Vidya Senior Member Member since:Nov 2009 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:-	I'm not referring to the player window but the screen resolution itself. If an anamorphic DVD is stored at 720x480 and my video card is set to 720x480, am I viewing the DVD at it's absolute highest resolution? From my understanding, 720x480 is not 16:9. Would I need to output at 853x480 (16:9) to see the full horizontal resolution? Also, running at 640x480 while viewing a full frame DVD would result in loss of resolution, wouldn't it? If so, how does a 720x480 resolution image of a full frame movie scale for viewing on a 4:3 monitor? Are the pillar boxed black bars part of the 720x480 image? EDIT: Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I'm ignorant on the subject of DVD resolution. I think what I'm trying to say is that I want to "unsqueeze" the image just enough to see the full vertical resolution that the image is capable. Last edited by Vidya; 05-23-2016 at 11:30 PM.

05-23-2016, 11:41 PM	#4
Pyoko Blu-ray Guru Top contributor Member since:Apr 2008 4K collection:151 Blu-ray collection:722	Unless you're using an analog CRT monitor it makes no sense to change the actual screen resolution. If you have a 1920x1080 monitor and you try to send it 720x480 from the video card, then even if the signal were accepted the only thing that would happens is that the monitor would have to scale the image instead, most likely doing a much worse job than if you just scaled the video in the player. But to answer your question, 853x480 is the lowest aspect ratio corrected resolution for 16:9 (anamorphic) DVDs without losing any resolution (slightly upscaled horizontally.) For 4:3 DVDs it's 720x540 (slightly upscaled vertically.) This is for NTSC by the way, for PAL DVDs the resolutions would be 1024x576 and 768x576.

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