Quote Originally Posted by keller
My question is...is it normal for the pictures to look, how do i say this...a little "worn down" or less sharp as compared to viewing the pictures on a imac computer?

Yes. The resolution starts out very poor on a video DVD, which is only 720x480. That's about the same resolution as a *wallet* size print. But it gets worse, because the TV is likely using overscan, which cuts off the outer 3-10% of the image. And it's also probably using interlaced (in combination with the DVD player), which should filter out resolution to lower than 70% of what would normally be visible in 720x480. On top of that you have any quality issues in the TV itself (including poor calibration).


Even the best situation has relatively poor resolution compared to a print. A 1080p display, fed with a full-res progressive source (e.g. blu-ray, HDMI, DVI, etc.), with no overscan, well-calibrated, etc. is *still* only going to have resolution similar to a 4x6 print. Even if it's a 50-inch TV!


Until 4K displays are common place, an nice 8x10 is always going to have more impressive detail than any HD TV.