Why is standalone pic quality better than computer?

[nocam1334]

I'm new to burning vcd's, and I noticed that the picture quality of the vcd's I burn is much better on standalone dvd players than on a computer, even when putting the resolution of the computer monitor to 640x480. Does anyone know the reason for this? Does it have to with the type of television or the dvd player? Is there any other way to improve the picture quality on the computer? Would appreciate any advice.

[MishaGray]

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On 2001-10-19 14:57:52, nocam1334 wrote:
I'm new to burning vcd's, and I noticed that the picture quality of the vcd's I burn is much better on standalone dvd players than on a computer, even when putting the resolution of the computer monitor to 640x480. Does anyone know the reason for this? Does it have to with the type of television or the dvd player? Is there any other way to improve the picture quality on the computer? Would appreciate any advice.
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It really depends upon the quality of the Codec (Video decoder) software what is in use. Many 'free' MPEG PC software decoders are designed to run as many PCs as possible. This means that they comprimise video quaility in favor of lower PC CPU comsumption. Professional DVD playback software (PowerDVD, WinDVD etc) usually will approach DVD playback quality.

The DVD player has hardware dedicated to decoding high-bandwidth MPEG2 playback, and Video quality is very important since it is a deciding factor in whether people buy the product.

There could be other PC issues, such as screen resolution and color depth settings. Also if your screen is set to much higher than 800x600, then the player could be adding pixels in order to make a bigger picture. This effect can also effect overall quality. DVD players don't have to cope with this issue.