Video on TV or on Monitor

[Seyren]

I was just wondering why it is that video files look better on TV than on the computer monitor. Like a 320*280 video/music clip looks horrible (as in I can c moving squares) on a 24" monitor but looks orright on the 42" plasma when played from a disc.

[edDV]

320x280?

It must be a very good DVD player.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I was just wondering why it is that video files look better on TV than on the computer monitor. Like a 320*280 video/music clip looks horrible (as in I can c moving squares) on a 24" monitor but looks orright on the 42" plasma when played from a disc.

Two reasons come to mind:

A computer monitor is, well, a monitor. Monitors, by definition, are designed so you can monitor the signal accurately (as in studio monitors). You will see every flaw there is.

A TV (as opposed to a proper PAL or NTSC monitor) is, typically, designed to be very forgiving of poor signals and present them in a way that is appealing to the viewer. Put another way, TVs are cr@p!

The second reason: different gamma profiles for the colour. Video displayed on a monitor designed for a PC (different types of computer may differ) will always seem darker and less vibrant than on a video (PAL, NTSC etc) monitor. If you have a graphics card that can support two displays and one of them is connected to a video monitor, you can see this quite readily if you drag a video playing on the main (computer) monitor to the video monitor.