Video quality in full screen mode (any player) looks blocky/pixelated. Why?

[genuinegemini]

Hello all. I am new to the forum and apologize for any replication in my quest for knowledge.

The System:

Dell Inspiron 531S (Stock Board)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional (MSDN)
AMD Athlon X2 64 6000+ 3.0GHz (Windsor Edition)
WD Caviar 160GB SATA 7200RPM HDD x 2 (No Raid/1 OS)
8GB (2GB x 4) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800MHz CL5
XFX Radeon HD 6670 SFF 2GB GDDR3 PCIe x16 2.0
400 Watt TFX PSU
Vizio E260MV 26" 1080p LED LCD TV (set at 1080p 60Hz)
Logitech Wireless Trackball M570
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard Y-UY95

The Curiosity:

So I have this system and I have it connected to my TV via HDMI. For the longest time now I have been trying to figure out why when I download a video that is 1080p it doesn't look like 1080p in full screen viewing. I have noticed that with different file extensions the quality is different, and the initial "native" size of the player when you double click to open any given extension varies as well. The videos all look amazing when they are in the player's various small "native" sizes, but become blocky and/or pixelated when you set the player (any player) to full screen viewing. It seems as though the videos maybe optimized for mobile devices or something with a much, much smaller screen than my 26" Vizio. I have done some reading around to try and find out why and I refuse to believe it's because my screen is "so big", ppi is ppi is ppi. An inch is an inch is an inch. So why doesn't the "1080p" video look good at full screen? I am wondering if it doesn't have more to do with how the video was coded or encoded or whatever has been done to it. If I hook a BD player up to my TV the picture is amazingly clear and beautiful. A PC with a high-end video card should be able to acheive the same or very similar results, but that's not the case. I have tweaked, installed, re-installed, cleaned, scanned, removed, clean Windows install with full format, swapped cables, swapped ports (both HDMI and DVI), changed CCC settings, changed CCC versions, changed TV settings, everything is set to 1080p 60Hz, underscan, overscan, 4:4:4 RGB full, nothing changes the quality of these videos. Is it just the nature of the beast or is it something else? This TV has a VGA port so I have to believe that they intended it to be used as both a TV and a monitor. It can only be a few things and I really just wanted (hoping) to see if there were someone out there who could explain to me in a more than general way about how the ripping and coding of videos affect the rendering of those videos, such as in my case with the full screen issue, or to explain why my video card is a piece of crapolla and doesn't work well with my system or my TV or something other than my TV is too dang big for watching videos on my PC. I appreciate any enlightenment in the matter.

[Wolfen]

It has nothing to do with your system or TV, but the video and how it was encoded/converted. Here we use mediainfo to exam the tech specs of the video, so use mediainfo on one of those pixelated/blocky videos post the text format of it here for a start.

[genuinegemini]

It has nothing to do with your system or TV, but the video and how it was encoded/converted. Here we use mediainfo to exam the tech specs of the video, so use mediainfo on one of those pixelated/blocky videos post the text format of it here for a start.

Here ya go, Avatar Extended 1080p...supposedly.


General
Complete name : D:\Movies\Avatar Extended Collectors Edition\Avatar Extended Collectors Edition.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 3.98 GiB
Duration : 2h 58mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 3 202 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-11 16:31:02
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-11 16:31:02
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2h 58mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 883 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 62.5 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.058
Stream size : 3.58 GiB (90%)
Title : Avatar Extended Collectors Edition
Writing library : x264 core 114 r1924 08d04a4
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2883 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=62500 / nal_hrd=vbr / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-11 16:31:02
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-11 16:35:43
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 2h 58mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 317 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 334 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 404 MiB (10%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-11 16:35:04
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-11 16:35:43

[Wolfen]

First, in the future we don't need the name of the movie just the specs. From what I can see, this encode is using way to little bitrate for that resolution, so that's probably why it's blocky and such crappy quality on your big screen TV, remember Blu-ray movies have an average 30K bitrate. The higher the bitrate the better the quality, but the larger the file size.

[genuinegemini]

Which one of those bit rate readings are you referring to? Overall bit rate says 32 02. I assume that's 32.02 Kbps, or are you pointing at the bit depth of 8 bits? Not sure which one you're loking at so I know which one to look at. Thanks for your replies, though. I do appreciate the information.

[Wolfen]

Overall bit rate : 3 202 Kbps, assume a decimal point here 3(.)202 so 3 thousand (K) and this value includes the video and audio bitrates combined.

[roma_turok]

Did you try play in XBMC?

[genuinegemini]

Overall bit rate : 3 20 2 Kbps, assume a decimal point here 3(.)202 so 3 thousand (K) and this value includes the video and audio bitrates combined.

Wow! Ok. So it's just the video then. I imagine trying to reconvert or anything of the like would be futile at best. Is there anyway to retain the pure HD quality when converting a video from its original source without the file being huge?

[Wolfen]

The only way to assure the best quality from HD is to rip/convert by yourself with the original material ie. Blu-Ray discs, DVD discs then you can test your rips and alter settings accordingly, but remember Higher Bitrate=Higher Quality and there is a point at which you find the balance of bitrate/file size that suits your taste. Need help in that, settings and so forth it's here.