HD video not full HD??

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Level 1

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HD video not full HD??

Just got a MBP 13' with retina display... however I notice when I try watch HD videos on youtube or Netflix for example the video is blurry as if it were playing at a lesser quality? Here's the specs if that helps:

SD Card Slot: SDXC
Maximum Memory: 16GB
Processor: Dual Core i5 2.9GHz
Display: 13.3 inch Widescreen Retina
Storage: 512GB Flash Storage
Memory (RAM): 16GB on-board memory
Graphics: Intel Iris 6100
Thunderbolt 2 (Quantity): 2

Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 28, 2015 5:05 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 28, 2015 5:44 PM in response to MarkPCQ

Youtube will auto select video quality based on your internet connection speed, but sometimes it gets it wrong. You can manually change the quality by clicking on the cog on the toolbar at the bottom of the video player, and select a better quality from the dropdown there if one is available.

Recently Youtube has been choosing 360 as default for mi, but I can change it to 720p or 1080p if available for better quality.

For Netflix, its also an auto selection based on connection, but I do not know there is any way to change the quality manually.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 28, 2015 5:36 PM in response to Phil0124

Phil0124 wrote:

For Netflix, its also an auto selection based on connection, but I do not know there is any way to change the quality manually.

HTML5 can be selected, which seems to provide better quality - 720p or higher. The actual stream quality delivered is dynamic as you have noted.

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Answer 3

MarkPCQ Author

Level 1

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Jul 29, 2015 1:22 AM in response to MarkPCQ

That's the problem unfortunately, I always choose the highest quality. And it appears to be playing ie the cog says HD on yotube, but the quality is very clearly not HD. It's not my internet connection either, for HD works just fine on my old macbook.

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Answer 4

MarkPCQ Author

Level 1

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Jul 29, 2015 1:48 AM in response to MarkPCQ

I have attached a picture to explain the problem more clearly:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/epprnstn6dfw5l1/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-29%20at%2009.4 3.38.png?dl=0

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Answer 5

Jul 29, 2015 8:39 AM in response to MarkPCQ

It does look a little jagged. But not sure what that could be.

I'll go out on a limb and say it may be due to the MBPs native 3840p resolution extending the 1080p video 2 or 3 times its normal size, and so it starts loosing quality.

Its like enlarging a 480p video to 1080p, there's just not enough information to correctly fill in the extra size, and so it pixelates.

In essence the HD screen on the new MBP is so good, 1080p video is just not good enough anymore.

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