1080p Videos on a PC Connected to TV ≠ Same File Played Directly on TV

Leibov

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Aug 15, 2015
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Why does playing 1080p videos on a PC connected to a TV with an HDMI doesn't look as good as the same file played on the same TV using a USB?

Before you mention different codecs and different players, trust me that I've tried them all and I've also tested this with various PC's, Mac's and TV screens. Watching 1080p videos on the PC just doesn't look as good as watching the same video straight on the TV using a USB or DLNA.

There is one solution though called SVP (SmoothVideo Project) that actually gets real close to TV-like quality, but you can actually feel the codec working in the background and the experience is not smooth (some voice/video delay and distorted images on occasion).

What I really want to know is why this happens in the first place? What do I need to upgrade in my PC in order to be able to see videos in my regular video player (MPC) that will look like the same video files on my TV?

Any help in the right direction would be much appreciated... Since I saw this huge difference in quality, I simply can't get myself to watch anything differently and I hate using the TV's player and not being able to multitask while watching.

Thank you!
 
There are two possibilities.
When you play the file on USB all the processing is done in the TV. A better video card in your PC should be able to help. The card should be more oriented to video playback than gaming.
The other possibility is that the video settings on the PC are affecting your perceived difference in quality. Depending on the available adjustments you can try to make the playback more like the TV playing the file.