About HD monitors

[kodos84]

Hi everyone. I have a lot of questions so ill just go ahead and list each of them.

So i was reading this article and I found out a lot about difference between 480, 720, and 1080 and interlacing and progressive scan(which i admit i never knew before):
http://www.projectorcentral.com/video_signals.htm

The tv we have right now is a 42 inch samsung and its labeled edtv. So from that article it would be 480p. One question i have is i have a computer that i connect to it. If i get a hd monitor, would the quality of the picture from my computer be better?

The next question is, im planning on buying a hdtv or just a hd ready monitor with which ill get a hd tuner pci card. I want to get a 20 - 26 inch tv. Most of the ones for that size i see are 720p. Is that the best resolution there is for 20 - 26 inch monitors? i was thinking that since its smaller, 1080i wont make much of a difference and 720 is good enough. Am i right?

Im sure i had another question,but i forgot. Ill think of it later.

[edDV]

Hi everyone. I have a lot of questions so ill just go ahead and list each of them.

So i was reading this article and I found out a lot about difference between 480, 720, and 1080 and interlacing and progressive scan(which i admit i never knew before):
http://www.projectorcentral.com/video_signals.htm

The tv we have right now is a 42 inch samsung and its labeled edtv. So from that article it would be 480p. One question i have is i have a computer that i connect to it. If i get a hd monitor, would the quality of the picture from my computer be better?

Quick answer is yes but go for a model compatible with your display card. Typical display choice at that screen size that will be a progressive LCD TV 1366x768. Typical computer/game interface is VGA. See if you can get a display adapter driver that supports WXGA 1366x768 (or 1360x768).

The next question is, im planning on buying a hdtv or just a hd ready monitor with which ill get a hd tuner pci card. I want to get a 20 - 26 inch tv. Most of the ones for that size i see are 720p. Is that the best resolution there is for 20 - 26 inch monitors? i was thinking that since its smaller, 1080i wont make much of a difference and 720 is good enough. Am i right?

For computer interface look for WXGA 1366x768 over VGA as described above. That will get you best text clarity on a Windows desktop. A 720x480p or 1280x720p video file will playback as a window in that desktop. "Full Screen" will expand it (upscale) to 1366x768.

Although the HDMI and analog component inputs can also be fed by certain display cards, these inputs will overscan forcing the need to scale the desktop size down. These inputs are better reserved for HD video sources.

[kodos84]

Thank you for replying. Now i have another question
The pc i have connected to that 42 inch tv i was talking about has a radeon 9000 video card. When i turn it on the text looks all stretched out and hard to read. The video i play on it looks fine. The only resolution i can set on it is 1024x768. Does that mean that card does not support wxga? Is there any way to make the text look normal on it?

[edDV]

Thank you for replying. Now i have another question
The pc i have connected to that 42 inch tv i was talking about has a radeon 9000 video card. When i turn it on the text looks all stretched out and hard to read. The video i play on it looks fine. The only resolution i can set on it is 1024x768. Does that mean that card does not support wxga? Is there any way to make the text look normal on it?

Update to a later version of Catalyst and you may find the card supports 1360 or 1366x768 or wide WXGA. That will get the pixels back to square rather than wide rectangles at 1024x768.

[kodos84]

Thank you for answering my questions, you've been a lot of help.
Well i got the latest catalyst drivers and there are more new resolution options.
Namely, 848x480, 640x480, 720x480,720x576.
It used to be just 800x600 and 1024x768
But there is nothing higher than 1024x768. like 1280x800 that my laptop uses.
Is this just because the tv doesn't support it, or is it my computer? I'm guessing it's the tv.

I chose 848x480 because it's widescreen and it matches the tv's resolution of 480p. The text looks normal now, but everything looks really big now, the windows and icons. Yet it seems like the movies i play fit the resolution better.

One final question i have and i promise i wont ask any more. I want to get a hd tuner to get over-the-air hd digital programming so i can use when i get a hdtv. If i use it for the 480p tv i have now, what will happen? It will just "scale down" to 480p but still be widescreen and let me access ota digital channels. Right?

[guns1inger]

Unfortunately, LCD/Plasma TV screens are like LCD monitors - they work bets at a set resolution,which is whatever their native resolution is. Because you own a large sized, (very) low resolution TV, everything looks big and ugly. You could try higher resolutions, but while everything will scale down accordingly, it will also become less distinct.

[edDV]

Two issues:

The ATI 9000 should support higher resolutions over VGA but the better models for TV interface are the Radeon 9550 and above that have the HDTV support features for YPbPr and DVI-D.

Your 720x480p TV will never be good as a computer monitor because of its limited resolution. It should be OK for playing movies. I was responding to your intention to buy a 720p monitor for the computer. If you are going to use the ATI 9000, make sure the LCD-TV has VGA in and supports resolutions your card can output.