Video Asylum

Posted by Tech on January 19, 2001 at 03:18:12:

In Reply to: Clarification... posted by cryptyk on January 18, 2001 at 12:21:41:

Well resolution in monitors is somewhat different than in TV sets. Here is where confusion becomes.
Your TV present resolution can be at any point higher or lower than comp picture you are about to transfer. If resolution does not match you will get worse picture no matter how does not match, as higher or lower.

When your comp change resolution from 800x600 to 1024x768 it is not just resolution of the picture that is sent to monitor, but also monitor adjusts it's resolution to this same numbers. And so what, you may ask??? OK.

Your TV has fixed resolution, and your video card (or other external converter) probably assumes you have 625(PAL) or 525(NTSC) TV. And here is the mismatch. When your card try to adjust resolution to TV's resolution, cause TV can not adjust itself, the picture loses some of the lines and some of the lines are filled with same line to match the same resolution. This degrades picture big time. Second is a TV tube. Even if you have HDTV it is not even close to the quality of monitor tube. This will also add big problems to small caracters.
You should check to what format your card converts the signal, and try to get converter or card that is capable of HDTV hook up. Not just the hook up but resolution 1080 support as well. This will give you much better picture.
If your card/converter supports only NTSC or PAL, an HDTV will not give you anything better.
As a result of all this conversions, a picture 800x600 will apear on TV similar to 500x400 on NTSC. This is hardly enough to read from the screen.