Educational Tech Question Alert!!!

[ryanbatc]

lol

I was wondering, how does an official HDTV resolution compare with an ordinary LCD monitor? When I throw in Star Wars Ep 1 in my standard DVD player and watch it on my 19in LCD monitor, what resolution am I getting/viewing the DVD at?

I read about those upconvert DVD players that makes old school DVDs viewable in 1080i... But my monitor runs 1280x1024, so am I watching a DVD on my PC in 1280 or what?

[DougBob]

This is a very good question.

If your monitors max setting is 1280x1024 you won't display the full 1080 resolution when viewing an HD movie at 1080i. Your monitor can only display at 1024 if that is your max settings.

Now to address the upconverter issue. Upconverter DVD players are for regular DVD movies. It converts a lower resolution movie up to 1080i or 780p. You really won't notice a difference other a slight more solid looking picture. It's basically going to take the resolution of the movie and spread it over a larger resolution area. I would recommend you save your money and not invest in a upconverter DVD.

If you really want to watch HD quality movies you need to ensure you have a Blue Ray DVD drive to play the real HD quality movies AND ensure you have a video card and widescreen monitor capable of displaying a resolution of 1920x1200. That way you will have the resolution to display the 1920x1080 the movie is formatting in wheather it's in 1080i or 1080p. The i or p is just how the screen is drawn, i for interlaced and p for progressive. Progressive is a better picture that looks solid.

[WalkinTarget]

Most people don't even know what the standard resolution is on a DVD ... hint: its 720?480 (NTSC).

Most people don't need to invest in the highest 1080p resolution movie experience setup simply because it can get a bit pricey to set up a full blown home theater. Upscaling is done on every console unit that plays DVDs, but it doesn't represent the true 1080p experience if your other hardware is capable of it.

[Duke{CLR}]

This is good stuff. When it come to AV stuff I'm a bit behind the curve.