HD Resolution And Monitor Specs
Dear Gary: I’ve been enjoying Joe Kane’s continuing high-definition resolution and specifications articles for the past few months. Informative is putting it lightly. Enlightening is more like it. Still, with my recent acquisition, I’m a bit cloudy on certain things. As a home theatre enthusiast on a budget (I’m still in my mid-20s!) getting a “proper” consumer HD display is still out of my range, so I opted to track down a large computer monitor to fit my needs until I can upgrade. I found a Mitsubishi Megaview Pro 37 (4:3 display, 35-inch viewable, diagonally) for one hell of a bargain. Used in conjunction with my Skyworth 1050D (a progressive scan DVD player from Hong Kong that features a 15 pin RGB output) I get some gorgeous 480p images. Now it’s the “True High-Definition” resolutions where things get a bit tricky. Mr. Kane lists 720p resolution as 1280 x 720 and 1080i as 1920 x 540 or 1440 x 540 depending on broadcast capabilities; all ranging in refresh rates between 30 to 60 Hz. The Megaview Pro 37 has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 at 75 Hz. Going by those numbers, it should handle 720p easily (which I’ve seen it do, with computer graphics from my Xbox), but it seems incapable of handling 1080i, even though its pixel count is well above the “one million pixel” mark at 1,310,720. What’s even more puzzling is how some consumer 4:3 “HD-Ready” displays claim to be able to handle 1080i resolution and have to “downconvert 720p to 1080i.” The Sony WEGA KV-40XBR800 makes this statement, but Sony is tight-lipped about the actual resolution of this display (even though they give the resolution of their plasma and rear-projection displays.) I’m assuming its resolution is 800 x 600 as “800” is in the product number and having only 600 horizontal lines makes 720p out of its reach. Yet, how can it handle 1080i, given Mr. Kane’s numbers? Does this mean that my monitor can still theoretically handle 1080i in some form?
Dustin Javier, Marlton, New Jersey
Contributing Editor Joe Kane Comments:
Thank you for your note. According to the specification sheet this monitor will only display “non-interlaced” signals at scan rates above composite video. Looking at the horizontal and vertical frequency capability, which is independent of image resolution, it should display a 1080p/60 Hz image. What it doesn’t tell us is if there is enough range in the vertical height adjustment to display 1080p/60 Hz at a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. If you can size the image of a 720p signal to a 1.78:1 aspect ratio chances are it will also work for 1080p. Two of the computer monitors we use at Joe Kane Productions have a 1080p/60 Hz scan rate capability at a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. You’ll want to convert 1080i signals to some progressive rate if they are to be displayed on your monitor. There is at least one inexpensive DTV tuner that will provide a 720p output for all incoming rates. Converting 1080i to 1080p is a bit more expensive.
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