How are people handling varying resolutions with HDTV systems?

My current SD system runs with a fixed resolution of 640x480,
and all recordings are converted to 480i.

I'm planning to upgrade to an HDTV (probably a 1366x768 LCD).

Do people run the PC->TV link at the TV's native resolution,
and let the PC do the scaling?

Or do people run the PC->TV link at the original signal
resolution and let the TV do the scaling?

Will most TV's accept an HDMI input signal at the panel's
native resolution? The user's manuals I've looked at are a bit
vague but they appear to indicate not (which seems stupid).

How about on the VGA input? Can that usually be driven at the
panel resolution?

If you can't drive the TV at the panel resolution, then driving
the TV with the original signal resolution would seem to be a
good option since it will only get scaled once (in the TV).

_________________
Grant

Since the videos you play back are of different resolutions (TV recordings, DVD, videos, HDTV recordings) It would be best to set the pc at the native panel resolution and let the pc do the scaling.

Since the pc has the original content it should be able to do the best job scaling.


To be able to do this, your TV will need to support input at the panel’s native resolution. This will give you a "one to one pixel mapping" or "pixel perfect". Not all TVs do, some will support 720p (1280x720) and 1080i (1920x1080) but, don't support there native of, for example, 1366x768. Check avsforums.com and do some reading and you should be able to find out if it does.

Since you are buying a new TV, it would be best if you find one that can accept its native panel resolution via HDMI or DVI. VGA and Component will not be as sharp but will still look very good.

My TV (Vizio 37" LCD) claims to have limited resolution for a PC connected through the HDMI port. HOWEVER, it has TWO hdmi ports, a standard one and an additional port with separate audio jacks, for connecting a DVI device.

Doing a fresh install with the DVI-HDMI cable and specifying "TV" as the display device gave me a great 600p image, perfectly scaled (no black bars). A quick fix to the xorg.conf file bumped me up to 1366x768 native resolution and 720p video image (search my posts to find this recent thread on how to do this). NO MODELINE EDITING INVOLVED. The desktop is slightly overscanned, but the mythtv part is perfect.

I try VGA just for kicks and couldn't get it to work. But to be fair I didn't spend any time on it either. I'm pretty sure a fresh install with the box connected to the VGA would work out fine. HTH, good luck!

That's pretty much what I thought as well. I'm continually
amazed by how well xine and the video driver does at scaling up
DVD resolution source to full-screen mode at 1600x1050 on my
laptop.

Right


There's the tricky part: finding out if a TV will support a 1:1
display of a native-resolution input signal, and if so on what
inputs. I found this list and thread at avsforums

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748074

So far the TVs I'm looking at are listed (as yes or no). Models
seem to get EOL'ed so fast that by the time people figure out
where to put it on the list, you can't get one anymore.

I've also been downloading and looking through users manuals,
and they're still pretty vague. Sharp refers to it as "dot by
dot" viewing mode which is only valid for "pc input mode", but
it's not 100% clear whether "PC input mode" can be selected for
HDMI inputs or just for the VGA input. I guess I need to find
one in a store somewhere.

_________________
Grant