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On Sat, Apr 10, 2004 at 04:33:39PM -0400, Doug Sweetser wrote: > What would be required to control the TV? Could it be done with > S-video input, whatever that is? It would be a cool upgrade to go > from 15" to 27". So, today's lesson is about resolution. Technically, resolution means dots-per-inch, but everyone uses the word to mean "total viewable pixels". NTSC television signals can be handled in 320x200, and that's about the res of your standard TV set. Those 27" $200 sets at Costco? NTSC. 80 column text will tend to be rather blurry. X will be essentially unusable, unless you're already used to running it on a PDA. At best, the TV might do 640x480. Maybe. ATSC signals are digital, and come in a variety of formats: 480i, 480p, 720i and p, 1080i. The i means interlaced: even numbered frames display even-numbered rows of pixels, and odd frames display the odd rows. This cuts down on the bandwidth but increases flicker. P means progressive, like a monitor: all rows get shown each frame. A TV set that can do 720p is just about usable as a monitor: it will probably even come with a VGA or DVI video port. A 1080i TV is probably a decent monitor, and will certainly come with a VGA or DVI port without too much looking around. Now compare prices of ATSC (High Definition) TVs to monitors of the same size. -dsr-
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