DVI and High Def TV's

[jarinaz]

I am considering the Powerbook 12 inch. I have a 51 inch high definition TV with a DVI port. I know that you can run the powerbook into the tv through the mini dvi- dvi converter.

Its a big selling point and the only thing making me look powerbook over ibook. I want to utilize my tv as a monitor, as an option, and run a bluetooth keyboard and mouse from the couch. The ibook would go through the s video and lose a ton of clarity.

Has anyone done this? Does it look good on a 1080i TV through the DVI? Any quirks I should know about because the idea has me intrigued? Thank you

 

[robbieduncan]

You can do this but the PowerBook will only output at the native resolution of the TV (assuming it's LCD/Plasma). Many 1080i TVs are not "true" 1080 screens. The downsample to 720p as the panels are not capable to 1920x1080.

 

[maddav]

Has your TV got a VGA in? (see my sig for the details) As my iBook runs perfectly over VGA on my HDTV, true, DVI probably would be better + the better graphics card in the PB would make things a bit smoother. At higher resolutions. (Though it sounds like your set is only 720p and is upscaling to 1080i, like mine).

Your PB should find the display straight away, and then it's just a matter of setting the right resolutions.

btw. What model set is it? that might help me.

 

[jarinaz]

The TV is a Sony KP-51WS520. It is a full 1080i high def as far as I know. I have been looking all over the net but cannot find the maximum resolution. I need it to be at least 1024 X 7.. to give me what a monitor would.

 

[wrxguy]

I have run my PB on my dads 42" HD LCD and it is very nice....the one prob with it (well not really a problem but..) is that TV's have a max resolution of 1633x7-something and when you get it on a really large screen it can start to show...where as on a computer monitor you can get a much better resolution

 

[javiercr]

1080 would be 1920x1080, there are monitors that do this, but I haven't seen any LCD TVs that do this, they all then do be around 1280.

what is your source of 1080i material?

 

[noel4r]

I have a Powermac Dual 1.8 and thinking of doing this too. Does anybody have any suggestions on which TV, Video Card, and Software to purchase?

 

[ftaok]

The TV is a Sony KP-51WS520. It is a full 1080i high def as far as I know. I have been looking all over the net but cannot find the maximum resolution. I need it to be at least 1024 X 7.. to give me what a monitor would.

jarinaz,

That Sony is a Rear Project CRT HDTV. I took a quick look at the specs on Sony's webpage and it seems like it doesn't have a DVI input. Only component HDMI for HD sources. So you'd have to look for a DVI to HDMI adapter.

The second thing I can tell you is that even though it takes a 1080i signal, doesn't mean that it can actually resolve 1080 lines. As far as Direct-view CRTs go, even the best consumer models can only get up to 960 lines of resolution. I would think that RP CRTs have the same limitations.

OK, with all that said, you should be able to get your powerbook to generate a 1080i signal with something like SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX (or something like that). If the PB can generate 1080i, then the TV should be able to resolve it.

 

[wPod]

if your TV does support the full HD resolution (which it sounds like it does) then go for the PB. the best connection of ANYTHING to an HD monitor is through a DVI-D port. which means you get a complete digital feed to the monitor, instead of a converstion to analog then back go digital (if you were to go the vga route)

 

[crazzyeddie]

I have a Powermac Dual 1.8 and thinking of doing this too. Does anybody have any suggestions on which TV, Video Card, and Software to purchase?

For most TVs all you need to do is run a DVI cable from your computer to the TV. Thats it. OS X just sees it as a standard DVI display and will auto-sense the resolutions/refresh rates.

I've had very good experiences setting this up on Samsung DLP displays. They have an excellent balance of price, clarity and features. Plus no burn-in, so they are safe to use for computer tasks.

 

[jarinaz]

Yeah, I see I have an HDMI but this can be fixed with a simple DVI-HDMI cord from Radio Shack. I had seen on this. I plan on running the sound through the stereo setup with a headphone to the RCA jacks.

 

[wPod]

interesting comment. . . i have been searcing around learning more about HDTVs since this thread came up. and this is what i discovered.

HDTV is broadcast at 720p which means 720 lines of progresive scan (720 lines would be equivilant to the second value in a monitor resolution, such as 1024x768) progressive scan means the lines refresh at a rate of 60 frames per second (double the standard 30 fps of NTSC but the same as most modern computer monitors which use progressive scanning) so the equivilant resolution would be 1280x720. some channels, though not as many, are broadcasting in 1080i 1080 is typically considered true HD. the i stands for interlaced, which means odd lines are refreshed at 30fps and and even lines are refreshed at 30fps with a difference of one phase. so overall the screen is refreshing at 60fps but only half of the lines per refresh. to compare to a standard non-HD broadcast the resolution is similar to VGA wich is 640x480 so you end up with 480i.

Most HD TVs have a native resolution of 720p but can still accept 1080i broadcasts, which means the tuner built into the TV or an external TV hooked to a monitor translates the 1080 to 720 (thus reducing the quality) but considering that 720 is nearly twice as high as the old 480 people still think the quality looks much better. (think of the quality difference b/w a VCR 200ish vs a normal tv broadcast of 480) most 720p resolution TVs support up to a 1366 x 768 resolution input from a computer. which still is not the 1920x1080 resolution that would be native for true 1080i HD

most of this information came from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_definition_television id visit there if you want to look at pretty pictures that explain the differences!

so, the moral of the story is, to get the ultimate best quality viewing is to get a computer monitor which supports 1080p (yeah, put that together from my explination above, its a really amazing clarity) the only thing is nothing is broadcast at 1080i and until the movie industry moves to HD-DVDs or Blue-ray DVDs then there wont be enough room on a DVD for 1080p (or i) so if you find a DVD that says High Def its probably 720p. just be careful of some low end monitors whos native resolution is 480i sure, they might be able to support (which means transelate down the quality of) 720p or 1080i but quality will be lost in the conversion. A good check is the display resolution, if it ends with in 480 or 600 (VGA and SVGA) is BAD one that ends in 720 or 768 (XGA) is good! and higher resolutions are EVEN BETTER!!

 

[dejo]

...the only thing is nothing is broadcast at 1080i...

INHD and INHD2 are both broadcast in 1080i.

 

[ftaok]

wpod,

You're actually slightly mistaken. The majority of channels are broadcast in 1080i, rather than 720p. Of the major network, only ABC and Fox broadcast in 720p. Of the cable networks, only ESPN (owned by ABC) broadcasts in 720p.

Of course, the local affiliate of the networks may broadcast in a format other than what the network provides, but that's rare.

Most HDTVs on the market today, have native resolutions that closely match 720p. The larger and/or more expensive displays resolve 1080p. Note that no fixed pixel display (i.e. LCD, plasma, etc) displays 1080i.

As for HD DVDs, they are not available yet (unless you count Microsoft's bastard version of WMV HD). The manufacturer's are still battling it out. Regardless, HD DVDs (or Blu-Ray) will most likely be pressed at 1080p, but the player will need to convert to 720p or 1080i so that today's HDTVs can play them. Note - that last part is speculation on my part.

I'm going to read the Wiki link to see what it says. If you're information is taken from Wikipedia, then they are wrong.

ft