Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions TV resolution

I've owned a JVC AV-36D800 for about 5 years. It has a beautiful picture and I've always been very happy with it. I've been looking at new tv's lately and many of the high def tv's don't come close to it's picture quality. While doing a little resolution research I discovered that my tv has 850 lines of horizontal resolution. I know it is interlaced. What does this tv do with the extra lines of resolutuion. I know it's not the same as high def 720p but would buying a progressive scan dvd player give me an improvement in picture quality?
I read this article but got a little confused.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_6_3/essay-video-resolution-july-99.html

Link

You must not be looking at an actual HD signal on those TV's. There is no way the JVC would put out a picture better than a High Def broadcast. If your talking about regular broadcast it could be possible. I'm sure a 480P dvd player would look very nice on your older JVC.

TV broadcasts vary. I'm talking about the picture quality of DVD's. I know I don't have high def.. I know high def. tv's have more resolution, but many of them look terrible. I can't beleive that people pay two thousand dollars plus for them.
Others look great...
I'm just a little mixed up as to what my analog tv does with 850 horizontal scan lines when I thought interlaced tv's had 525.

It probably would be best to read your instruction manual or other brochures to find out how your TV really operates. There are several things that the TV could be doing.

A HDTV that is properly set up using quality source material should give you the WOW factor!! If it doesn't, then something is wrong. HDTVs are so expensive because of the light engines and electronics in them. It cost a lot to develop that technology and the companies must recover their research investments.

Lampshade,

You are mixing up the number of NTSC horizontal scanning lines (525 with 480 actually used for display) with an optical measurement of resolution. The 850 lines of "horizontal resolution" is a measure of the number of alternating vertical black and white lines (think of a picket fence) that are discernible on a chart from left to right.

Your TV uses an interlaced display and cannot display a progressively scanned image.

On an analog TV, the number of horizontal scanning lines (525 with 480 used) determines the "vertical resolution" of the set. Hence, standard definition is "480i".

I know it's confusing. But when properly set up and calibrated, an HD set is dramatically clearer and sharper than an analog standard definition TV because it delivers about twice the overall resolution (sharpness, clarity) of a standard TV. Moreover, because HD sets are digital, there is a dramatic reduction in video noise in deeply saturated areas of color. Analog sets have a "grainy" character in those areas (grain is the visual equivalent in video to hiss or noise in analog audio).

Regards,

I’m glad this topic came up. I also find TV / DVD resolution very confusing. Every time I try to muddle through a write up, 8 pages of #10 font single spaced lines later, I’m even more baffled. 480i, 48P, 1080, progressive scan, interlaced???? WTF? HD ready, HD compatible, up converting, blah – blah…… I’m lost….

Four years ago I bought the best “little” big screen TV I could find. – 46” Mitsubishi HD 1080 that was “HDTV ready” for 3500 bucks. Yeah right……HD ready my ass. I just recently thought I’d buy one of these new “up converting” DVD players with digital outputs and hook it up. Good thing I looked at the TV’s back inputs before I bought one, cause there ain’t no digital inputs at all.

Then I screw around with the TV’s advanced selections menu and find it supposedly “up converts”. I can select 480i, 480P and 1080. I try them and nothing happens. Go figure. I give up……..

My 17 year old, 25” Magnavox tube TV is still working like a champ. Dust everywhere, kid’s fingerprints all over it and a dozen different remotes later………still works.

And what makes it worse is everyone thinks of NTSC the same way as their computer monitor... in a digital realm with a number of square pixels in an array with no overscan...

Bren R.

Thank you, Alan, that clears it up. The 850 can exist I guess because it is a big tv and and the 850 was probably a nice marketing feature. I did assume they meant horizontal lines.

mdrew: I am a little curious as to your TV's inputs since you believe that it does not have digital inputs. Are you just looking for HDMI/ DVI connections?

Some of the TVs may use component connections or your standard "cable" input for the "digital" input.

Take another looks and see what combination of inputs your TV has. If it is advertised as HD Ready, there should be a "standard" input of some type.