LCD monitors - can someone please explain...

hey guys

I'm looking into getting my first LCD monitor (primarily looking at the Dell 2405 FPW 24" widescreen), but am still struggling to understand a lot of the "jargon" associated with LCDs / widescreen formats / etc...

I want to set up a HTPC - a shuttle box with HDTV card, DVD player etc. I would also like to be able to use this monitor on a Xbox.

Oh, and I live in Australia, and we have PAL here.

ok here goes.

1 - this monitor seems to be 16 x 10, not 16 x 9... any ideas why? and will this cause me any trouble? Oh, what's WXGA?

2 - Refesh rates... what's the difference? 50Hz / 60Hz / 75Hz?

3 - Inputs - DVI / DVI-D / Component (Y-Pb-Pr) / Y-Cb-Cr / Composite - differences? (I guess discussion of Progressive Scan comes in here...?)

4 - what is "native" resolution?

5 - read this somewhere on the net: "Also you should be able to use black bars as well if you can't stand interpolation." Can someone please explain?

Hope you guys don't mind helping out a n00b to HDTV... cheers!

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Originally Posted by chet

1 - this monitor seems to be 16 x 10, not 16 x 9... any ideas why? and will this cause me any trouble? Oh, what's WXGA?

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I'm not 100% sure - it seems that HDTV specification calls for both 1920x1080 (16:9), and 1920x1200 (16x10), depending on which standards you read, so I guess Samsung (The manufacturers of the Dell2405's panel) are just playing safe?!
And WXGA is a defined standard for a Wide aspect display resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, similar to that of VGA (640x480) or SVGA (800x600) etc..

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Originally Posted by chet

2 - Refesh rates... what's the difference? 50Hz / 60Hz / 75Hz?

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TFT's have an optimal refresh rate. Generally, the higher the refresh rate the better, but in practice the benefit will depend on source framerate and composition. Do some Googling, you'll find more than I can babble..

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Originally Posted by chet

3 - Inputs - DVI / DVI-D / Component (Y-Pb-Pr) / Y-Cb-Cr / Composite - differences? (I guess discussion of Progressive Scan comes in here...?)

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Again, Google will say it better than I can.. That's a biggy.. ;)

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Originally Posted by chet

4 - what is "native" resolution?
5 - read this somewhere on the net: "Also you should be able to use black bars as well if you can't stand interpolation." Can someone please explain?

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Native resolution is actual X / Y pixel count of that panel iteself. It is preferable but not always possible for whatever source you're using to output at this exact resolution. However, if the source does not fit the desired output aspect/format, you either put up with letterbox format (the black bars top and bottom to keep in aspect), or scale the display to fit - the latter of which can generate aliasing artifacts and/or ratio distortion etc..


HTH,
S.

Because of the high res of monitors, are all monitors HDTV ready?

The monitor doesn't support HDTV signal without a decoder thingy, but it will display full resolution of HDTV. You could say it is ready though.

With regards to connecting the X-Box up, you'll be needing a component lead.

Component sends the Red, Blue and Green colours down seperate wires ensuring you get the best picture quality possible.

Composite send everything down one wire which leads to poor picture quality. (fuzzy, washed out colors, colour bleeding).

S-Video is kind of in-between, but you'd want to take component wherever possible.

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Originally Posted by arthurleung

The monitor doesn't support HDTV signal without a decoder thingy, but it will display full resolution of HDTV. You could say it is ready though.

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you mean a STB or digital decoder card?

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Originally Posted by chet

1 - this monitor seems to be 16 x 10, not 16 x 9... any ideas why? and will this cause me any trouble? Oh, what's WXGA?

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this has been adequately answered

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2 - Refesh rates... what's the difference? 50Hz / 60Hz / 75Hz?

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refresh rates are a throwback to CRT days. it 'sort of' means framerate - but in tft reality, that's not strictly accurate. tft framerates are instead based on the "response time". on a screen with a 20msec response, that's 50 FPS maximum, so you're not really going to be missing out by using 60 rather than 75. remember, framerates mean something different on TFT, as the whole screen is refreshed at once (on a CRT, only a single pixel is drawn, very fast, from top to bottom, and the refresh rate needs to be fast enough that you don't notice)

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3 - Inputs - DVI / DVI-D / Component (Y-Pb-Pr) / Y-Cb-Cr / Composite - differences? (I guess discussion of Progressive Scan comes in here...?)

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DVI is "the" TFT video connector, it transfers a full digital imge which is always at perfect resolution. Component is a high-quality connector for consoles & such&such, which transfers the three color lines separately. SVideo transfers color and brightness down two separate wires of the same cable. Composite just sends an entire image down one wire. these are in decreasing image quality order.

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4 - what is "native" resolution?

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a TFT has an exact number of physical pixels - in my case, 1,920,000 (1600x1200). as a result, if i pick a resolution like 1024x768, i have a 786,432 pixel image which needs to be drawn on a greater number - the image is interpolated, making it blurry, which is bad. generally, you ALWAYS want to run at the native resolution of your screen (though your graphics card or game may not want to run that high)

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5 - read this somewhere on the net: "Also you should be able to use black bars as well if you can't stand interpolation." Can someone please explain?

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as an alternative to scaling everything non-native up to big & blurry, you can display it unscaled, with black borders, a bit like 2.35:1 widescreen on a 16:9 tv - in my earlier example, that'd be 1,133,568 wasted pixels (or more than half the screen's capability)

cheers dude!