I had orginally thought I would use a 15" lcd tv that boasts it's 720p. Now that Walmart has a sub $200.00 HD-DVD player. I'm rethinking things. If I'm going to build this I might as well go for 1080 since the prices are dropping faster than I have thought. I need help with the terminology of high defination.

What screen resolution is 720 and 1080? I'm talking true resolution I need, not what some tv scales the signal down to and still calls is 720 or 1080. Is true 1080 1920X1080?

I know some people on here are running 1080i and 1080p, what LCDs are you using? I would prefer a 15" monitor or a 15" 1080 lcd tv. Can I find this in a desktop monitor without the need for a controller?

What connectors does the monitor need?

What are some good High definition tuners?

How would I handle the input on the monitor if I had a HD DVD player and an HD tv tuner and only one plug in the monitor? Do they make switches or spitters?


Thanks for your help

1080p/i = 1920x1080
720p = 1080x720 1280x720

720p is 1280x720

I'm sure you knew that though

@karlf

There aren't any 1080p 15" monitors.

There are 15.4" 1080p laptop lcd with controllers:
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15376

For HD 720p or 1080p you need a component input, DVI input , Hdmi input, or VGA input.

With only one Component, DVI or HDMI input and multiple sources you can buy HDMI/DVI/ or Component splitters.

Yeah, there I go again making typos when it's important not to

Thanks for the quick replies.

About the inputs. Are they all the same quality wise? Which ones are more common on DVD players and TV tuners?


So for 720 I need an xga monitor and for 1080 i need a uxga and for wide screen i need a wxag and wuxga?

Is true 1080 that much better than 720? I'm not talking numbers but actually comparisons by people with projectors who have messed around to see what the difference is?

Thanks

First, HD is widescreen, as the 1080p and 720p formats are 16:9
XGA is 1024x768(4:3), and so can not actually show 720p without downscaling. (1280x720 needed)
UXGA is 1600x1200(4:3), and so can not actually show 1080p without downscaling (1920x1080 needed)
WXGA is 1280x768 or 1280x800 and can display a 720p signal. (1280x720 needed)
WUXGA is 1920x1200 and can display a 1080p signal. (1920x1080 needed)

To 'properly' display an HD signal on an LCD with the above 'W'ide resolutions, technically, the 1280x768 would have to have 24 rows of blank pixels above and below a 720p image, and a 1920x1200 would have to have 60 rows of blank pixels above and below a 1080p image.
In reality, most LCD monitors will upscale/stretch an HD source to fill the screen vertically.
Better monitors will have a 1:1 pixel mapping function so you will actually get the exact resolution of the HD signal, and will have those slight black bars at the top and bottom.
But, even stretched, 720p or 1080p will still look great.

It seems like you'll just be using the HD-DVD player as a source but if you're planning on an HTPC, be sure you have the processor and graphics card to handle it.