What Do the TV Resolutions 360i to 1080p Mean and What Is the Difference Between TV and PC Resolutions?

How sharp and clear your television picture appears depends on your televisions maximum resolution. The resolution depends on the type of TV you have. Resolutions are much higher and better on the new flat-panel LCD or Plasma TV’s versus the “old fashioned” CRT’s (cathode-ray-tube, which is a vacuum tube) TV’s. Keep in mind that the type of device you have connected to your TV and the type of cables you run between them have an effect on the resolution as well.

The following tables will list the resolutions you can expect.

　

Television Picture Resolution:

Resolution is represented by numbers followed by a letter (360i, 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p)

The Numbers represent:  

The number of lines going down the screen horizontally. The more lines displayed the more detail displayed.    

The Letters represent:  

• I = interlaced. The pictures are displayed on your screen in an alternating stripe pattern - odd lines are displayed in the first fraction of a second, followed by even lines in the next fraction of a second. This was the standard on CRT’s.


• P = progressive - the picture is displayed all at once. The quality is better than interlaced. This comes standard on LCD and Plasma TV’s.  

• 360i = standard definition TV available on your vacuum CRT style TV


• 480i - this is also available on your CRT style TV and on standard DVD players


• 480p - this is available on progressive scan DVD players


• 1080p - this is available on Blu-ray DVD players and X-Box 360


• 720p-1080p - displayed on High Definition Flat Panel TV’s　  

PC Resolution

PC resolution is represented by horizontal and vertical pixels. 1280 x 720 would be : 1280 horizontal pixels (number of pixels going across your screen in one line) by 720 vertical pixels (number of pixels going down your screen in one line). Therefore, the 720 vertical pixels match up with the 720p horizontal lines that can be displayed on a 720p HDTV (“720p” is really short hand for 1280 x 720).

So, PC resolutions can match up to TV resolutions as follows:

   PC                                      TV

640 x 480                              480p

1280 x 720                            720p

1920 x 1080                         1080p

Your TV may not show all the lines displayed on your PC monitor with the following resolutions. Your HDTV will match them up as follows:

  PC                                       TV

800 x 600                              480p

1024 x 768                            720p

1280 x 768                            720p

1360 x 768                            720p

Note: If your PC screen size over-runs your HDTV size, and you want or need to see them, you can purchase PC software such as “Powerstrip” to adjust the screen size output to your TV. http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm

　

Analog Versus Digital and their Native Devices

Analog: Broadcast television was always analog, which is waves. The audio portion of the signal was sent by FM and the video portion was sent by AM.

Digital: As of Feb 2009, broadcast television it all Digital. Digital converts the physical properties of the original sound and video to the binary number system of 1’s and 0’s.

Devices:

• LCD TV - digital


• Plasma TV - digital


• PC (personal computer) - digital


• LCD monitor for PC - digital.


• CRT(old style) TV - is analog


• CRT monitor for PC - analog

　

Cable Definitions and their Maximum Resolutions

RCA composite cables

Composite or RCA cables   - displays up to 480i, analog format; in a 3 wire grouping, the Red is for R audio, the White is for L audio, and the Yellow is for video - however all the wires are the same and can be swapped around if needed.

s-video cable

S-Video cables - displays up to 480i, analog format; better than Composite because it also separates the Chrominance (color) from the Luminance resulting in reduction of color bleeding and increase in clarity and sharpness.

VGA cable

VGA cables- can display up to 1600 x 1200 on PC’s (you must purchase higher quality cable for higher resolution), these are analog. A graphics cards converts the PC’s digital signal to an analog signal and makes it available through the VGA port. These were used to connect to the old CRT monitors which were analog. You can still use them with LCD monitors - the monitor converts the signal back to digital before displaying it. Note: usually, degradation of signal occurs over lengths longer than 15 feet.

DVI cable

DVI cables - display up to 1080p, digital format. It is better to use a DVI digital cable between a PC and a LCD monitor as it doesn’t have to convert the signal from the computer and to the monitor, resulting in less signal loss. These cables are compatible with the video portion of HDMI cables. Note: usually, degradation of signal occurs over lengths longer than 50 feet.

component cables

Component cables - can display from 480p to 1080p, analog format; Red, Green and Blue connectors on cables; cables can run long distances without degradation of signal. Note: So far, 1080i is the maximum resolution allowed with component HD Television.

HDMI cable

HDMI cables- displays 1080p plus Audio signals as well, digital format; signal can degrade anywhere from 20-50 feet depending on the brand of cable purchased.

　

　

Wireless Connections- Wifi needs a special HD transmitter to display HD

How to Connect a Standard Definition or HDTV to your PC by Using S-Video or HDMI Cables

HDTV displaying a TV Show from a PC on the Internet

We don’t have cable, satellite or even digital on-the-air television available to us. We watch our TV programs on the internet. (Refer to my article: “How to Watch TV Shows on the Internet”.) We wanted to watch these streaming TV programs and movies on our TV in the living room - it‘s so much more comfortable in there - so we connected our computer to our TV. There are several ways to do this. We tried a couple of ways ourselves.

As we don’t have anything else wireless yet (WiFi), and our PC is off to the side of our living room, we decided to go with cable connections from our computer to our TV (its actually safer as there are no EMF (electromagnetic field waves) involved.

To decipher all the different TV resolutions - Refer to my article:  What Do the TV Resolutions 360i to 1080p Mean and What Is the Difference Between PC and TV Resolutions?

Watch standard definition TV (360i to 480i)

We first tried using an s-video connection from our PC to the TV. S-Video cables display better quality than regular RCA video cables and composite cables.  S-video can display up to 480i.

You will need:

• VGA to s-video converter 
• VGA cables (around 20 ft long) 
• S-video cable - measure the length required to connect your PC to your TV
• RCA audio cables dual connectors for stereo (the same length as above) 
• Stereo to RCA Y-connector

Step by Step Instructions

      

My affiliate links:

1) Purchase the VGA to S-Video Converter. We purchased ours from AMAZON.com

2) Attach a VGA cable from the computer to the Converter

3) Attach another VGA cable from the Converter to the PC Monitor   

4) Attach S-Video cable from the Converter box to the TV (we needed 50 ft to snake around our doorway).

5) Attach RCA audio cables. S-Video only supplies the video portion of the computer, so you need to run audio cables as well. We ran a 50 ft dual RCA cable for R and L stereo connections from our PC to the TV.

Stereo plug to RCA plug adapter

6) Connect RCA cables R and L to “stereo to RCA Y-connector”. We needed an RCA to PC stereo jack adaptor so we could plug in our RCA cables into the computer sound jack.

7) Change PC resolution to 600 x 480. You can try all the resolutions available on your PC to decide which one looks better on your TV.

8) Change the PC Monitor to be 60 hertz to match our TV. Change this setting under “advanced settings” on your desktop settings. (Caution: don’t run your PC at a higher hertz - it’s incompatible and could damage your TV!! Most all TV’s run at 60 Hz. So, if you ever hear a high pitched noise from your TV - shut it off right away!)

This worked well, whatever is displayed on our computer monitor is displayed on our TV.

To watch HDTV from a PC to a 720p Flat Screen LCD TV  

!! Unfortunately, our old TV broke down - so we decided to buy a new LCD flat screen 720p HDTV (of course!) to replace it and found out that we could NOT receive HDTV on the S-Video cable (remember it only supports 480i) !!

You will need:

• LCD High Definition TV. We bought a Toshiba 37” - model 37AV502R - it was the cheapest model in the store and had a good picture too!


• PC graphics card with an HDMI output connector, and a VGA input connector.


• HMDI cable (Measure the length required to connect your TV to your PC. We needed a 50 foot length - to go around a doorway and run along the baseboard.)


• Internet connection of at least 1.5 MBPS


• Powerstrip software (optional, if needed)   

Step-by-Step Instructions:  

1) Install PC graphics card.

My affiliate link:

We bought an updated graphics card for our PC that had an HDMI cable output connector and a VGA input connector. This comes standard on many newer PC’s, but as ours is an older model - we needed the upgrade.        

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  We had a choice (there always is one, isn’t there) between a card with a “heat sink” (quiet, but some can still produce heat), versus a card with a fan to cool it (some fans can become noisy over time). We decided to go with a fan model (VisionTek Radeon 512MB).


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  You must make sure that your PC’s power supply can handle the graphics card. Check out your power supply wattage (ours is 300W) and make sure your card does not require anything higher, or you will have to buy and install a LARGER power supply.


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  Make sure you check to see if your slot size available in your PC is a compatible size for your graphics card. PCI Express (PCI-e) cards come in different lengths and you must match them to the size of the slots you have available in your PC. They are sized by the number of pins that connect to the PC’s motherboard. The sizes are: x1 (very short), x4, x8, and x16 (the longest). Smaller PCI-e cards will fit into the bigger slots as well.


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  After all that, we installed it ourselves - it was pretty easy.

2) Attach HDMI cable to PC graphics card and to HDTV.

My affiliate link:

We needed a 50 foot HDMI cable (to run around a doorway and run along the basement) and ran it from the PC to the TV. We got it from AMAZON.com - a generic cable cost us $26.83. HDMI carries the video and the audio - so we were all set there!      

3) Change the PC Monitor to a resolution that looks good on your TV.

We changed the PC Monitor to 1280 x 720 resolution as this is an acceptable signal format for our TV (info was in the manual) and fit our TV screen size the best. The top resolution of our PC is 1280 x 1024 - you can try all the resolutions available on your pc and see which one fits your TV screen size best - our best bet was 1280 x 720, which is one of the “signal formats” listed for our TV, and should be a perfect match for 720p. We leave our PC at this resolution all the time - but you could switch it back and forth if you want to. To change this setting - right click on your PC monitor desktop, and then select “display settings”, slide the bar to change the resolution setting, and hit APPLY to see your changes .      

4) Change the PC Monitor to run at a refresh rate of 60 Hertz.

60 hertz will match your TV‘s refresh rate. Change this setting under “advanced settings” on your desktop settings. (Caution: don’t run your PC at a higher hertz - it’s incompatible and could damage your TV!! Most all TV’s run at 60 Hz. So, if you ever hear a high pitched noise from your TV - shut it off right away!)      

5) Use Powerstrip software if needed.

If your PC screen-size over-runs the TV screen, you can use “Powerstrip” software to tweak your resolution -http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm - you can download a free trial of the software before deciding if you want to purchase it $29.99. We did not need this option.      

6) Check that your DSL internet service is 1.5 MPS or higher.

We upgraded our DSL service from .75 Mbps to 1.5 Mbps so we could stream more the more information needed to view 480p and up shows and movies - that way they will buffer faster and not freeze up.      

7) Whatever you now see on your PC monitor is what you see on the TV.

HDTV and DVD player

When shows are output in HD on the computer (this is mostly from www.hulu.com), you can now watch it in HD on your TV! We can now view 360p or 420p or 720p formats . It’s great!      

Connect your old DVD player

Traditional DVD’s have a resolution of 480p. If you have a Progressive Scan model DVD player, check to make sure that it’s set up to always display the progressive resolution (480p instead of 480i).

DVD component cables for video and RCA composite for audio

You will need:

• DVD Player (Progressive Scan model preferred)   


• Component cables for video


• Composite cables (RCA) for audio       

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1) Change DVD player to always display the progressive scan resolution (480p instead of 480i).

We found out how to do this in our DVD player manual.      

2) Connect the DVD player to the HDTV with Component cables (Red, Green, Blue connection tips)

This will supply the video portion to match your players 480p.      

3) Connect 2 RCA composite cables from your DVD player to your HDTV

This will supply the audio portion of your DVD.      

4) Now you can watch your old DVD’s in semi-high definition on your new HDTV!

NETFLIX Ready Devices

Another option available (but one we haven’t tried yet) is to attach your TV to one of many different “Netflix-Ready devices” including: Wii, X-box 360, Play Station 3, Roku Digital Video Player (a Netflix box), various blu-ray players, or internet ready TV’s. With these, you bypass the computer and load shows and movies directly to the Netflix-ready device for viewing. This can be done through a HDMI and Ethernet cable or through a wireless connection. This works with Amazon Movies too! Note: you will need a high speed internet connection - at least 1.5 Mbps, and for DVD quality you need a connection of 3.0 Mbps.