[mythtv-users] Is Wider better?
Michael T. Dean
mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Mon Apr 30 16:35:26 UTC 2007
On 04/30/2007 11:18 AM, Brian Wood wrote:
> Peter A. Daly wrote:
>
>> In the next few months I'll be in the market for a new LCD screen for a
>> small/medium sized room. It will be replacing a 19" CRT TV.
>>
>> I think I've decided to go the LCD computer monitor route rather than
>> the LCD TV route. We watch exclusively (right now) SD recorded from TV
>> content.
> One thing that most LCD TVs have that most computer-type monitors do not
> is HDCP.
>
> This might or might not be a factor for you, just something to be aware of.
Another thing LCD TV's have (that you likely don't want) is overscan.
With a monitor, you can get 1:1 pixel mapping, no overscan, and full
resolution. With a TV that has overscan, you can get any two of the three.
So, 6 on one hand, half dozen on the other...
Besides, now that Windows Vista is out and since it will downscale to
480p then upscale to monitor resolution*** high-definition content
played on a system without "end-to-end" DRM, nearly all new monitors
have DVI with HDCP support or HDMI support. The HDCP (which is required
in HDMI) allows Vista to ensure you're playing back the content on a
monitor and not on a cable connected to another box (i.e. a Linux box)
that's grabbing the DVI data for circumventing copyright protection
mechanisms.
I wish more people knew that HDCP and HDMI are actually bad things--not
good things--but it's hard to argue that fact when people are unable to
do things they want to do with technology because broken OS's/Media
Players/Video Drivers/Hardware refuse to do their jobs if a device with
which they are communicating doesn't support enD-user Rights reMoval (DRM).
Mike
***Actually, Vista allows any other implementation that "fuzzes" the
image (degrading the quality of the original to prevent pixel-perfect
capture of high-definition digital video), but Microsoft actually
recommended the downscale-then-upscale approach as a convenient way of
achieving this effect.
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