[mythtv-users] Best resolutions for different video

[John Goerzen]

Hi,

I have a HD CRT TV.  I'm driving it off an Nvidia card's VGA output,
then using an Audio Authority VGA to component converter.  I have
gotten the TV working at 1080i, 540p, and I think I can also make 720p
work.  (Both the TV and the card should be capable of it).

My question, though, is: which signal type is best for which source
material?  And the corrolarry: why does deinterlacing appear to
improve the output quality when displaying an interlaced source at
1080i?

So, the major video types I'd be concerned with are:

 * NTSC/ATSC interlaced digital video recorded OTA

 * Interlaced DVD playback

 * Progressive-scan DVDs (mostly 24fps movies)

 * Any potential progressive-scan OTA content (haven't noticed any
   yet, but maybe movies?)

 * Interlaced content recorded on a PVR-250

My gut tells me that it is best to use 1080i for anything interlaced
and 720p for anything not interlaced.  But experience suggests that I
still see interlacing artifacts when playing back interlaced content
in MythTV, even when displaying at 1080i, so I still have to use deint
there.

Also, MythTV doesn't seem to have support to switch the video mode
based on whether or not interlacing is present, so I have to adopt
some sort of compromise video mode.

What do people suggest doing in this situation?

Bear in mind that this is a CRT, so I do not have to care about
scaling artifacts that might be seen when driving LCDs at low
resolutions.

-- John