[mythtv-users] LCD HDTV recommendations (that are Myth friendly)...

[Stroller]

On 11 Apr 2008, at 13:29, Mark James wrote:
> ...
> I second Stoller's comment -- do NOT test with a Mac Book Pro! I have
> one of these two and cannot get decent output to the Olevia -- for
> some reason it just can't seem to do the TV's native resolution.
>
> When viewing the Mac's desktop there are all sorts of color shadows on
> type and other artifacts that don't appear with the Myth setup.

The colour shadows on type may be a separate issue.

Macs use font-sharpening in a way that is famously different from the  
way it's done on Windows (see <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/ 
2007/06/12.html>), and I think this _may_ just be a side-effect of that.

Certainly, when looking at my Mac's desktop and displaying windows on  
my 42" 1080p, I could see little "odd pixels" of colour, say a hint  
of red underneath the top arch of an "o", and the verticals of  
different characters seemed to be different widths. I was quite  
bothered by this when I first got my TV - in fact, I couldn't believe  
it, at first, and it was only after several viewings that I decided  
to post (here?) about it. Before doing so, however, I happened to  
look _very closely_ at the laptop's own screen, and found the same  
artefacts there ("artefacts" is a very good word for them, BTW).

The difference is that 1080p is a fairly low resolution compared to  
that of a computer's monitor, and on a 42" the pixels are perhaps 4  
times (perhaps more) the size they are on even a cheap relatively-low- 
res 19" LCD monitor. No wonder this was barely visible on a 13" inch  
screen!

If you compare the first diagram ("Rendering methods compared") at  
<http://old.macedition.com/cb/cb_20020730.php> with the first two  
diagrams at <http://alienryderflex.com/sub_pixel/> then it suddenly  
starts to make sense. I reckon the 3rd illustration doesn't show  
exactly what I could make out on my screen - on my display it was a  
bit more subtle than that - but it gives the gist of it.

Summary: Apple don't expect you to be reading text on a 42" 1080p.

Stroller.