Using TV as Monitor--bad resolution? 1

[JimHorton]

Hi all,
I have an ATI 9000 Radeon with an s-video output. I hooked it up to my Sony HDTV, and it's all there, but the image is just not sharp. I have the resolution dialed down to 800x600, though the card's software says the tv will support 1024x68.

It was my understanding that standard TV had 560 lines of res., and hdtv had roughly double that, so shouldn't I expect 100% pixel clarity even at 1024x768? Can someone fill me in on the technical aspects of this? Thanks,
--Jim

 

[paparazi]

Sure someone will explain this more technically than me, all I will say is, if televisions were capable of displaying a computer image signal as clearly as a monitor then there wouldn't be any monitors sold (remember televisions are much cheaper)
The simple fact is monitors are designed to display at much finer, sharper and higher resolutions.
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Kocky]

The image of your desktop might not be very sharp, but if you play a video through Media Player and set it to Full screen then you'll have a pretty good image.

 

[JimHorton]

paparazi,kocky,
Thanks for the insight. I haven't tried a Media Player file yet, I'll see how that looks. I guess it's true that on a per-inch-diagonal basis, monitors are still about 2-3 times the cost of TV's, hopefully someone can explain what in the crt is so different with a monitor...as I said, the hdtv is supposed to have twice the horizontal lines of res, I just thought that would make a computer screens input clearer. Thanks again,
--Jim

 

[Kocky]

Take a look here and thinks might be come clearer:

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/dtv2.htm

 

[JimHorton]

Kocky,
That was a great link, thanks!
--Jim