--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 08:16:25 -0600
>From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]>
>To: LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>,        Melinda Gregory <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #6253 television as monitor for computer
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

I think you are dealing with a problem of mismatched video resolution 
between the computer and the TV.  American TV (NTSC) has a fixed 
resolution that is roughly equivalent to the computer VGA resolution 
of 640 by 480 pixels.  Years back, when VGA resolution was the norm 
for computers, it was failry easy to link a VCR, LDR, computer and 
TV, in order to display data from any of these on the TV.

Now, most users consider 800 by 600 to be low resolution on a 
computer.  1024 by 768 is medium resolution.  Many computer graphics 
programs won't even run at 640 by 480.  Meanwhile, TV's resolution 
hasn't changed.  When you play a DVD in the computer, it is 
outputting a TV formatted image, at 640 by 480, so the image on your 
TV doesn't look too bad.  When you send a computer graphics image to 
the TV, you get much lower resolution than you are used to seeing on 
the computer screen, plus further degredation caused by converting 
down to the TV resolution and shifting from the computer's pixel 
display to TV's interlaced raster scan.

I don't think there is much you can do to improve the computer 
graphics display on the TV.  Much better quality would come from a 
video projector capable of resolutions of 1024 x 768 or better. 
These projectors cost several thousand dollars, however.

Derek

>> From: "Melinda Gregory" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: television as monitor for computer
>> Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 21:42:50 -0500
>
> In our lab, we have a regular PC that is hooked up through the Sony
> console to a TV.  The TV is the monitor for a video presentation
> stand, a VCR, LDP, and the computer.  [snip]
>
> The problem is that the computer graphics do not show up well on
> the TV monitor.  [snip]  When using the DVD-ROM of
> the computer to play a movie, everything seems to look good--except
> for the subtitles, which are a little small and blurry.

Derek Roff
Language Learning Center, Ortega Hall Rm 129, University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131  505/277-7368 fax 505/277-3885
Internet: [log in to unmask]