HDTV Resolution

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Does anyone khow what an HDTV signal's native resolution is (in computer resolution)?

I have a Sharp SVGA projector (800 x 600). I want to upgrade, but want to buy something that won't become outdated too quickly. The XGA's are pretty affordable right now, but I want to buy something that has more pixels than the HDTV signal. Do I need to go to SXGA or WXGA to get more pixels than the HDTV signal?

I know that projectors can compress the signal well (Epson and NEC are supposed to be really good at this). But the way that computer products depreciate, I would like to know what the HDTV's signal resolution is, then wait for the proper projector to come down in price so that I only have to buy once.

By the way, everyone should appreciate this. Here is how I conviced myself that I "needed" a projector. There was a used set of Heresy's in the paper. Considering what a new set of Heresy's cost, I had to buy the used ones, It would cost me money not to!! (even though I really wasn't even in the market for another set of speakers) OK, now I've got there Heresy's and need to figure out what to do with them. They would make a great center channel. But wait, they are not magnetically shielded. OK, this is easy to fix, replace the TV with a projector, then shielding would not be a problem. To quote a line from The Big Chill, "rationalizations are more important than sex, did you ever try to go more than a day without a rationalization?"

Anyway, any help with the resolution question would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[SteveLee]

The highest resolution HD signal is 1080i, with a frame size of 1920 x 1080 pixels. At this point, most if not all projectors are lower res, so the signal gets resampled to the projector's native resolution. The Crutchfield catalog has a tutorial about HDTV which you may find useful:

http://www.crutchfield.com/infocenter/S-SjwrTQKEA6n/home/tv_hdtv.html

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Thanks for the info. I see that even WXGA does not have enough resolution at 1366 x 768. I guess the wait will be longer than I expected.

Chris

[aab3rd]

If I understand HDTV correctly I think any 768 XGA projector will display 1080i or 720p resolution.

1080i only scans 540 lines at any given time. The only

problem would be 1080p which I have never seen anything

produce.

I may be wrong though.

[Super21]

1080i and 1080p (which I don't believe exists) both display 1080 lines. The difference is in the order that they are painted on the screen. "i" (interlaced) paints every other line with each pass. "p" (progressive) paints each line in order with each pass. The result is a smoother picture with "p" because each line is painted in order for the entire picture.