Can my monitor produce a 480p signal

[kingnothing]

Hey i really want to play wii on my samsung 225bw 22" widescreen monitor and was planning on buying this vga box
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-11z-49-en-70-1d2s-40-1.html#reviews

But can my monitor display a 480p signal?
its manual is here
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200703/20070314185504468_BN59-00520D-03Eng.pdf

is the info maybe under the specifications, preset timing modes section?

cheers!

 

[strommsarnac]

In short, YES. You're monitor supports 1680x1050 "progressive".

Lots of people don't really get what "p" is, so don't feel bad. P=Progressive.

In the computer world, monitors used to be of two types. Common ones were Interlaced. That's where odd lines are "painted" in the first pass, then even lines in the second pass. This meant that at 60hz (60 times per second), the effective rate was 30hz. The second type was "non-interlaced". All lines were painted with each pass over the screen.

Now, all that is for CRT monitors. LCD computer monitors (notice I didn't write TVs) are ALWAYS rated as non-interlaced, or what's called Progressive nowadays. Also, I don't think an interlaced PC CRT has been made within the last 15 years.

One important fact that must be understood about LCDs is that they have a "native" resolution. Think of the screen as a grid that's been cut to size. Each pixel is a specific size and that size times the resolution determines the dimensions of the screen. In other words, on a 22" LCD with a native resolution of 1680x1050, each pixel is bigger than a 19" screen of the same resolution. LARGE 55" LCD/Plasma screens of 1680x1050 resolution will have pixels more than four times as big as on the 22". What this means is that the larger screen will have a more blocky image if the resolution is the same.

CRT's do not usually have this problem. Why? Because larger CRTs almost always have more pixels. CRT pixels are standardized to a narrow size range. A 21" CRT will have the same size pixels as a 17", but will be able to display 1600x1200 vs. 1280x1024.

There's another issue to consider with LCD's that doesn't affect CRT's. LCDs will pad or delete lines displayed from the video signal to make the image "fit" the native resolution.

So, if you have a PC LCD capable of displaying the resolution you wish (e.g. 720x480, 1920x1080, etc.) it is capable of displaying that resolution in progressive mode. PC LCDs are always "progressive".

LCD TVs are a bit different. LCD/Plasma TV panels are not always able to display non-interlaced images. Only recently did 1080p LCD TV come out. However, most 1080i LCD TVs can display 480p. Two factors come into play with TV - 1. The LCD panel itself 2. The electronics which receives the signal. The electronics is what converts the image by padding or deleting lines.

The Wii is only able to output 720x480i/p. That means 720x480 pixels 30 or 60 times per second. If your display's native res is 1680x1050, the display will duplicate almost every other vertical line to make the 720 equal 1366. It will duplicate MORE than every other horizontal line to make 480 into 1050. Keep in mind, since 1680x1050 is not exactly TWICE the 720x480, this means that the image will be distorted. By the same measure, if your screen is one of the newer 1920x1080 screens, the image is still padded, but MORE so.

Technically, you're not getting a better image, only bigger and out of wack.

However, with CRT based HD TV's, they're able to project ONLY the pixels given them. They reformat they group multiple "pixels" to make them look like a single pixels. Thereby making the image larger, but the same resolution, but keeping the clarity at the pixel level and no padding is needed.

I have a 3 year old 1920x1080i, 720x480i/p 6x9" CRT rear projection 55" TV. NO LCD/Plasma screen (even the 1080p ones) come close to matching the image quality. Yea, they're worlds thinner than my TV's 18", but I care about picture quality. Space isn't an issue.

If you want to see what the difference really is, make sure your PC monitor is set to 1:1. Doing to will leave an 800x600 image a square in the center of your screen. You will get a black boarder around the actual image. However, it will be a clean, correctly scaled image. Open PAINT and draw a square and a circle (not oval or rectangle). Now, look closely at that image and remember how good it looks (even though it's small). Also notice that they are not distorted. Go back into the monitor's settings and change it back to "fill or Full" or whatever it normally uses. You will now notice that the circle doesn't look like a circle, but more like an oval. Same effect occurs with the square, it'll look like a rectangle.

Now, imaging what the Wii will look like on your LCD monitor when the image get's stretched out of wack.

I know there's a lot of info up there, but I hope it helps.

 

[kingnothing]

thats a fantastic reply, incredibly helpful. More information is always better than less. So bascially what your saying it that because my monitors native res is 1680x1050 and wii's is 720x480 the image will be more stretched horizontally as the horizontal difference (720 to 1680) is a greater percentage difference than the vertical difference (480 to 1050). That makes perfect sence, i'll go and order the VGA box. The image wont be ideal but sounds acceptable to me

 

[kidtmnt]

Very interesting post strommsarnac

 

[strommsarnac]

I think you'll be ok, I just hate when people think their really cool screen means they'll always have a great pic. But Heck, I play many games at 1024x768 stretched on my Dell 2405FPW (1920x1200).