SD Signal on a HD Monitor?

[21st Hermit]

What happens when you supply a standard definition signal to a high definition monitor?

- Does it simply use a reduced portion of the screen?
- Does it up rez the SD signal?
- What about the different aspect ratios?

You can tell by my question I don't own a HD monitor, just looking.

I'd searched for this but the search engine does not allow 2-letter searches, only 3 or more.

Thanks
Hermit

 

[ericha]

All HD sets accept SD signals, and do some form of scaling to the picture. But there can be a lot of complexity about how the scaling is done, and how well it's done--this is one of the biggest differentiators, IMHO, between different HD TV brands.

 

[Andrewwski]

Agree completely.

Many cheap HDTV's do a terrible job of scaling SD...to the point where it looks terrible. A decent HDTV will make SD look just as good as it does on an SDTV.

You have two options when watching 4:3 SD on a 16:9 HDTV...display the picture with black bars on the side or stretch the picture to fit the entire screen.

 

[21st Hermit]

Thanks for the replies.

Many cheap HDTV's do a terrible job of scaling SD...to the point where it looks terrible. A decent HDTV will make SD look just as good as it does on an SDTV.

That of course begs the question . . . How do I tell a good HD from a terrible HD monitor? Are their reviews to read?

Hermit

 

[mike123abc]

If you want to lose your mind, go insane, and never buy another TV again, you can look at AVS Forum

The reason I say that is that they will nitpick every TV to death. They discuss everything there, but be aware that no TV is perfect. After reading all the reviews you will get so depressed that you will never be confident to buy a TV since "next year" the next greatest thing is always going to come out.

Tech product reviews for cell phones, computers, MP3 players - CNET has a lot of good reviews.