Gaming Differences in resolution

[Sicklyboy]

So I am, for the first time, confused about the differences in resolution on my display devices.

I have a 22" Hannspree widescreen monitor, native resolution is 1080p, 1920x1080 via DVI.

My primary, however, is a 26" Vizio tv, native resolution is 1360x768 via HDMI.

I can force the Vizio to 1080p, 1920x1080. However, it looks like crap, everything is blurry, and the tv overscans it. So yeah, good idea to just not use that on my computer. Some of my pc games will display in 1080p on it, yet the top and bottom are cut off. So I bump them down a bit (Morrowind only runs at 1280x768, good enough I guess...)

I have my 360 hooked up to the TV via component (it's an old Xenon, no hdmi ). Up until today, I set it to output on 1080p, and it looked fantastic. However, I dropped it down to 720p and it looked identical. I measured it up, holding a piece of paper to the bottom borders of boxes and the side borders, nothing changed. Everything was just as sharp.

So why can my Xbox have a brilliant 1080p display with nothing cut off, but my pc can't? And then the HD resolution for the TV would as a result be 720p, correct? If so why is the pc native 1360x768, and 1366x768 (which is listed as 720p) looks even worse than a forced 1920x1080?

 

[Rydian]

If the monitor can't do 1080 then it can't do 1080.

Your 360 isn't actually sending 1080 to the screen (even though it may be rendering that internally).

 

[Sicklyboy]

Then what is it displaying? Because the 360 is set to 1080p, and info box when I switch to the component input recognizes the source as 1080p...

 

[Rydian]

What model is the TV? Many have hardware scaling, and having it hooked up through an analog input instead of digital may make scaling the input for it easier.

 

[romeoondaline]

Lets not forget about the graphics card!

 

[Sicklyboy]

http://www.vizio.com/va26lhdtv10t.html

This one right here (the one I won from work XD)

I highly doubt my graphics card. It's a brand new EVGA GTX560Ti SC.

Edit:

What model is the TV? Many have hardware scaling, and having it hooked up through an analog input instead of digital may make scaling the input for it easier.

I am assuming that a DVI-VGA adapter converts it to the analog VGA signal, correct?

I'm about to try that. This thing has VGA input. I have a cable and more VGA adapters than the average man needs in a lifetime.

Won't go past the native that way. Nevermind.

 

[Rydian]

The TV lists compatibility with 1080i even though the vertical resolution is only 768 max, so it's most likely the TV downscaling 1080 since it can't actually display it...

Or, since you're using component, the 360 might be outputting 720 instead anyways since 1080 over component is rare (for long stupid legal reasons), but I don't know enough about 360s to know if that's true or not (or why it might tell you otherwise).

My money's on the first, since the discrepancy is covered in the specs of the TV.

 

[sweenish]

The TV lists compatibility with 1080i even though the vertical resolution is only 768 max, so it's most likely the TV downscaling 1080 since it can't actually display it...

Or, since you're using component, the 360 might be outputting 720 instead anyways since 1080 over component is rare (for long stupid legal reasons), but I don't know enough about 360s to know if that's true or not (or why it might tell you otherwise).

My money's on the first, since the discrepancy is covered in the specs of the TV.

this is misinformation, except the spec of 1080i.

1080i only renders 540 lines at a time, hence the i.

360 plays games and renders at 1080p just fine over component. it was only with the hd-dvd player that 1080p was not an option over component due to the lack of HDCP protocol over analog.

 

[Rydian]

HDCP was the the phrase I couldn't remember to look up, and it does seem like the 360 supports it... over HDMI. I'm not seeing anything specifically stating it supports it over component, and even in that case it's outputting at 1080p but the TV only states that it takes 1080i (not p).

 

[sweenish]

it doesn't support HDCP over component. but games don't use it. like i said, hd-dvd's were the only issue when it came to 1080p over component.

you are right in that it doesn't matter since the tv is 1080i. however, 720p will look better. more vertical lines are drawn, and it's progressive.

as to the OP, here's why the crap is happening. your tv is 1360x768 (surprised it's not 1366x768), and you tried to feed a 1920x1080 picture to it. obviously 1080p is larger than your screen can handle, so it only displayed about 1360x768 of it. which explains the cropping. NEVER feed a digital panel anything above it's native. in fact, never feed it anything except it's native resolution. especially when using digital cables.

as for the xbox, it's probably a scaling thing since you're using analog cables. in any case, you're NOT viewing 1080p. your television is incapable of displaying it.

 

[Rydian]

My confusion is what's doing the scaling, the 360 or his TV.

 

[sweenish]

likely the tv, if the xbox really is saying that it's outputting at 1080p. another reason why 720p would be the better choice. television set scaling is horrendous. i don't trust OP's opinions on image quality, given the content of the first post.

super ideal would be a vga cable set to the television's native resolution, but that's probably too much.