How the heck is my 720P tv displaying 1920x1080? (desktop, games)

[ragejg]

Do some TV's just not NATIVELY support 1080P?

I noticed a while back that I was able to set my desktop to 1920x1080. And when I did, wow, was it sharp... it seemed to look like more of a native resolution than the (advertised native) 1360x768 that I usually have my desktop and games set to.

I thought nothing of it. Then I was playing GOW for the first time in a while (trying to defeat General RAAM on hardcore... I finally did it!), and I was playing around with my video settings... and I thought what the heck, so I set the resolution to 1920x1080.

And wow. I was able to enjoy the end boss fight at a much higher than usual resolution!

What gives? This TV is just a 26" Sanyo that I bought at Wal-Mart for $500 last year! ... and FWIW I was able to enjoy the higher resolution by pulling up my chair a bit close to the entertainment center.

... and I did do a PrintScreen just to confirm the screen size.

Anyone else ever encounter this? I'm kinda wondering now what would happen if I set my desktop to 1920x1080, hooked up a BD drive and popped Transformers in.

[nekrosoft13]

many TVs will accept signal higher then native, signal is automatically downscalled.

[ragejg]

This doesn't at all appear downscaled though. GOW looked fantastic.

[Eliminator]

if the tv native is 1360x768 then the 1080p signal has to be downscaled no question about it

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by ragejg

This doesn't at all appear downscaled though. GOW looked fantastic.

GoW? so you probably are talking about 360 here, unless you are playing it on HTPC.

anyway, GoW is rendered at 1280x720 then that signal before leaving your 360 is upscaled to 1920x1080, once it arrives in your TV, the internal scaller will downscale the 1920x1080 to your TV native resolution.

What you are seeing is an illusion

[CaptNKILL]

Put a blank white picture on your TV and start counting the pixels down the side of the screen.

[ragejg]

I think I will, I think I will. Although, Cap, I kinda already did that by checking the resolution of my printscreen result.

Could it be possible that a 1920x1080 signal downscaled by tv hardware to 720p could look better than just straight 720p?

What I can't believe is that the HD3850/x2 939 combo handled the resolution so easily.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by ragejg

I think I will, I think I will. Although, Cap, I kinda already did that by checking the resolution of my printscreen result.

Could it be possible that a 1920x1080 signal downscaled by tv hardware to 720p could look better than just straight 720p?

What I can't believe is that the HD3850/x2 939 combo handled the resolution so easily.

but you are not getting straight 720p, since your TV native res 1360x768 (that is what you said)

[ViN86]

your PC is putting the signal out, but your TV is downscaling it to its native res.

that's why the screenshot comes out at 1920x1080. the fact that it looks better is probably the placebo effect.

[ragejg]

When I switch desktop resolution to 1920x1080, 1440x9whatever and 1680x1050, these resolutions display much clearer and sharper than @ 1280x720 and 1360x768. The caveat is that I believe I'm only @ 30hz.

I have perfect vision and I'e looked very closely at this TV through all of this. There's no placebo affect, except possibly when I played GOW.

MAYBE the native resolution of the TV is not in fact 1360 or 1366x768? See, the packaging and advertisements all say 1366, but my ATI drivers only give me 1360.

I'll report on my scaling settings when I get home.

[ViN86]

could you try and take pictures of the screen at the different resolutions for us?

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by ragejg

When I switch desktop resolution to 1920x1080, 1440x9whatever and 1680x1050, these resolutions display much clearer and sharper than @ 1280x720 and 1360x768. The caveat is that I believe I'm only @ 30hz.

I have perfect vision and I'e looked very closely at this TV through all of this. There's no placebo affect, except possibly when I played GOW.

MAYBE the native resolution of the TV is not in fact 1360 or 1366x768? See, the packaging and advertisements all say 1366, but my ATI drivers only give me 1360.

I'll report on my scaling settings when I get home.

Then it's not 1080p, but 1080i(which is the highest resolution a 1366x768 TV has support for, except for it's native resolution of course). The reason why it appears sharper is because the special processing modes of the TV aren't used when the TV is set to its native resolution(check the differences in the menu of your lcd when switching from 1360 to 1080i).

Take my TV as an example - if set to 1360x768 I get no dynamic back lighting, no 100Hz and no automatic color correction, yet these are all available when I set it to 1080i(text becomes blurry though).