Plasma / Flat tv resolution and your application
As you consider the question of resolution, keep in mind that the best resolution for your plasma tv is the resolution of your intended computer application. If you typically use a notebook computer with SVGA resolution, you will want a plasma tv with the same native SVGA resolution in order to get the sharpest and cleanest image. Similarly, if you normally use a computer with XGA output, you will get the best picture from a plasma that has XGA as its native resolution.
Most of the plasma tvs on the market today are capable of projecting input signals other than their native resolutions. For example, you can usually hook up an XGA computer to an SVGA plasma. The plasma tv will automatically convert the incoming 1,024 x 768 signal to its native 800 x 600 output. However, there is always a loss of sharpness and detail in the process, so you will end up with a picture that is not quite as sharp as if the incoming signal had been the same format as the plasma tvs native resolution.
This loss of sharpness also happens if you plug an SVGA computer into a higher-resolution XGA plasma tv. You will usually get a decent image, but the conversion from the 800 x 600 input to a 1,024 x 768 output will produce some fuzziness that you may not appreciate after having spent the money for an XGA plasam tv.
The plasma tv’s process of converting a different input format to its native output format is called "scaling." Some plasma screen tvs are very good at scaling, so the resulting image fuzziness is relatively minor, and the image is very adequate no matter what the source. The quality of scaling varies widely among plasma tvs and like all technology, it is constantly being improved. If scaling is an important consideration, be sure you see it demonstrated as you would use it.
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