Best Card for Handling Video Playback & Driving Large Display

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:34:41 -1000, "
wrote:

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:11:25 -1000, "
wrote:

Dang it. I accidently hit another key and sent the post. My typing
skills are atrocious.

So in the movie area Im not sure the hardware makes a huge difference
but I maybe wrong. I havent seen it with my 800XL

One thing the HDTV LCDs are lower res than the PC widescreen big
screens. They tend to be 1280 x 768 or 1366 x 768 mines the latter.

Now the tuner area you want to get the newer AIW. Im not even sure
what TV tuner they put in that. In the old days ATI used the third
party conexant chips and their theater chip I think its called in
different products.

They have a new generation chip out now called the 550 theater or
something. It was first used in the separate cards they and other like
sapphire came out with.

I was talking about the actual tuner previously, as that is
what pertains most to video quality so far as
noise/pixelation/etc on the incoming signal (all else
remaining equal, for example completely ignoring the SNR of
the signal). If he buys a card that's just hyped for gaming
and has the same quality tuner, he gains nothing.

The idea of "drive" an LCD is a bit far fetched. Either the
video card has the bandwidth to do it or it doesn't and just
about anything made in the past few years does, including
low-end cards.

Is your point really that all cards are equal, given adequate bandwidth?
That has not been my experience at all. I'm not an expert by any means, but
isn't card quality comprised of more than merely "bandwidth"?

He could downgrade his 9600-whatever and
expect the same results if the other card has the same
scaling algorythms and he uses the same player-

Again, this has not been my experience with this display. In this machine
alone, I have had an ATI AIW 9000 Pro, a AIW 9600xt, a 9600 pro, a BVG
Geoforce 6600 (both coupled with the TV Wonder Elite) and an AIW x800xt. By
far, the best performance, color and fluidity I've obtained has been with
the AIW x800xt. And while this card has serious gaming capabilities (in
which I have no interest), it is classified as a multimedia card with many
I/O options.

but
sometimes it takes people a few purchases before things
start to "click" I guess.

You really seem to have a condescending way of communicating. It's very
off-putting. That aside, I am fortunate in that I have access to various
hardware options, of which I avail myself. Doing so provides me with first
hand experience, and the end result is generally success (in as much as is
possible at the given time). And, although I have yet to reach that point of
'best possible solution' in this circumstance, I am confident that my
perseverence will pay off, even if at a cost of appearing "less bright" to
some. It's the best way I know of to gain knowledge of what I seek to
accomplish, and it does seem to pay off (in most cases).

Hark

" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:54:39 GMT, kony wrote:


snip

Ive posted many times Ive bought lots of cheapo TV tuner cards --- 3
generic brand cheapos around 5-15 after rebates and a Pinnacle top of
the line at the time card --- all at the tme had no hardware
compression which was incredibly expensive then and all used the older
conexant chips BT878xxx the problem is that gen chip had several
drivers you could d/l from the net that were developed or modded by
several people that let you break free from the awful Pinnacle drivers
and other drivers and let you use almost all the software out there
that worked with nonhardware compression cards. Many of the hottest
progs and WIN MCE dont work with nonhardware compression cards but
all the older programs do ---- like PowerVCR -- they stopped
developing that I think and came out with Power Cinema . Anyway WINDVD
etc all work with all the old cards with the WDM drivers you get on
the net or the reference drivers often bundled with the noname cards.
In general Ive found the old ones look good generally speaking of
course as long as you dont need hardware compression. In fact one of
my beefs is the newer cards dont really add all that much in terms of
actual visual quality despite all the hype like in the ATI 550 chip
which was a vast disappointment. But Id still buy the 150 hauppauge or
ATI 550 because of the hardware compression and since the prices have
really fallen though strangely theyve been going slightly up the last
6 months.

Your opinion seems to favor the Hauppauge PVR 150 ( I in fact have had 3
different "pre-PVR" and "pre-large display" Hauppauge cards that I was quite
happy with). Have you had any experience with the 250 or 350? What is your
opinion on these cards (not necessarily as they apply to my pursuit, but in
general)? Quality is always the priority, but a question of curiosity
pertains to the "channel lag" that sometimes accompanies cards that have
encode\decode chips on-board.

Also, regarding power Cinema, that is the software (an ATI version) that
comes with the Wonder Elite, and although it seemed to provide the best
image quality with the TVWE, it was very limited and sports quite a
cumbersome (and ugly) interface.

Hark

snip

Harkhof wrote:
I recently acquired a Dell 2405fpw and am now looking for an *AGP* *DVI*
video card to get the most out of this monster display. I very rarely play
games, but (aside from business apps) watch DVDs & NTSC broadcasts.

While I understand that the scaling issues involved prevent me from
obtaining perfect fullscreen video (although DVD isn't too bad, even with
the current 9600 pro in the machine...), and even moreso, quality
(fullscreen) NTSC broadcasts, I hope to find a video card that handles video
and the upscaling of video well.

You will always be limited by the constraints of the NTSC format. It
uses 525 lines of which only about 500 are used for the picture. It
also uses interlace, which computers monitors do not. No video card
will help much in making NTSC signals look good on a high resolution
monitor. It has been estimated to have about 720 x 480 resolution.

The new HDTV signals can have up to 1080 lines, but this requires a HD
television tuner to convert them to a format a PC monitor can use.

--
Virg Wall, P.E.

Harkhof wrote:

I recently acquired a Dell 2405fpw and am now looking for an *AGP* *DVI*
video card to get the most out of this monster display. I very rarely play
games, but (aside from business apps) watch DVDs & NTSC broadcasts.

While I understand that the scaling issues involved prevent me from
obtaining perfect fullscreen video (although DVD isn't too bad, even with
the current 9600 pro in the machine...), and even moreso, quality
(fullscreen) NTSC broadcasts, I hope to find a video card that handles
video and the upscaling of video well.

I'm thinking about the AIW x800xt, even though the multimedia software
leaves much to be desired. I suppose I could look for third party software
solutions for broadcast video. I hear BTV4 is pretty good, if not somewhat
cpu intensive.

I think that you are going to find that the board, as long as it is not a
real piece of crap, makes little difference in the quality of DVD display
unless you go to a workstation board which has higher grade passive
devices, but even there for DVDs the difference will be small. The ATI x
series doesn't really bring anything new to the DVD party until you get to
the x1300 and higher which have additional hardware, but even there you
only get the benefits with their decoder and it's more in reduced
processing time than in improved output quality.

You'd do better to try a different codec--ATI has been using Cyberlink of
late I believe--at one time Cyberlink was on top for DVD playback quality
but that was some time ago and right now they're trailing their
competition.

You might want to try WinDVD 7 or the Nvidia decoder, which works fine with
ATI boards. Neither is free but both have trial versions.

As for NTSC, you might want to investigate "dscaler" which is highly
regarded for that purpose. The current release will probably not work with
a TV Wonder Elite though--you may be stuck with the ATI applications there,
as that has a proprietary video processing chip--dscaler 5 whenever it's
ready should be able to handle it using the DirectShow drivers if Microsoft
hasn't changed the driver model by then.

Also, I've been considering picking up the Fusion 3 or 5 Gold HDTV card as
well (assuming that my area gets a decent amount of QAM channels).

Nice board--note that the nvidia codec can also handle Dvico files--that was
the most common method of using a Fusion board with MCE before Dvico got
their own MCE-compatible codec out and the nvidia still seems to do a
better job.

http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/eng/Products/ATSC5Gold.aspx

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...fusion3qam.asp

At any rate, I appreciate whatever suggestions I can get. I'm hoping for
the best quality available for my purposes, as outlined above.

Again, AGP, DVI.

Thanks,
Hark

Specs:

AMD 64 3500+

MSI MS-7025 (NEO2 Platinum)

1 GB DDR Corsair RAM (2x512)-Dual Channel Mode

Current: ATI 9600 Pro, ATI TV Wonder Elite



Dell 2405fpw

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 11:54:22 -0600, "Harkhof" wrote:

If I could clarify...I do understand, given the size and high res of the
2405, that I am hard pressed to get quality full screen TV. My perception is
not that bigger and better hardware will solve this dilemma, but rather a
hope that there is some video card out there that will handle scaling NTSC
broadcasts in such a way as to provide the highest possible quality. I know
that this "quality" will not be perfect and without blemish, but I'm looking
for "the best I can do" at this point in time. Nor do I believe that
dropping a bundle will resolve the issue, although I am a strong believer in
the philosophy that choosing quality products, even though they may cost
more, pays off in results and longevity.

Yeah its your money and you seem to understand what you are buying so
obviously spend it anyway you want. My neighbor insists on buying ONLY
Sony and Samsung TVs and bought a huge projection screen a while ago
and recently I told him to look at the Olevia and he looked at it and
decide to spend a ton of more money on a Sony and Samsung LCD TV for
his bedroom and his son.

I guess the issue would be ---- most people think most of the new
expensive cards besides some features like DVI , dual DVI or whatever
you might want , are mainly desirable for games. And that 90% of the
power you get from the higher cost is for high powered game playing.
So to most I suppose its kind of an extravagance to buy such a card
for only watching movies and doing spreadsheets and word processing.

In fact I hardly see any reviews talk about that indepth. Its almost
completely about performance measures in terms of graphics for gaming
- one chart after another.

The area where they talk about movies and pictures in reviews
generally tends to be with LCD screens because of their flaws.

With tuner cards they do of course.


And, incidentally, and even though the fullscreen TV quality is not
significantly better than even the AIW 9000 Pro (but it *is* better), the
AIW x800xt really makes this monitor snap in all other areas. This card
obviously shines as a gaming card (I even dug up "Far Cry" and played a few
levels, and in the process understood that my "gaming days" were over...I
was light headed for 2 hours after...), but it is also an excellent overall
card and does quite well on this display. In fact, ATI touts this card as a
"multimedia card", mostly, I think, due to all the I/O possibilities (and
the TV & video capabilities as well).

If you have the money go for it. I think we are biased more towards
the value side as money has a much greater impact on us so the price
performance ratio is weighted more on how much you get for each buck.
It may not weigh anywhere near as much to you as it does for many here
and the card you mention isnt ridiculously expensive. In fact theres a
good deal on it right now. Since the next gen ATI cards have come out
- the 300 to 800 cards have fallen to decent levels. I was just
reading the hype on the ATI 1900 which they rushed out right after the
1800 in a bid to beat Nvidias top card , its awesome but the price was
$600.

See at the moment Im not sure there would be much of a difference
watching movies with a 600 or 800 or even a 300 and a 800 so the extra
money seems like an extravagance that could be spent elsewhere like
the HDTV card which is around 100-150 I think.

Or a better system since I think the the Fusion HDTV card depends alot
on the software and PC CPU so it puts a fair load on your system from
the posts I keep reading about it. Since you are moving to an 800
which is PCI express only last time I checked you either have a new
system or are thinking of buying a new system. Actually if you get
some special DELL deal etc sometimes an extra performance card can be
fairly cheap as an addon so thats a factor too I suppose. I recall
many were getting 6800s fairly cheap relatively speaking as an addon
last year.

I think the 800 AIW was $300 though retal by itself. I guess the most
common response youll probably get unless there are some features we
dont know about , since you arent into gaming you could get the 600
or 700 and save money. The only thing is I dont think there is a AIW
version of the lesser cards so if you wanted an all in one solution
you might have to get that in that generation of ATI cards. You could
buy a separate sapphire 550 theatrix card but they were $75 when they
were first introed but I think increased in price since then.

The Hauppauge is said to be the rival of the 550 cards.
You can get the Hauppauge 150 if you get the barebones version
no software around $60-70 on Amazon and other places online.

Ive never seen the 250/350 but heres what ive read when I was
feverishly reading several sites I came across when I was all hot and
bothered about the "revolutionary" ATI 550 tuner card chip. At these
sites and several people were on all of them and went out and bought
both cards and uploaded clips and still images , lots of them so
people could compare them. There were lots of posts commenting on the
clips and the cards too as more and more people were buying them then
on those sites. Several had the older 250/350. The 150 used a new chip
that drastically reduced the cost of the Hauppauge hardware
compression cards but had the exact same functionality and supposedly
the same quality. Actually the people who owned both claimed the 150
actually looked a bit better, not a big difference. But with the
strangely high cost of the 250/350 everyone was buying the 150 then.
There was also the 500 dual tuner cards which I think used the 150
card chip too.

It should be good enough if you want to use it with a cheaper card
such as the 800 non-AIW which can be as low as 200 and the 700 which
can be as low as $130 or the 600.

It was generally a toss up in quality between the 550 vs Hauppauge 150
from the clips and some said they liked one card or another because of
slight differences. The 550 at the time though cost more and had less
compatibility with software you generally had to use ATI software what
came with the card. Im sure its better now.


And an HD card may well be my next step, although that would mean I had 2
tuners in one machine (not necessarily a bad thing, right?), as HD is so
young and thus limited in its viewing choices. I hear the fusion card is
great, but I still have to check with my cable provider to see what is
available in this area.

Dont know much about the Fusion as I never owned one.
Heres a thread on it where they say they had to buy an analog card to
make MCE recognize the fusion card. Another poster says the HDTV
output looks great with a 9800 card.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archi.../t-457434.html


I'm not denying that software is a vital part of the equation here (and
again, it is TV that is my biggest problem. I find *most* DVD video quite
acceptable at a res of 1920x1080, although one alwasy hopes for better :-})
However, after removing the AIW x800xt and putting the 9600 pro in, there is
a fairly noticable difference in display qualities.

Hmmm. Well you are the ultimate judge on that. If you notice a
difference and have the money its your call. Im going to test that Ha.
Just curious. I bought all this junk over Xmas and now had the HDTV
LCD on my desk, 19" LCD and the 3 cards and both AMD 64 sytems at my
desk. Im getting my dual core hopefully this month already ordered
it. Im going to compare my 9600 vs my 800XL and see if I can tell the
difference with movies on my LCD and HDTV LCD not exactly a definitive
test but Im just curious now whether Ill see anything.

Im actually stuck with a Best Buy 120 GiftCard so who knows I may end
up buying a HDTV card but then I get HDTV digital cable and can just
feed it into my LCD HDTV so its not that crucial anymore.

Youll laugh but Compusa had this insane deal where you sign up for 180
annual cost AOL signups and they gave you a $250 GC , so tons of
people rushed out and signed up multiple times. I did 3 times and now
have to pay for 3 AOL accounts I dont use but I did get to use 3 x 250
GC.

The colors aren't as
crisp, motion not as smooth. The AIW 800xt card truly is quality (too bad
about the accompanying software...) and does very well with this monitor
(other than, of course, with NTSC). And, as I previously stated, the I/O
capabilities are very extensive, which is very attractive, and while the
x800xl is touted as a gaming card, the AIW x800xt is described as a
"multimedia" card, and rightly so.

I also have been making forays into some kind of external "upscaling"
device. I hope to find at least an acceptable solution to this issue without
dropping a bundle, but, for my purposes, it *is* worth spending the time and
a reasonable sum to acheive acceptable results.

I want to get an upconverting DVD player to hook up to my LCD HDTV.
My first choice is the incredibly hyped OPPO for $200.

This has been getting so much raves. Not perfect some have bashed it
for this and that but there are tons of people who claim you can tell
the difference in the quality of the movie output. Look that up on
Amazon and read the reviews.

My second cheaper choice is the Philips upconverting DVD player which
is less than half the cost and many say its fine too though probably
not as good I assume as the OPPO but its getting good consumer
reviews.

J. Clarke wrote:
Harkhof wrote:

I recently acquired a Dell 2405fpw and am now looking for an *AGP* *DVI*
video card to get the most out of this monster display. I very rarely play
games, but (aside from business apps) watch DVDs & NTSC broadcasts.

While I understand that the scaling issues involved prevent me from
obtaining perfect fullscreen video (although DVD isn't too bad, even with
the current 9600 pro in the machine...), and even moreso, quality
(fullscreen) NTSC broadcasts, I hope to find a video card that handles
video and the upscaling of video well.

I'm thinking about the AIW x800xt, even though the multimedia software
leaves much to be desired. I suppose I could look for third party software
solutions for broadcast video. I hear BTV4 is pretty good, if not somewhat
cpu intensive.

I think that you are going to find that the board, as long as it is not a
real piece of crap, makes little difference in the quality of DVD display
unless you go to a workstation board which has higher grade passive
devices, but even there for DVDs the difference will be small. The ATI x
series doesn't really bring anything new to the DVD party until you get to
the x1300 and higher which have additional hardware, but even there you
only get the benefits with their decoder and it's more in reduced
processing time than in improved output quality.

You'd do better to try a different codec--ATI has been using Cyberlink of
late I believe--at one time Cyberlink was on top for DVD playback quality
but that was some time ago and right now they're trailing their
competition.

You might want to try WinDVD 7 or the Nvidia decoder, which works fine with
ATI boards. Neither is free but both have trial versions.

As for NTSC, you might want to investigate "dscaler" which is highly
regarded for that purpose. The current release will probably not work with
a TV Wonder Elite though--you may be stuck with the ATI applications there,
as that has a proprietary video processing chip--dscaler 5 whenever it's
ready should be able to handle it using the DirectShow drivers if Microsoft
hasn't changed the driver model by then.

Also, I've been considering picking up the Fusion 3 or 5 Gold HDTV card as
well (assuming that my area gets a decent amount of QAM channels).

Nice board--note that the nvidia codec can also handle Dvico files--that was
the most common method of using a Fusion board with MCE before Dvico got
their own MCE-compatible codec out and the nvidia still seems to do a
better job.

http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/eng/Products/ATSC5Gold.aspx

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...fusion3qam.asp

At any rate, I appreciate whatever suggestions I can get. I'm hoping for
the best quality available for my purposes, as outlined above.

Again, AGP, DVI.

Thanks,
Hark

Specs:

AMD 64 3500+

MSI MS-7025 (NEO2 Platinum)

1 GB DDR Corsair RAM (2x512)-Dual Channel Mode

Current: ATI 9600 Pro, ATI TV Wonder Elite



Dell 2405fpw



I think he needs to get ready for H.264. I have a Athlon64 2GHz and
nVIDIA 6600GT and it's not fast enough for HD. There maybe a new driver
coming out that may have some hardware acceleration support but I have
to see it to believe it. On the other hand, the high end ATI video card
has H.264 acceleration built in already.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 12:15:28 -0600, "Harkhof"
wrote:


Is your point really that all cards are equal, given adequate bandwidth?

It is that almost all cards have plenty of bandwidth and
that while some are better at delivering a crisp picture,
that's the opposite of your issue, it is not the true
accuracy you have issue with, it's noticing the effects of
video scaling.


That has not been my experience at all. I'm not an expert by any means, but
isn't card quality comprised of more than merely "bandwidth"?

Yes, but it has to be seen in context, what the specific
quality diference is. Further, it is taken in the context
of your post, what your specific desire was. Your need is
not a different video card, it is player software that uses
different scaling.



He could downgrade his 9600-whatever and
expect the same results if the other card has the same
scaling algorythms and he uses the same player-

Again, this has not been my experience with this display. In this machine
alone, I have had an ATI AIW 9000 Pro, a AIW 9600xt, a 9600 pro, a BVG
Geoforce 6600 (both coupled with the TV Wonder Elite) and an AIW x800xt. By
far, the best performance, color and fluidity I've obtained has been with
the AIW x800xt. And while this card has serious gaming capabilities (in
which I have no interest), it is classified as a multimedia card with many
I/O options.

This is not typical, at the very most when comparing
different cards in 2D use you should see a sharper image due
to higher rate DAC or better output filter quality... but
that doesn't exclude lower-end cards either, only that there
is more variability in the low end.

If you had a high-bandwidth, res. and refresh then digital
can help, but not help get rid of grainy video scaling. If
that analog goes through poor output filters on the card,
getting out the old soldering iron and actually removing
those filters can also help, but seldom does one want to
hear "modify your video card and void the warranty".

You are now talking about completely different properties
than you were previously, though. Which is it you are
trying to achieve, an overall better image or removal of the
graininess? If you have both concerns, you have multiple
changes needed, not just buying (or using) another video
card. I could be wrong though, I haven't tried the latest
Catalyst drivers yet but they are to an extent backwards
compatible too so equal comparison would be among all cards.



but
sometimes it takes people a few purchases before things
start to "click" I guess.

You really seem to have a condescending way of communicating. It's very
off-putting.

Unfortunately, that's the way it goes. I state things
plainly if possible and if that doesn't agree with prior
conceptions, it'll tend to be off-putting. No point in
beating around the bush though, it something isn't going to
work well towards a goal it does little good to follow that
tangent If you want a better video card for whatever
reason, there's nothing wrong with that, but in the end it
should do what you expressed a need for in addition to other
salutary effects.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 17:20:06 -0500, l e o
wrote:

J. Clarke wrote:

I think he needs to get ready for H.264. I have a Athlon64 2GHz and
nVIDIA 6600GT and it's not fast enough for HD. There maybe a new driver
coming out that may have some hardware acceleration support but I have
to see it to believe it. On the other hand, the high end ATI video card
has H.264 acceleration built in already.

You're tried HD with host-assisted processing? it's not
like the video card itself HAS to do it all onboard.
Watching HD on a PC is not going to be limited to only those
with a very high-end video card, as always the host will do
it in software.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 17:20:06 -0500, l e o
wrote:

I think he needs to get ready for H.264. I have a Athlon64 2GHz and
nVIDIA 6600GT and it's not fast enough for HD. There maybe a new driver
coming out that may have some hardware acceleration support but I have
to see it to believe it. On the other hand, the high end ATI video card
has H.264 acceleration built in already.

I wouldnt mind having the 1800 or 1900 card or a 7800 for that matter.

Maybe Ill get lucky and win one ATI has constest going on - ha.

Heres a thing on it:

Jan 6

NVIDIA has shown off H.264 video decoding using its GeForce cards for
the first time, today.

We were able to watch a GeForce 7800 use its GPU processing power to
decode 20mbit, 1080p high definition content encoded with the H.264
standard. With the GeForce running at full throttle, CPU usage was
throttled back to below 50%.

NVIDIA took some time out to explain their strategy for
high-definition decoding - a strategy which will click into place in
just a couple of months, with the release of ForceWare version 85.

H.264 is the codec used by both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and at a high
bitrate such as 20mbit, most CPUs struggle to decode at full speed.

The GeForce video engine

GeForce 6 and 7 GPUs all have a video engine built into them. The
engine, powered by the PureVideo software, will get an upgrade in
ForceWare 85 that will enable the H.264 decoding. Most GPUs from the
6600GT and upwards will be able to handle full bitrate, 1080p content,
according to NVIDIA.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01...a_decode_h264/


http://3dgpu.com/archives/2006/01/07...4-in-hardware/


Heres some stuff on AVIVO ATI

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4143


Ill probably get a 7800 at the price points Ive seen --- good sales
recently on some version of the card. ATI is desperately trying to
dominate the field again after blowing it with the 800XL. Everyone was
saying they pulled ahead with the 9000 radeon series and then fell
behind but the 800XL was supposed to blow nvidia away with similar
performance to the 6800 at a much lower price but nvidia seems to
match them on price and be faster moving qtys of their cards or their
partners do and then rushing out new gen chips too keeping ATI
offguard instead. Maybe the 1000 series if they get competitive with
price and qtys will do it and now that they rushed out the 1900 it
looks really good but at a gross out 600 bucks no thanks.

Im still digesting the info on the H.264 stuff. First it sounded like
ATI had a big edge and now it sounds like Nvidia does according to
some articles but then I have to read the stuff and start to
understand what they are talking about.

VWWall wrote:

Harkhof wrote:
I recently acquired a Dell 2405fpw and am now looking for an *AGP* *DVI*
video card to get the most out of this monster display. I very rarely play
games, but (aside from business apps) watch DVDs & NTSC broadcasts.

While I understand that the scaling issues involved prevent me from
obtaining perfect fullscreen video (although DVD isn't too bad, even with
the current 9600 pro in the machine...), and even moreso, quality
(fullscreen) NTSC broadcasts, I hope to find a video card that handles video
and the upscaling of video well.

You will always be limited by the constraints of the NTSC format. It
uses 525 lines of which only about 500 are used for the picture. It
also uses interlace, which computers monitors do not. No video card
will help much in making NTSC signals look good on a high resolution
monitor. It has been estimated to have about 720 x 480 resolution.

NTSC can never be that good. 720x480 is best-case for an
anamorphic-widescreen DVD using component-video outputs, which is not
NTSC.

With NTSC, you can get something like 330x480, IIRC.

The new HDTV signals can have up to 1080 lines, but this requires a HD
television tuner to convert them to a format a PC monitor can use.