Why is this not talked about

[Insomniator]

Why don't people use a 720p television screen for gaming and whatever better resolution monitor they want for everything else?

I just bought the olevia 720p 37inch screen off of slickdeals for 300 bucks and decided to hook it up to the computer. Of course it kinda sucks for general computer use but it allows me to play Crysis all enthusiast since the native res is so low. Crysis at enthusiast on a 37inch screen >>>> gamer @ 19x12 on my normal 26 inch screen.

My system is a e5200@3.5, 9600GSO 768 SLI, 4 gigs. I bet it will max every single game out there at 13x7 for some time to come all while having a much bigger screen to play on. To do this at 19x12 would require a much better system.


Its easy to switch between monitors; I did not know that SLI supported this now.

I don't really see any drawbacks, as long as the picture is in native res is looks sharp and enthusiast is soooo much better than gamer...

 

[plonk420]

i like gaming on my 720p DLP projector at ~80 inches

WoW and L4D is pretty great. Supcomm is too hard to play (unless i can figure out how to change text size/type)

 

[masteryoda34]

The image only looks sharp because you sit far away from it. You could do the same thing on your monitor if you turned down the resolution and then backed away from the screen. You eyes notice a lot less pixelation when you are farther away.

 

[alcoholbob]

I think mostly because people don't really have the space, money, or inclination to own an extra TV just to game at a lower resolution.

 

[vj8usa]

I'd much rather play at 1920x1200 on a smaller computer monitor than at 1366x768 on a bigger TV. The picture might be bigger on the TV, but it'll be a lot sharper on the monitor. 720p/768p is really low res.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: vj8usa
I'd much rather play at 1920x1200 on a smaller computer monitor than at 1366x768 on a bigger TV. The picture might be bigger on the TV, but it'll be a lot sharper on the monitor. 720p/768p is really low res.

And if you sit farther back aliasing goes away but so does detail.

 

[postmortemIA]

768P sucks, it is not supported in many games, and even 720P stuff doesn't look great on it - it is not native, has to be scaled.

 

[nenforcer]

I purposely waited for a 1080P DLP for several years because I like the have the option to start at 1080P and go down to 720P if I need to.

You can always downscale but you can't upscale.

720P is pretty decent, I think, since most of my PS3 games don't even support 1080P.

No way would I want to watch Bluray downscaled to 720P though.

Forget that.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
768P sucks, it is not supported in many games...

Pretty much every modern game will support whatever resolution you care to run, 768p or otherwise, it just depends on your configuration as to whether the game will list the option. I usually run games at 1600x900 or better on my 768p plasma though, as the downsampling provides some nice FSAA.

Originally posted by: nenforcer
I purposely waited for a 1080P DLP for several years because I like the have the option to start at 1080P and go down to 720P if I need to.

You can always downscale but you can't upscale.

You can always upscale or downscale, and when running 720p to a 1080p display you are upscaling.

Originally posted by: nenforcer
No way would I want to watch Bluray downscaled to 720P though.

Would you not watch a Blu-ray at say 10' or more from a 50" display either then? If you do you won't be resolving more than 720p anyway, regardless of what that native resolution of the display is.

 

[postmortemIA]

if there's way to downscale/upscale and keep exact picture and text quality, we wouldn't be running LCD monitors on native resolution.

Compare 1080i video on 1080P and 720P display and you'll see effects of upscaling.

 

[Psynaut]

People do, but they talk about using a 1080p tv. They use the 37" Westinghouse 1080p and the 32" Aquos 1080p, and whatever else they use over 40". There are threads at HardForum and at AVS about just the Westinghouse 1080p tv as a computer monitor that are hundreds of pages long (around 300 pages long if memory serves me correctly). Those threads were 150 pages long when I bought my 37" Westy back in January of 2008.

 

[Insomniator]

Originally posted by: Psynaut
People do, but they talk about using a 1080p tv. They use the 37" Westinghouse 1080p and the 32" Aquos 1080p, and whatever else they use over 40". There are threads at HardForum and at AVS about just the Westinghouse 1080p tv as a computer monitor that are hundreds of pages long (around 300 pages long if memory serves me correctly). Those threads were 150 pages long when I bought my 37" Westy back in January of 2008.

true, but then you still have the issue of needing a high end pc to run the game maxed out. I guess lately the only problem game is and has been crysis though...

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
if there's way to downscale/upscale and keep exact picture and text quality, we wouldn't be running LCD monitors on native resolution.

Er, rendering at higher than native resolution provides better picture quality as long as the downsampling is done well, it's a form of FSAA known as oversampling. Also, while rendering at native looks better than rendering at a lower resolution, display a lower than native resolution on a monitor doesn't look any worse than display that same resolution on a monitor where it is native, as long as long as good scaling is done for upscaling it to the higher resolution display.

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Compare 1080i video on 1080P and 720P display and you'll see effects of upscaling.

No, running 1080i on a 1080p display you see the effects of deinterlacing, and running 1080i on a 720p you see the effects of deinterlacing and downscaling. If you want to see the effects of upscaling you'll have to run a lower resolution than that of the display.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
Crysis at enthusiast on a 37inch screen >>>> gamer @ 19x12 on my normal 26 inch screen

No it does not. I would take the higher resolution any day. I ran Crysis on a Sony Bravia 42" at 1280x720 and it looked very pixelated and grainy as opposed to my 26" 1920x1200 which was razor sharp.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
I ran Crysis on a Sony Bravia 42" at 1280x720 and it looked very pixelated and grainy...

Try some AA, and a bit more rendering resolution.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: kylebisme

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
if there's way to downscale/upscale and keep exact picture and text quality, we wouldn't be running LCD monitors on native resolution.

Er, rendering at higher than native resolution provides better picture quality as long as the downsampling is done well, it's a form of FSAA known as oversampling. Also, while rendering at native looks better than rendering at a lower resolution, display a lower than native resolution on a monitor doesn't look any worse than display that same resolution on a monitor where it is native, as long as long as good scaling is done for upscaling it to the higher resolution display.

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Compare 1080i video on 1080P and 720P display and you'll see effects of upscaling.

No, running 1080i on a 1080p display you see the effects of deinterlacing, and running 1080i on a 720p you see the effects of deinterlacing and downscaling. If you want to see the effects of upscaling you'll have to run a lower resolution than that of the display.

you're right on one point, it is downscaling to watch 1080i on 720P display.

However, it is mathematically impossible to have 1920x1080 picture to look equally well on 1920x1080 and 1280x720 LCDs with discrete pixels. Scaling can help to some degree, but finally there's no enough resolution on 720P to display all data.

Consider 1920x1080 picture where each pixel has different color. 1280x720 screen can't show that as 1920x1080 screen would.

 

[DarkZeratul]

That reminds me something... Hey folks, what resolution do you normally use to play Crysis? And what level of graphic quality?

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: kylebisme

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
I ran Crysis on a Sony Bravia 42" at 1280x720 and it looked very pixelated and grainy...

Try some AA, and a bit more rendering resolution.

AA brings any card down to it's knees in Crysis. The point is you need at least 1920x1080 for it to look good.

 

[Wreckage]

I have trouble reading text on my TV, although I sit pretty far away.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
However, it is mathematically impossible to have 1920x1080 picture to look equally well on 1920x1080 and 1280x720 LCDs with discrete pixels.

I had made no claim to the contrary, but at a far enough viewing distance they would look equal as it is only humanly possibly one's eyes can only resolve so much detail. For example, on 50' displays and assuming 20/20 vision, that difference would be about 10'.

Originally posted by: DarkZeratul
That reminds me something... Hey folks, what resolution do you normally use to play Crysis? And what level of graphic quality?

I run it at 1600x900 with x2aa with textures, physics, postposssing and sound on very high and everything else on high.

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
AA brings any card down to it's knees in Crysis. The point is you need at least 1920x1080 for it to look good.

It runs respectably well at the settings I mentioned above, on a GTX260 and a Ci7, and looks good on my 768p plasma. 41fps average with 32fps minimum for comparison sake.

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: kylebisme

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
However, it is mathematically impossible to have 1920x1080 picture to look equally well on 1920x1080 and 1280x720 LCDs with discrete pixels.

I had made no claim to the contrary, but at a far enough viewing distance they would look equal as it is only humanly possibly one's eyes can only resolve so much detail. For example, on 50' displays and assuming 20/20 vision, that difference would be about 10'.

Originally posted by: DarkZeratul
That reminds me something... Hey folks, what resolution do you normally use to play Crysis? And what level of graphic quality?

I run it at 1600x900 with x2aa with textures, physics, postposssing and sound on very high and everything else on high.

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
AA brings any card down to it's knees in Crysis. The point is you need at least 1920x1080 for it to look good.

It runs respectably well at the settings I mentioned above, on a GTX260 and a Ci7, and looks good on my 768p plasma. 41fps average with 32fps minimum for comparison sake.

You're missing out though - try setting shaders to Very High. That's the setting that makes the biggest difference in how good Crysis looks. Personally, I'd rather use maxed shaders with no AA than high shaders with some AA (I played at 1680x1050 with no AA, but everything pretty much on highest).

 

[kylebisme]

I really don't care for the maxed shaders setting, too contrasty for me, and the lack of AF on the parallax mapped roads and such is nasty.

 

[mmnno]

Every game I have ever played increases FOV with resolution, that's reason enough for me to ignore 720p.

 

[kylebisme]

What games have you seen increase FOV with resolution aside from 2D stuff like the old Fallout games?

 

[vj8usa]

I thought FOV only changes when changing aspect ratio, not just resolution?