100Hz scan is not HDTV, that's for certain. (still having bad memories of that Samsung Tanto, eh stringfellow?). An interlaced picture consists of an odd and even field. A 100Hz Scan TV (for eg, Panasonic Tau Giga) takes each field, and fills in the gaps by repeating each available line. This is called line-doubling. A line-doubled field becomes a "frame" as in "frames per second". The newly reconstructed frames are then displayed twice, thus achieving 100Hz or 100fps. On certain TVs, when playing videogames there may be a noticeable lag between controller input and on-screen action.

Obviously, line-doubling makes vertical "jaggies" even more apparent. Sometimes line-doubling is called "bob" de-interlacing. Because the odd and even lines are offset by 1 line, the even "frame" ends up one line lower than the "odd" frame. When showing still pictures, the image may appear to "bob" up and down.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) HDTV standard fixes the vertical refresh rate at 30Hz for all the HDTV modes (480p, 720p and 1080i). 30Hz may sound a bit low and flickery, but new screen technologies like LCDs and Plasmas and upcoming stuff like OLEDs and CNT-FED aren't subjected to flicker like CRTs are. CRT based HDTVs also use frame doubling to up the refresh rates to a more respectable rate, but since they are working from actual progressive image sources, they don't suffer for it like the "100Hz" sets.

edit: 480p is EDTV, oops

This post has been edited by silkworm: Jan 30 2005, 09:54 AM

There's no point in getting a set-top decoder because there are no stations in Malaysia broadcasting HDTV programs over the air, not even Astro.

There is another "black box" called a video processor aka scaler. This expensive bit of kit (about RM5K) up-scales normal television signals into a HDTV format of your choice, using digital signal processing. These units use more advanced scaling algorithms than 100Hz/DRC/Giga/(insert buzzword here) used in TVs, so image quality ranges from good to excellent. The large amount of processing required will introduce some lag, so gaming isn't a good application for it.

This is off-topic.
Actually, Polyphony Digital may have cheated a bit. The PS2 is framebuffer limited. With only 4MB of VRAM, it's not possible to fit 1920x1080x24bit double-buffered frames in it (you'd need about 6MB for a single frame of 1920x1080x24bits). It's believed that for GT4, Polyphony rendered internally at 720x480, or maybe 720x540, then used some mixture of scaling to achieve the final 1920x1080 resolution on the TV. It's still a remarkable feat, but expect to be blown away with the next-gen consoles and true HDTV support.

PAL is 50 Fields Per second, because long ago the TV designers relied on the power socket's AC frequency to generate the scanning sawtooth waveform. Likewise for NTSC, because the US and Japan use 60Hz AC power, they have 60 fields per second. Two fields, odd and even, make a complete frame. That's why you'll often hear that PAL has 25fps and NTSC has 29.95fps.

100 or 120Hz TVs actually take each interlaced field and then doubles the lines to make a full frame. It also shows the rebuilt "frame" twice, that's how you get 100/120Hz from a 25/30fps PAL or NTSC source. The final image is actually "progressive" but because it's taken from an interlaced input so you'll get nasty de-interlacing artifacts.

The main confusion that used to arise from 100Hz sets is while the output is progressive, but the input front ends on some sets don't take progressive inputs! So we had a bunch of people who had 100Hz capable TVs who all of the sudden couldn't use progressive scan mode on console games. Nowadays new TVs are stamped with the "HD ready" logo, so we don't run into this problem that much anymore.

Cheap 20-30 ringgit PS2 component cables should do the job. Even at 1080i mode in GT4, the PS2 doesn't need that much bandwidth to call for exotic cabling. Just got one myself, RM25 from Imbi Plaza. To go with my (dad's) HD-ready 42" Plasma.

Can't help on the Component mux (that's short for multiplexer), though. If the wallet can handle it, maybe tack on a proper AV surround amplifier. That ought to let you switch between a few component channels... For dedicated "game" multiplexers, you'll probably have to shop online.

The last time I bought stuff from Lik-sang I had pay by wire transfer, which was an extra RM20+ bucks transaction fee, and I forgot if the bank in HK charged me as well.

It's OK, but not very good. Only plasmas have this resolution. Notice that your screen is a wide screen, but 1024x1024 is actually a square. The picture will undergo scaling in ALL the HD modes (1280x720p, 1920x1080i), which results in slight loss of picture quality.

The contrast ratio is the difference in intensity between the brightest white and the "blackest" black that is being displayed on a screen at the same time. The contrast ratio roughly indicates how the screen will perform in different lighting environments. A high contrast ratio screen would be viewable in bright sunlight or in a dark room, with discernible highlights and "lowlights".

A low contrast ratio screen may look good in a brightly lit room but in a dark room the black areas would look grey-ish instead. LCDs usually suffer from this. It can also happen the other way around: a screen might look dull in a bright room, but look OK in a dark room. Projection systems (front and rear) usually have this.

You don't change the resolution at the TV. Instead, you set it from the PS2, inside the game option menu, or by holding a button combination on the controller while the PS2 is booting up. Most PS2 games only support 480p, only GT4 is capable of putting out 1080i. There are no PS2 games that support 720p. The TV will change modes automatically to match the signal that the console is giving out.

graphic card? you're asking in the wrong sub-forum, but I'll give you an answer anyway. S-Video is not a HD compatible output, so the output from the graphics card on this output is definitely NOT HD. High Definition modes are only supported on Component and DVI/HDMI.

Looking at the specs, the S3251D has an ATSC HD tuner, which isn't going to be much use here. Because of that, I'm pretty sure that you can't even buy this model over here. The R328W should be enough for the XB360.