If I ensure my new TV...

can have overscan turned off via HDMI
has native resolution of 1920x1080
is 1080P

... can I simply change the resolution of my media PC* to 1920x1080p and off I go?

And your PC will want significant horsepower to play any kind of fullscreen video at 1920x1080 resolution -- that's a lot of pixels to be continuously redrawing and moving around.

I was under the impression that you only have to worry about overscan if you, like me, purchase a rear-projection technology TV. LCDs and plasmas don't have that problem, do they?

I think that PC should have no problems at those resolutions. I had my 3.2GHz machine with a much older video card playing HD content just fine.

Thats the problem with slapping the HD label on everything. Processing power needed to decode a 1280x720 MPEG2 at 1.5 MBit and a 2 channel MP3 audio stream is wildly different then a 1920x1080 H.264/AVC at 30 Mbit with a 7.1 lossless audio stream, but both come under the "HD" label because people only look at resolution.

Ok, let me show my ignorance once more! I understand that some displays have 24p for that 'true cinematic experience' and also I've read about 3:2 pulldown and how this causes motion blur. My question I guess is, does any of this matter if my source is a blu-ray DVD played on the computer? Can I correct this before it reaches the display or am I stuck with all the problems I see on forums with standalone DVDs?

Thanks once more

(I don't think I'll ever pick a tv at this rate - theres always something else )

And your PC will want significant horsepower to play any kind of fullscreen video at 1920x1080 resolution -- that's a lot of pixels to be continuously redrawing and moving around.

Cheers

Since the computer will be running at 1080p most likely the refresh will be set to 60 FPS. This is where the PureVideo HD software helps but still isn't perfect. This software has been much better at doing the 3:2 pull down / de-interlacing than most TV's integrated chipsets. Try finding a TV that both the inputs and display panel can operate @ 24, 30, 60, 72 and 120 FPS. The 120FPS is ideal since it can be divided by 24, 30 and 60 evenly. This way you don't have to change your refresh rate depending on the content type your trying to watch. There is also some PC software that will auto lock the refresh rate to the current rate of the playing video. It was very cool if your display could do the correct refresh rates. I can't remember the name but I will try to find it.

Try to find someone you know with the display technology that your thinking about getting and see if they will let you come over a watch a movie or connect a PC to it. I personally get headaches when watching DLP TV's for more than 2 hours.

What size display are your trying to get? Can you control the light in the room during the day? Do you need to hang it on a wall? Do you have a spending limit? The technology is changing so fast in the HDTV market you might want to think about spending way less and just getting something that does 720p and then upgrading in about a year.

Thanks for that. I spent a lot of time of the AVS Forums and people there have the Nvidia 8600GTS and you can select from various resolutions such as 1920x1080 24, 50, 60 etc. Why would you think it would be locked to 60? Good idea about the 120fps.

To answer your other questions, its a 40'' LCD I'm looking at, doesn't need to be wall mounted, light is 'ok' but not too special. Can spend about £1,000

How does this all work though? Say I play a BR DVD thats 1080/24 - do I tell the tv that its getting 24? Or does it sense it automatically?

I thought if the card is told to output a certain res/hz then it wouldn't matter what the source is (file on pc or BR via pc) as the card would change it before outputting it - or is that how that software works? Changing the FPS to suit the file to save me manually doing it? If so, see my question about if the tv can sense it.

Phew... thats my last questions for now!

plus the lifespan isn't too good

Thanks for the info

But a 40'' OLED?? Isn't that some way off? 11-inch is the biggest I've seen in Japan at ~$2000 plus the lifespan isn't too good.