[Bob_M]

Hello All:

I would like to purchase a LCD TV for our Family room. We currently watch Analog Cable and DVD movies. I was look at the Dell W3706MC 37" LCD TV. A few general questions:


1) This set has a built in Analog/Digital Tuner. Does that mean I will not need a cable box even if I decide to upgrade to HDTV down the road?

2) How will this set perform with Analog video. I assume I will have black bars on the left and right? Do these stretch modes really work.

3) Can you have a interlaced LCD monitor? MY understand is interlaced video draw all the even lines in one pass and then the odd lines in the next. I would think that LCD would draw the whole screen at one time.

4) I have an LCD monitor for my computer, the adapter properties has a refresh rate selection, does that really make sense with an LCD Monitor?

Thanks Bob

[Allan Jayne]

1. You probably will still need a cable box, it depends on your cable system.

2. You will have black bars left and right, and on some analog (SDTV) shows black on all four sides. Stretch modes work, but personally I don't like just horizontal stretch. Both 480i and 1080i need to be de-interlaced. If the electronics do not de-interlace well, picture quality will be degraded.

3. There are no interlaced LCD monitors currently being made. Interlaced LCD's are not totally out of the question as they could be used to de-interlace 480i and 1080i, the previous field's scan lines stay on the screen until changed, resulting in a de-facto "weave" de-interlacing.

4. Computer video cards sometimes have refresh rate selection, primarily for CRT monitors where going above 60 fps (60 Hz) reduces flicker for some people. LCD's may or may not accept a higher refresh.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/viddoubl.htm

[Bob_M]

Allan

Thanks for the reply and the link. I am off to read it. One questions,

What is actually happening when you increase the refresh rate on a CRT vs. a LCD?