[kwlug-disc] meaningful display resolutions for netbooks?

[Paul Gallaway]

>  am i making any sense or did i misread that point?

Nope, perfectly clear. Perhaps I misinterpreted your first question,
gave too much irrelevant information, or more likely I'm probably just
not making myself clear :) Anyway, I think we're probably on the same
side with this.

My point was (or was suppose to be, anyway) that 1366x768 would be
better than 1280x720 for a netbook because: A) a netbook probably
doesn't have the power to play 720p anyway (or 1080i or 1080p), and B)
you gain desktop real estate.

A VDPAU enabled netbook (read Nvidia ION) will be able to play back
all HD video formats and should be able to scale/deinterlace said
video to 1366x768 at a surprisingly good quality. Eventually the
resolution on smaller panels will achieve 1920x1080 and future
netbooks will have power enough to display HD video natively.

The article you linked to hints that some scalers do an admirable job
scaling 720p and 1080i/p content to the panels with a native
resolution 1366x768 and this has been my experience. The article
questions the reason for introducing this resolution in the first
place and I also agree with that. Additionally, the article points out
that under no uncertain terms the immediate future of high-def video
is at resolutions of 1920x1080 (agree here too). Unfortunately,
consumers are use to hearing that 720p == 1366x768 and not 1280x720.
As a result I think 1366x768 == HD video in consumers minds.
Therefore, from a marketing standpoint, at least,1280x720 < 1366x768 -
even if it's not technically true (anyone seen computer monitors
marketed as HD? When was the last time you had a monitor that wasn't
capable for at least 1280x720). I think the availability of 1280x720
panels on netbooks would be shortlived if competing products are
offering 1366x768. The other thing to consider about that article is
that it's ~3years old. Scalers, deinterlacers and video processing has
come a long way.

In general, it doesn't matter right now because you currently can't
play back HD video on a netbook and shortly you will be able to by
using good quality VDPAU scalers/deinterlacers. VDPAU along with the
small screen size mean it's not going to matter anyway; even if it is
a dumb resolution choice to begin with.

Here's a good article that gets into some of the nitty-gritty of
deinterlacing and scaling to the various resolutions.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_1/feature-article-1080p-3-2007-part-1.html

~pAul.

all good things, all in good time...