Help greatly appreciated: 1080p output question: Great bargain at stake!!

Hey guys, I would really appreciate your help. To cut a long story as short as I can, my finger is currently hovering over the BUY button of a great 1080p monitor at a great price. There is only ONE left in stock and I have a dilema!!! My specs are shown below.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache)
4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450
320GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
Primary 9-cell 85 WHr Lithium Ion battery
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™

The other day I played a 720p mkv file via HDMI output to a tv, with no problems, picture/sound was fine.

I then tried 1080p output of another video file, via HDMI to the same tv. This tv has a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 and I know that this is not full HD (1080p) which is the resolution of the video I was trying to watch but if I recall the display settings on my laptop were set to 1080p... The video was unwatchable and choppy, pixelated and skipped a lot.

I then tried the same video via VGA with slightly better results, running this time at the natvie resolution of the tv (1680 x 1050). The video was less pixellated but still skipped, enough to make it unwatchable.

I have eliminated the cheap (£3.50!) HDMI cable as the VGA cable was also similar in quality.

My question is this:

Is this poor quality simply due to the fact that my GPU cannot handle pumping out 1080p via hdmi/vga output to a TV? (it plays fine on my laptop's native resolution of 1200x800, although clearly that is not 1080p so it seems that the GPU can handle it?) If the GPU cannot handle it then I am dissapointed as I assumed when purchasing a laptop with a HDMI port that I could output full HD videos to my televsion.

On the other hand if I purchase this new monitor that supports full 1080p HD will the video play ok? In other words, is it the my televison, and not my laptop that is the problem; surely the GPU works just as hard to play the video regardless of what the display output is?

I'm hoping that the tv is the problem so that I can buy this new monitor and enjoy full HD videos.

Sorry for the essay and for asking for a swift respone but I don't want this deal to slip past. Also sorry in advance if this has been asked, I have searched the forums and could not find the specific answer I was looking for.

Thank you very much for your time involved in reading my long post and helping me out, it is verry much appreciated.


Magi.

 

Hopefully you didn't miss the deal, but your GPU can handle the 1080p output.

 

Thanks you for your response!! I actually found a better deal, which is currently out of stock, but I have ordered it anyway and should get it in January sometime hopefully!!

Thanks again for your help

 

Sorry, but I ahve another quick question!!

I am thinking about getting a Playstation 3 to play 1080p videos on my 1080i tv as the ps3 automatically converts the 1080p video to 1080i so that the video quality is not choppy e.t.c.

However is there a way in which to output the 1080p video on my Dell laptop to 1080i, or to convert/downscale the 1080p vide to 1080i on my laptop, as this is a cheaper option thatn getting a PS£!!

Thanks for your help again

 

Why would you want to do that if your TV supports 1080p?

 

My tv doesnt support 1080p, only supports a maximum of 1080i, hence the problem. I've thought about downconverting the mkv file which I play using vlc player, but I cant see how to do that or if its even possilbe.

Could it be that my cheap HDMI cable is causing these problems? After doing some googling, I've been getting th impression thatthe laptop itself should be down scaling the video to 1080i anyway?

The actual laptop input is recognised by the tv as 1080i.

Sorry, this is all a bit messed up and confusing, hope it makes sense!

 

Oh, I thought you were getting a new screen, but I guess you are talking about your older one. The notebook should broadcast to your TV whichever resolution it fully supports. The cable shouldn't be a problem, I use the $4 ones from Monoprice without a problem.

 

Oh I see how you got confused now, my bad, I didn't make it clear!

The family tv in the living room is the 1080i tv in question. If I bought the PS3, that's where it would go. Annoyingly if my laptop could output 1080p video to the tv without it going all choppy I could save myself some money by not getting the PS3. As it stands though I can't seem to get a smooth playback on the 1080i tv.

The laptop resolution output to the tv (tv as the sole screen) is 1920x1080. Now as far as I know 1920x1080 is 1080i and 1080p, the difference being that 1080i is interlaced and 1080p is not.

Perhaps then this is a questioon of framerate more than anything? I'll have to fiddle around with what I can, hopefully it will be sorted. Thanks for your help, I should probably be on a specific AV forum than here, but I didn't expect this problem to get into these technicalities!!

 

I don't claim to be an AV guru, but it seems if your TV does 1080i you should set your notebook to broadcast at 1366x768. The reason I say this is because from reading and my own TV it seems to be this case.

 

Ok will give that a try now...

 

atbnet is right. if your tv can only display 720p/1080i you should but your laptop output to a max of 1366x768 to get the best picture.

 

Unfortunately still seems to be skipping even at that resolution you suggested... Interestingly skipping only occurs when there a moving items on the screen, when there are less or slow moving items its a lot better...

 

It seems I made a mistake before. Playing on my laptop screen, without any external devices, the video is still choppy... could it then be my laptop which is the problem?

I'll try downloading another 1080p test clip to see if its the same...

 

I'm interested in this as well, I have a blu-ray player and have not been able to test the HDTV setup yet