Using TV as an extra monitor, how to get best quality?

[afro_puff]

I use my 20" Sony Wega as a second monitor which I then watch movies on. However, the computer sees it as a second monitor, rightfully so I might add. However, I can set the resolution for the TV to 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. There are a few other PAL resolutions in there as well but seeing as how those won't work for me I will disregard them.

Now my question to you is "is there a noticable quality difference with MOVIES/TV shows by using a higher resolution?" Clearly you can see text better with a lower resolution because the "DPI" (not that there is a dpi on a TV) is higher. But with movies I'm not sure if there is a difference.

I use VLC to play DivX, VCD, SVCD, etc out to my TV.

[yellow]

Technically, the higher the resolutioin, the more pixels per square inch are being being squeezed in, the better it should look.

[mclbruce]

Now my question to you is "is there a noticable quality difference with MOVIES/TV shows by using a higher resolution?" Clearly you can see text better with a lower resolution because the "DPI" (not that there is a dpi on a TV) is higher. But with movies I'm not sure if there is a difference.

The basic answer is, higher should work better, unless higher resolution physically shrinks the picture on the screen. As long as your movie fills the TV screen you'll probably get a better picture at higher resolution.

A few minor things to clear up.

- Your TV has dots, and the screen size can be measured in inches, so DPI does apply to a TV.

- On a Macintosh computer, the number of dots used to make the text stays the same no matter what resolution you use. That is built into the operating system and can't be changed by users. The problem with text at a high resolution is that the text shrinks in size. The same amount of dots in a smaller size means a higher dpi number for high resolution, text or graphics.

(I'm leaving interpolation by LCD screens out of this, that's another discussion)

[afro_puff]

Cool. 1024x768 it is.

[staypuft]

If you have S-Video ports, use them instead of composite (RCA) video as they offer better picture quality.

[afro_puff]

thats what i'm doing.

g5 DVI->composite & s-video converter (using the s-video)
g5 optical out to receiver which is connected to a JBL 5.1 setup.

i can hear dts out of my computer and it sure sounds peeerdy.