I want all 2 million pixels

[hutch]

Mitsubishi has been at or near the top of my HDTV preferred list for sometime now and with the release of the WS-73909 I thought the time had come to finally make a purchase. This model had most of the things I'm looking for, integrated hdtv tuner, cable QAM support, Firewire inputs and 9" CRTs to name a few. But it appears to lack one of my basic requirements for a HDTV tv. That being a set that can deliver the full HDTV picture resolution (1080*1920). The specs (and Mitsubishi customer support) say this set only provides 1200 pixels horizontal. If fact ALL Mitsubishi sets appear to suffer from this deficiency (the WD-65000 can do 720*1280). For the most part, most Mitsubishi sets use only the 7 "CRTs. the WS-73909 however uses 9" CRTs which should have the capability to display 1920 horizontal.

Being able to do only 1080*1200 amounts to ONLY 62.5% of the full hdtv experience. For myself, I'll wait until I can get 100%.

There is another capability I've been looking for but have pretty much resigned myself to not being able to get and that is to have a tv that will display in it's received native broadcast format (or at least the top 2). If the source is 1080*1920i then I'd like it displayed that way, if the source is 720*1280p then display it that way. Every set I've looked at just converts the 18 atsc signals into a signal display resolution, usually 1080*something. I wish more consumers would become knowledgable and demand better products.

Mike

[AUMMitsu]

hmmm, thats interesting, I was never even aware of this. good read!

[ZeroDegreeK]

I think you are going to be hard pressed to find a set better than the 73909.

[mday]

Doesn't the 1200 lines correspond to the 1080 in 1080i?

Matt

[RoadKingMoe]

1920 X 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels/frame

2,073,600 pixels/frame X 24 bits/pixel = 49,766,400 bits/frame

49,766,400 bits/frame X 30 frames/sec = 1,492,992,000 bits/sec

or 1.5 Gbps! Now you see why DVI is becoming the interface of choice for moving high-res data to pixels on a screen when IEEE-1394, as implemented by Mits, JVC, etc is 400 Mbps. Yes, IEEE-1394b is coming at a few Gbps, but isn't here yet.

Where are you going to get the data for all those pixels?

ATSC broadcasts are 19.3 Mbps, satellite and cable maybe 15 Mbps.

D-VHS is up to 28.2 Mbps, while HD-DVD will get up to 36 Mbps.

Sure is a good thing MPEG2 compression was invented.

[RoadKingMoe]

The 1200 vertical lines of horizontal resolution may be a bit optimistic.

The horizontal resolution depends upon the bandwidth of the circuits in the TV (not to mention those in the sources). A full 1920 lines of horizontal resolution at 540p or 1080i need about 36MHz (and 720p X 1280 needs around 32.5). Most consumer grade sets are +/- 20 MHz.

You also have to consider the lenticular pitch of a projection screen. Most rear projection screens are .72mm and can do around 1920 points of light on a 65" 16:9. However, there's a good chance that the "pixels" on the horizontal scan line can fall between the points of light and be dimmed and split between two points, blurring the pixels together, giving less resolution than the pitch would indicate. In the case where the number of pixels exactly equals the number of points of light, this could be all of them. 2 points per pixel would ensure at least one point was covered by each pixel, but then brightness would be reduced, especially at off angles.

[barbinmike]

wow, cool reads you guys, this is how the we get educated on this stuff!!!!
Thanks for the info...
:)

[Glenn]

I wasn't aware that Mits even went to 7" on their tubes. I've been working on their HD's for about 4 years now and haven't seen any over 5" and a lot of them are 3.5". They are pretty honest about the resolution, they even admit to the lessened resolution of the letterboxed 4x3's in HD. You won't find anymore 9", I think Zenith dropped theirs (you didn't have $6500 anyway, did you?). Pioneer claims the full resolution on their Elites, which is probably true. The trouble with the Elite is the price. Toshiba claims 1800 and has a pretty good price. Of course if you are rich, check out Mits's top of the line with those neat little TI mirror chips.
Be sure and checkout the ntsc picture on the Mits if you plan to watch any old fashioned TV.
I will check on the tube sizes and get back to you. Remember, never believe a salesman about anything!