I last updated this properly June 2006.

I recently bought an Xbox 360, which is great and I’ll write about that some other time. But I wanted to take advantage of its HD output. This has led me down a path that required a crazy amount of research that I choose to write up here for future reference.

Resolutions
The common HD signals are 720p, 1080i, 1080p. The initial digits represents the number of horizontal lines, the i or p refers to whether the signal transmits interlaced, or all-at-once, which is called progressive. Interlacing is where the lines come alternately, so the first pass is the even lines, the next pass is the odd lines, it is then up to the display to combine these lines so that people can’t tell. Even with a good signal processor you can often see the interlacing effect in moments of high-speed motion, or with certain screen patterns, eg TV presenters never wear checked shirts because of the fuzzy effect this causes with PAL’s 570i signal.

The Xbox supports 720p, 1080i and 1080p. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that if the game supports 1080p it will not have great graphics. Consoles still aren’t powerful enough to create rendered scenes at 1920×1080 by 60fps.

1080i is widely considered to be a “step-down” from 720p as you get interlacing artefacts again. It was probably introduced in order that manufactures could sell “better” than 720p resolutions without having to invest in technology to increase the video bandwidth between input and output. Also if you get a 1080i capable screen it probably means 720p outputs will suffer due to scaling of the image, although this is only true for fixed pixel systems, ie LCD and Plasma.

The Xbox 360 can also do 480p which is better than the general “standard definition” you get from the BBC and normal DVD players because that is either 480i (DVD) or 576i (BBC, etc.), not many TVs support this though. If you get an HDTV, the bonus is you’ll get better DVD playback, provided your DVD player can output to a "p" resolution.

Screen Types
CRT, LCD or Plasma? You can’t buy HDTVs that are cathode-ray-tube in the UK (update see below for amendment), so scratch that. Which is a pity as CRT is a proven technology that is cheap. Although CRTs are also huge and heavy, so in a way I was grateful to not have to chose between them and flat-panels. LCD and Plasma both do HD resolutions and are expensive. Plasmas are cheaper, but only come at sizes larger than 37 inches. LCDs can’t do black well, and for games and DVD this sucks, a lot. I can’t recommend LCD at all because of this. So Plasma is really the only choice, and you’re going to spend at least a thousand pounds. However most plasmas have non-widescreen resolutions (1024×768), although they still have widescreen aspect ratios, thus the pixels are rectangular, and for games where you have to read text often, this sucks. Plasma screens use a lot of power. Much more than LCD and somewhat more than CRT too. CRTs have a maximum size of something like 42 inches, but you wouldn’t want a CRT this size anyway as they would take up most of your room.

1080i and 1080p screens are rare. This is good — you don’t want them — as described above. They are becoming more common though, but I don’t recommend them as you end up with 720p outputs getting scaled.

There are also DLP screens. DLP do great blacks too. Probably better than even new generation plasma. I don’t know much about DLPs, but I think they are the most expensive option.

Connection Types
There are so many connection cable types, it rocked my world, in a bad way though naturally. The 360 (premium) comes with a component cable, this is the default way to get HD to your display as far as I can tell. Component is not equal to Composite! Component cables seem to be called lots of different things too, like RGBHV, or RGB Component, et al. Which is so great that people do that.

You can also get an HD signal through Firewire (not common), DVI-D (like LCD monitors, not common), PC VGA (CRT monitors) and HDMI.

The future is HDMI, but good luck finding a mid-range HDTV with HDMI inputs. Component seems to be on all of them though. However Component is an analog signal. How much this matters I am not sure. The 360 doesn’t yet come with any options for HDMI output, but they will, soon I’m led to believe.

However HDMI sounds like a headache for the consumer, check this discussion out. Also the 360 doesn’t have a HDMI output so you don’t need one until you get a PS3 or a HD-DVD player.

What I’m doing
I decided to get the VGA AV HD cable and use my 22″ CRT computer monitor and wait for the 360 HDMI cable and a 42″ plasma with a “true HD” resolution of 1360×768. Current Plasma that are good for blacks and in my price range don’t do the extra widescreen resolution that I feel I must have for good HD gaming, so until then I’ll get 1360×768 resolution via my monitor.

The plasma screen I was going to get was the Panasonic TH-42PHD, which was reviewed very well all over the web. You could buy an HDMI input for it, it had no tuner, so no normal TV, but you can pick up Freeview or analog tuners on ebay for 20 quid. The only reason I didn’t buy it was the reduced horizontal resolution. I’ll wait and see what Panasonic’s ninth generation plasma displays, due out in autumn, are like.

Update - 1 week later
I have 360 with my 22″ monitor at 1280×1024. The games look good and work well without a framerate loss (well probably, it’s hard to tell if framerate drops in action scenes would have happened at standard definition or not). However TVs render games better I conclude, it’s something about the way they scale the images, or something. Or the pixels on TVs are more fuzzy. On the monitor it feels like PC gaming. I’m gunna get a plasma soon I think. But anyway my conclusion is I prefer gaming with the monitor relative to my crappy SD TV, but it isn’t exactly what I was expecting.

Update - 01-Aug-2006
People in the comments have pointed out that Samsung sell some slimfit CRT HDTVs. This could be the best of all worlds as you get decent standard definition display, decent HD display, good blacks, a cheap price and all using proven and well tuned technology with a long track-record.

Unfortunately the slim-fit nature of the display introduces focus and geometry issues. Read all about it here. Reading most of that 93 page thread, it seems many people get good sets that can be tweaked to remove the majority of the geometry issues. And after a few days use the set “settles” and performs better. I’m going to try and get a real look at one of these in the near future at my local Comet. The geometry issues may even be acceptable in most cases as you only notice when watching something that shows straight lines.

The sets are WS32Z409 (cheaper, analog tuner) and WS32Z419 (digital tuner, ie freeview).

Update - 04-Dec-2006
I eventually got a 32″ LCD, the Samsung, I reviewed it. My running impression is mild disapointment. Upscaling sucks. Blacks on LCDs suck. It’s a good set though, but I wish I’d got a CRT.