jjohnson wrote: > Sorry for the newbie questions, but what is macrovision? As explained, it's a copy protection system. > Do you mean that > resolution of output from DVD is limited? It's not limited by macrovision, but you cannot tape it on standard hardware. (although if these really bugs you, it's not hard to get a Macrovision-free player. The cheapo DVD players available at places like Walmart have hacks floating around the 'net that allow you to reflash the BIOS and lose macrovision and region coding) However, a DVD isn't HDTV. DVD is 720x480, HDTV is most often 1920x1080i, although there is also a standard with 720 non-interlaced lines that is used by ABC. > I don't have an HDTV (yet) so I > don't know much about how they work. If I hook up a progressive scan DVD > player to an HDTV system, do I get increased resolution, or just no > interlacing? If you have a progressive scan DVD and hook it up to most HDTVs, you will get deinterlacing. I say "most HDTVs" because that technically isn't the HD scan rate but most all HDTVs will take 480p output which is what a progressive scan DVD outputs. Similarily, most HDTVs will deinterlace 480i, which is normal video provided by cable, satellite, or non progressive DVD players. This is really valuable, it makes even normal signals look better on HDTVs than normal sets. > What is the input to the HDTV, standard RCA jacks, or does > it require something else, like s-video? It's component video, which is three RCA cables. (Y, Cr, and Cb) HDTV audio is digital, so it's either connected with another RCA jack or an optical cable similarly to how a DVD player is connected to a Dolby Digital receiver. Most receivers have at least two digital inputs, one of each kind, and the other usually goes to your DVD player. > This is all a bit confusing, is there a good HDTV faq around? There is a newsgroup for HDTV, and a lot of good information on AVSforum. There is quite a bit of HDTV content available now in some areas via digital cable or by satellite. I get 6 HD channels from my local cable provider, plus two movie channels just about to deploy. Prime time is mostly in HD on the big networks, and there is always some good eye candy on PBS. NBC had the olympics in HD, but unfortunately with a one-day delay likely for licensing and rights reasons. -- Trevor Boicey, P. Eng. Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@xxxxxxx ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/ "Trying is the first step towards failure." - Homer Simpson
