mos6507's Blog

/signed

 

It's really ridiculous! I had to deal with those acronyms recently when helping to decide which Dell notebooks to order for my team. We had to decide between WSXGA, WXGA(+), WSXGA+ and WUXGA. (fortunately there was this Wiki website)

 

We decided for WSXGA+ and Dell delivered WUXGA. I suppose they got confused too.

 

In 10 years my LCD will be WHUXGA++ or WQHUSXXGA?

I think it's pretty goofy.

 

The CGA, EGA, VGA bit was relevant because there were distinct modes and limitations. From VGA on, it's really not applicable anymore as resolution is the primary differentiator. Once in a blue moon, one runs into 24 bit color, where 32 was expected, but that's really not the norm.

 

IMHO, the biggie these days is the acceleration hardware. Geometry, lighting, shaders, etc... lots of goodies there, but no quick 'n dirty acronyms. Go figure.

 

A similar thing is going on with the HDTV bit. I don't yet own any of that gear, but friends and relatives do, and they are totally confused! 720i, 480i, 720p, 1080p....

 

Hell, I was the first time out. One relative bought a 720p display, another a 1080p. Had to go and hook up the laptop to explore all the resolution options, then sort out component (appears to only be 720x486), HDMI, VGA, and other options. Then enter in upscalers, dumb devices, smart ones, resolution choices.... ugh! IMHO, the average joe is reduced to highly subjective choices, and I suppose that's the whole point of it.

 

If the specifications were easily understood, then it would be a harder sell for middle ground display systems. Funny thing is the peak resolution is not always the best one! A lot depends on the viewer and their particular tastes!

 

eg: We've found the 720p display better looking on DVD source material, than the 1080p one is.

My New Year's resolution is 160 x 192.

 

As convoluted as that resolution chart is, it's still missing my 1366 x 768 HDTV resolution. That's the most common resolution now for 720p.

My New Year's resolution is 160 x 192.

 

As convoluted as that resolution chart is, it's still missing my 1366 x 768 HDTV resolution. That's the most common resolution now for 720p.

 

And since 720p doesn't map 1:1 with that resolution, I don't know why they use it.