I understand nothing about HDTV and it doesent interest me since I do everything through my pc. I am currently downloading some video files though that are "HD". I have and Nvidia Geforce 7600GS 512MB graphics card and a Viewsonic VP181b Monitor at 1280x1024. So when I play these files will I be looking at them in high defenition or do I need special monitor/graphics card e.t.c?:confused:

Any advice appreciated

nope, your monitor doesn't support a large enough resolution, sadly

nope, your monitor doesn't support a large enough resolution, sadly

What do I need?

1,920x1,080 (HD1080) or 1,280x720 (HD720)

you could view HD720, but not HD1080, but it can downscale

You should be able to play them, and they will look superb even downscaled. Its much better to downscale than upscale.

all it means is the source of the rip was HD the codecs used to rip the movie or tv show gets rid of the HD anyway as 1hour od HD tv takes up around 12Gb where as ripped it is about 300mb so lots of quality lost. for watching a movie on your monitor will be enough to watch the downloaded stuff on

1,920x1,080 (HD1080) or 1,280x720 (HD720)

you could view HD720, but not HD1080, but it can downscale

So Theres two HD's a low one and a high one. What is downscaling?

downscaling is reducing the quality

downscaling is reducing the quality

And this is done by the monitor?

done by the graphics card.

if we're using "quality" to mean "resolution", whereas quality should be a relative thing (and usually personally perceptable)

so does this mean that my 22inch Mitsubishi Diamond Plus crt monitor with a maximum resolution of 1,920x1,440 can play hd in all its glory?

so does this mean that my 22inch Mitsubishi Diamond Plus crt monitor with a maximum resolution of 1,920x1,440 can play hd in all its glory?

Technically, yes, but practically no. The output of your source video device won't match the RGBHV input requirement on your monitor. :(

what happens is people that upload movies on the web get the HD source which is 1,920x1,080 (HD1080) or 1,280x720 (HD720) then the put it through a program called a "ripper" this takes the massive file about 12Gb in size for an hour and they use compression to reduce the resolution(quality) down so the file is easier to download as it will be about 350mb per hour of video. the file will be better quality than tv but not as good as HD it is usually about 800x 600 ish. the numbers represent the number of pixels(dots) on the screen

Technically, yes, but practically no. The output of your source video device won't match the RGBHV input requirement on your monitor. :(

Plus as the monitor is 4:3 then you will have big black bars top and bottom.

If you can get hold of video in MKV format, then download VLC player, then you can watch in glorious HD on your PC

MKV Files

VLC player