I bought a Panasonic CT-36HX40 back in 2001 with the hopes of one day having a HD source to watch on it. Well, the day has finally come (bought a Sony HD Handycam and plan on buying a PS3) and I'm a little confused about the resolution capabilities of the unit.

The TV has a little label in the corner on the front bezel that says "HDTV Compatible 1080i", but the manual states on page 9 that "This TV is capable of displaying the 480P Enhanced Definition Digital TV signal (EDTV) as well as the 480I Standard Definition DTV signal (SDTV) using a Panasonic DTV receiver-decoder set-top box (STB). In order to view DTV programming, the STB must be connected to the component video inputs and in the DTV mode. A DTV signal must be available in your area and the DTV-STB must be tuned to the proper channel."

Screen resolution isn't mentioned anywhere else in the manual.

Can anyone tell me if this set truly supports 1080i and is it a simple matter of connecting the proper source to the component inputs or is there more that needs to be done? Is there a way to tell what screen res you're viewing?

Your set should support 480i, 480p, and 1080i. Most HD-CRTs are capable of displaying these resolutions. My Sony does the same thing as your set, but it can also accept 720p input, which brings me to my next point.

Panasonic CRT sets does not support 720p, which is usually not a big issue, but it will be an issue with PS3 because most PS3 games are in 720p and PS3, unlike Xbox 360, coverts 720p to 480p only. This was an issue for some HDTV owners with sets like yours when the PS3 launched. I do not own the PS3 yet, so I can say with 100% certainty, but I do not believe this issue was fixed.

If the memory serves me right, Panasonic was listing 900 horizontal resolution for their HD-CRTs on their website, so your set should have actual screen resolution of 900 (horizontal)by 1080(vertical) of full 1920 by 1080 signal that makes 1080i frame. Finally, Panasonic used Shadow Mask technology for its tubes, so I do not believe that it can fully resolve full 1080 lines of vertical resolution either. For their HD-CRT sets, manufactures choose to only list horizontal resolution of the sets if they choose to specify any actual resolution information at all, and vertical resolution is assumed to be either 720 or 1080 lines depending on the source.

Mask or grille, a direct-view TV will not fully resolve a vertical rez of 1080. Make no mistake. In the case of the aperture grille, scanlines will still overlap. Longtime users of drafting software can attest that a Trinitron produces finer vertical lines than horizontal ones.

With phosphors of shorter persistence time, it seems like interlacing would actually improve apparent sharpness at the cost of more flicker. Refresh rates in multiscan monitors would tend to bear that out, but of course the spot focus could be changing too when the scan rate is radically different.

Mask or grille, a direct-view TV will not fully resolve a vertical rez of 1080. Make no mistake. In the case of the aperture grille, scanlines will still overlap. Longtime users of drafting software can attest that a Trinitron produces finer vertical lines than horizontal ones.


???

Mask or grille, a direct-view TV will not fully resolve a vertical rez of 1080. Make no mistake. In the case of the aperture grille, scanlines will still overlap. Longtime users of drafting software can attest that a Trinitron produces finer vertical lines than horizontal ones.

With phosphors of shorter persistence time, it seems like interlacing would actually improve apparent sharpness at the cost of more flicker. Refresh rates in multiscan monitors would tend to bear that out, but of course the spot focus could be changing too when the scan rate is radically different.

I am not sure if Trinitron sets can display full 1080 lines either. Some people claim that all Trinitrons can fully resolve 1080 lines, others believe that only SFP tubes can fully resolve 1080 because these tubes use different gun, yet others state that none of the Trinitron can fully resolve all 1080. I have not discover any concrete proof that either of these theories is correct or incorrect.

However, I think that we both would agree that Apenture Grill sets are better at displaying vertical resolution than Shadow Masks sets regardless they can resolve it fully or not because there are less limitations on vertical resolution in Apenture Grill sets than in Shadow Mask sets.

I bought a Panasonic CT-36HX40 back in 2001 with the hopes of one day having a HD source to watch on it. Well, the day has finally come (bought a Sony HD Handycam and plan on buying a PS3) and I'm a little confused about the resolution capabilities of the unit.

The TV has a little label in the corner on the front bezel that says "HDTV Compatible 1080i", but the manual states on page 9 that "This TV is capable of displaying the 480P Enhanced Definition Digital TV signal (EDTV) as well as the 480I Standard Definition DTV signal (SDTV) using a Panasonic DTV receiver-decoder set-top box (STB). In order to view DTV programming, the STB must be connected to the component video inputs and in the DTV mode. A DTV signal must be available in your area and the DTV-STB must be tuned to the proper channel."

Screen resolution isn't mentioned anywhere else in the manual.

Can anyone tell me if this set truly supports 1080i and is it a simple matter of connecting the proper source to the component inputs or is there more that needs to be done? Is there a way to tell what screen res you're viewing?I had a CT-32HX43 which like yours was able to display a 480i, 480p, and 1080i signal. Basically a 480i signal is upconverted to 480p, a 480p signal is displayed natively, and a 1080i signal is also displayed natively. I used to feed all three signals to the TV and it displayed them beautifully. It will not accept or display a 720p signal so make sure your STB or game or whatever is not set to output this resolution - you'll just get a black screen.