This is most likely a misplaced thread, but the question has a certain level of pertinence to rear projection tv's since I just bought one :)

Just joined the forum a couple days ago and I've done a few searches on here for answers to this question to no avail. (probably user error) Anyways, I went to a local Best Buy down here and the gentleman that i spoke to mentioned something about a box that will process a 1080p signal and display it on a 1080i monitor (such as my new 51 inch CRT rear projection Hitachi) in true 1080p??? It kind of made sense to me at the time since the resolutions should be the same (right?), but the more i think about it the less likely it sounds. Please take it easy on me as my knowledge of all things A/V is limited at best., and thanks in advance for the help!!!

cheers,
R6Mace

Nope can't be done. Doesn't matter what the box can output if the TV cannot accept it or display it. Your display will only accept and display 1080i as the highest resolution.

Spend some more time poking and searching around here. You'll learn way more than you will from the Best Buy salesman and the information here should be more accurate.

Welcome!

Simply put, you can't output 1080p to any consumer CRT display. You either misunderstood the Best Buy employee, or more likely, they were confused. You don't have to know anything about hometheater or high-definition to get hired at BB.

I went to a local Best Buy down here and the gentleman that i spoke to mentioned something about a box that will process a 1080p signal and display it on a 1080i monitor (such as my new 51 inch CRT rear projection Hitachi) in true 1080p???I'm not a CRT based RPTV owner, but you can find some folks who own your set if you search on the model number.

The specs for your set will tell you what resolution or resolutions it can display. They will also tell you what resolutions can be input.

My guess is that your set will allow 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i resolutions as inputs. Your Hitachi probably will display 1080i, and maybe 720p. In any case, it will change any of the allowed input resolutions to the it's display resolution so you are in fine shape.

At the moment the only potential 1080p inputs would come from Blu-Ray or HD-TV DVD players, and maybe some games. In both cases you can set the player to output 1080i, so again you are in fine shape.

There is no possibility that the networks will switch to a 1080p signal for HD any time soon. At this time ABC, Fox, and ESPN do their broadcasts using 720p. All the other HD sources are using 1080i, so you're fine there too.

The sales person might have been referring to a video processor or an upscaling SD DVD player. Some SD DVD players can convert the 480i data on a SD DVD to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. That's what your TV will do, but some DVD players can do a better job of it than some TV sets. In any case it's still 480i data being interpreted into a higher resolution -- it's not the "real" thing. :)

I don't follow stand alone video processors, but they tend to cost from as much as your TV all the way to several times more.

Have a year-2000 64" CRT RPTV. Recall reading here several years back that a few were operating my Philips model (and others) with progressive HD using PCs as inputs. Check the HTPC forum (or video processor forum) for suggestions. You couldn't use a full 1920X1080, but PC software (or video processors) lets you downrez 1080i while deinterlacing it. Since the effective resolution (http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5667245&&#post5667245) of 1080i is less than the format resolution, rescaling while deinterlacing to, say, 1500X800p (just guessing) might display most of what's being delivered. If the scan rate and resolution is too high the CRT won't work. I'd want to study estimates to ensure I wouldn't damage the display.

BTW, a 'box' capable of delivering 1080p would be some of the newer HD-disc machines (see those forums), and they'll deliver 1080i to any HD display because they also have 1080/60i outputs suitable for most HD displays. -- John

The vast majority of CRT RPTVs can only accept 1080i input (i.e., not 1080p), but any HD video source device that is capable of outputting 1080p can also be configured to output 1080i. There would not be any clear reason to believe that using a source (eg., Blu-ray player) set to output 1080p then an external video processor to convert this to 1080i would be any better than simply having the source output 1080i to start with.

Thanks a lot guys!! That PC idea sounds pretty crazy but i might just give it a shot after I look into it a bit....