With set-top HD receivers you can choose the output option…480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i. What I was wondering is do HD tuner cards give you the option to select a resolution or does it just scale it to whatever your video card’s resolution is set at? The reason I’m asking is because I want to fix up a very modest system for a lady that I work with who moved in to a very small house. Her NTSC reception is horrible and uses a 13″ TV; I think I can convince her to invest in a HD tuner card, and I can do some adjusting to the antenna so it will tune in the HD channels. I figure that setup with a 17″ monitor will be a lot better than what she is using now. However, I know the system requirements to play HD are a lot more strenuous than playing standard material. What I’m wondering is, if I set the video card’s resolution at 640 x 480 will a modest system be less stressed and be able to play it smoothly? She doesn’t care about 1080i or 720p.
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