Sony LCD TV for HTPC via DVI to HDMI

This isn't an acronym strut. I'm trying to hit as many keywords as possible in the off-chance I manage to help someone else trying to do solve the same problem I had. How to choose a good Japanese TV for a home theater PC. What follows is pretty much for home theater geeks only!

Our nearly 3 year old JVC Victor LCD TV was great - having an HDMI input when that was a very new feature even here in Japan. But at 32 inches (81 cm) it was a tad small, and the same money we spent then could buy a better set now. Also, the native resolution of the LCD panel was 1366 x 768, fine for 720p, but not for true "hi-vision" 1080i or 1080p, for which at least 1920 x 1080 is required.

But the true purpose of my upgrade was to get a TV that exposed its native LCD panel resolution to a computer with a 1 to 1 pixel mapping. The JVC didn't do that, resulting in two problems. (1) Our Mac mini's overscan pushed the picture off the screen, whereas disabling it (i.e. underscanning) left black borders that reduced the viewing area to 70 cm. (2) The scaling resulting from using a scaled non 1-1 pixel mapping made text look terrible.

Reading the specs in brochures collected from my nearest Bic Camera, the best contenders looked to be the Sharp Aquos series. Several models were actually noted (in Japanese) to support 1920 x 1080 on a PC via DVI or mini-D sub 15 pin (VGA) connectors. There was even a list of other supported standard modes like WXGA.

As a side note, when I bought the old JVC TV, the only DVI/HDMI adapters available were labeled as HDMI -> DVI, because TVs that supported HDMI were so rare at the time - and new HD recorders etc had HDMI output. Of course, the conversion is simply a wiring mapping, and works fine both ways.

Anyway, during a trip to Yodobashi Camera Akiba I carefully analyzed Sony's Blu-ray demo disk (which a shop attendant initially insisted was DVD) and compared hi-def material playing simultaneously on Bravia and Aquos sets. While the Aquos sets are lovely, the Bravia sets are stunning.

The Bravia X series looks a bit haughty with its glass frame, but the W series has a nice matte frame, most of the high-end Bravia features, and can be had for a good price to boot. So we bought a 40 inch (101 cm) KDL40W5000. (There's no 42 inch Bravia.) Sony doesn't advertise these models as being capable of delivering 1920 x 1080 to a PC over HDMI. They only specify PC connectivity via D-sub 15 pin (VGA), but I presume the same capabilities will extend to similar models in other regions - that is 2008 models with 3 HDMI inputs.

So, pictured is a 101 cm Mac desktop of 1920 x 1080 with a 1 to 1 pixel mapping. Text looks good, but one has to remember that colour and other digital processing will interfere with antialiasing, so it's not quite as crisp as a standard LCD computer monitor. The mode offered to the Mac mini is actually 1080i, but I presume the set de-interlaces this. With digital colour there is none of the shimmering or dot sync issues that plague analogue RGB/VGA.

The Mac desktop is fine; Mac video is great; and of course HD digital broadcast is amazing. I can recommend the Bravia series in general, and for home theater PC use in particular, and I can't wait to check out Blu-ray.