I know all CRT monitors were considered HD and so are LCD monitors because the resolution needs to be high to not strain peoples eyes. But my resolution only goes up to 1680 x 1050. Does that mean I can't get true 1080 P? I'm confused because I always thought people said monitors could exceed HD. Or are those only CRT monitors? I'm only talking about computer monitors here not TV's, unless it doesn't matter for LCD's. I have a GeForce 8800 Video card if that matters.
No. A monitor that is 1080p compatible will have a resolution of at least 1920x1080. In other words it needs to be at least 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels tall. This means that your 1680x1050, while it still looks good, is not displaying a true 1080p picture. The p in 1080p stands for Progressive Scan, and to the best of my knowledge, all LCD monitors are progressive scan. When taking about resolutions, monitors and TVs are the same, though monitors are traditionally higher resolution than TVs because, like you said, you have to sit close to them. However, when talking about HD standards 720p and 1080p, LCD monitors and TVs are exactly the same, except for their size in inches across (which does not affect resolution at all). For Blu-Ray Disk playback, it also needs to be HDCP compliant. Your video card supports HDCP and 1080p playback. By the way, HD stands for High Definition. Technically, any high resolution picture can be considered HD, but the HD standards are 1280x720p and the larger 1920x1080p, which is referred to as Full HD.
A digital LCD Computer Screen Tom Masters
