Projector Sales: 1300 88 11 79
Secure Online Payments
by Comm Bank
Australian Manufacturers Warranty
Best in the Industry
Express Courier Delivery
Insured to your door
Est 2002 - years online
Industry certified
Simply defined, "resolution" refers to the number of horizontal and vertical lines used to displayed an image. The greater the resolution, the greater the picture quality. For example, a standard TV signal displayed on a standard TV set consists of 480 lines of resolution. HDTV (high-definition) signals, on the other hand, contain more than 700 lines -- hence their superior quality.
Portable home-theatre LCD and DLP projectors both come in different "fixed" resolutions. That is, every projector has a set maximum resolution it can display, this is set by the internal LCD or DLP panel and is called the Native resolution. A projector's Native resolution rarely matches the exact resolution of the incoming signal. Therefore, the projector must first resize the signal's image internally, through scaling, to map it onto its own fixed-resolution LCD or DLP panel.
4K UHD resolution
There are projectors that offer flexibility between WXGA and XGA by offering a hybrid resolution of 1280 x 768 - widescreen (16:9 WXGA aspect) width of 1280 by video (4:3 XGA aspect) height of 768. this offers flexibility between these aspect ratios without scaling of the signal giving the pure image.
Below we show native resolutions, grey rows and native resolutions displaying different content resolutions, white rows
| Resolution (native) |
Lines (H x V) |
Pixels | Increase over VGA |
| VGA | 640 x 480 | 307 200 | |
| WVGA | 854 x 480 | 409 920 | 1.33 |
| WVGA (xga image) | 640 x 480 | 307 200 | 1.00 |
| SVGA | 800 x 600 | 480 000 | 1.56 |
| SVGA (wxga image) | 800 x 450 | 360 000 | 1.17 |
| WSVGA | 964 x 544 | 524 416 | 1.71 |
| WSVGA (xga image) | 725 x 600 | 435 000 | 1.42 |
| XGA | 1024 x 768 | 786 432 | 2.56 |
| XGA (wxga image) | 1024 x 576 | 589 824 | 1.92 |
| HD (video) | 1280 x 720 | 921 600 | 3.00 |
| HD (xga image) | 960 x 720 | 691 200 | 2.25 |
| WXGA | 1280 x 800 | 1 024 000 | 3.33 |
| WXGA (xga image) | 1066 x 800 | 852 800 | 2.78 |
| WXGA (16:9 image) | 1280 x 720 | 921 600 | 3.00 |
| SXGA | 1280 x 1024 | 1 310 720 | 4.27 |
| SXGA (wxga image) | 1280 x 720 | 921 600 | 3.00 |
| SXGA+ | 1400 x 1050 | 1 470 000 | 4.79 |
| SXGA+ (FHD image) | 1400 x 960 | 1 344 000 | 4.38 |
| UXGA | 1600 x 1200 | 1 920 000 | 6.25 |
| UXGA (FHD image) | 1600 x 900 | 1 440 000 | 4.69 |
| Full HD | 1920 x 1080 | 2 073 600 | 6.75x |
| Full HD (sxga+ image) | 1440 x 1080 | 1 555 200 | 5.06 |
| WUXGA | 1920 x 1200 | 2 304 000 | 7.5x |
| WUXGA (UXGA image) | 1600 x 1200 | 1 920 000 | 6.25 |
| WUXGA (FHD image) | 1920 x 1080 | 2 073 600 | 6.75 |
| 4K-UHD | 3840 x 2160 | 8 294 400 | 27x |
| 4K-DCi | 4096 x 2160 | 8 847 360 | 28.8x |
| 4K2K | 4096 x 2400 | 9 830 400 | 32x |
| 5K | 5120 x 3200 | 16 384 000 | 53x |
| 8K | 8192 x 4320 | 35 389 440 | 115.20 |
Even though video and data resolutions are converging. We have kept the two seperate to show the historical differences between them.
These are the main standards of resolution. SVGA, XGA, SXGA+, WXGA, FHD 2K and 4K (UHD and DCI) are terms that describe resolutions used by projectors.
SVGA
XGA
HD
Full HD
4K UHD
Note: pixel size is magnified to show relative comparison
Data resolutions from WXGA to WUXGA
Video resolutions from HD to 8K
You may have noticed that our projector specifications state 1080i, 720p etc under Compatibility - HDTV but what are they? Separating the number from the letter "1080" refers to the vertical resolution 1080 pixels and the "i" refers to the signal being Interlaced ("p" is for progressive scan).
| Signal | Resolution | Scan | Definition |
| 2160p (4K) | 3840 x 2160 | Progressive | Very High |
| 1080p | 1920 x 1080 | Progressive | High |
| 1080i | 1920 x 1080 | Interlaced | High |
| 720p | 1280 x 720 | Progressive | High |
| 720i | 1280 x 720 | Interlaced | High |
| 576p | 720 x 576 | Progressive | Standard |
| 576i | 720 x 576 | Interlaced | Standard |
| 480p | 640 x 480 | Progressive | Standard |
| 480i | 640 x 480 | Interlaced | Standard |
There are four issues that bear upon image quality that need to be taken into account:
If a projector displayed a 480-line video image in 480 lines, there would be no scaling. You would see a relatively pristine picture because you are viewing all the contents information, without alteration.
Content changes and native resolution is fixed. So the content signal has to be adjusted so it can be displayed. This process is scaling.
So to avoid scaling match the resolution of your content to that of the projector.
Problems can occure when your displaying small text. Most projectors will accept a resolution higher than their native resolution, but will compress the computer's image into fewer pixels. The result is that some of the computer's pixels are shared across the same pixel that the projector displays. This is less important with photos and video, because you don't notice it so much, but with text it's a different story ? especially small text, as illustrated by the picture below.
Scaling issues - non native res on the right
When your image size increases, the dots making up the image increase in size too. At a certain point these dots become noticable. This is called pixelation.
To reduce pixelation, you can reduce the image size or increase the resolution.
Severe case of pixelation
Each pixel can display up to 1 billion colours. The more pixels there are, the higher the capability to define shadings and nuances of colour. As resolution is increased, colour tends to look a bit more refined or elegant
Improved colour with higher resolution
As with anything the better the engin the higher the price. But if you are looking for a quality image, the resolution is integral.
