How Do I Know If A LCD Monitor Supports HD (1080p)?

Question

Ok so here I go. I am in the market for a new monitor. Now I would like my monitor to support the highest level of HD so I can sometimes play with my 360. How can I tell if an LCD Monitor supports 1080p. I have seen some monitors say HD Ready but when you look at the specs nothing is different from the monitors that don't say that. I am in the market for a 20" - 22" monitor. I already have some monitors singled out but I want to know how to tell if the have HD support, especially 1080p. Does it have anything to do with HDCP or DVI-D. I would also like to know if for a monitor to support 1080p it must have a HDMI thing.

ADDED DETAILS:

That is weird because my friend is telling me that he is running his 360 on 1080p. Or at least that's what I think he said. He is using one of these monitors.

http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=012400&cid=MT.983

http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=010527&cid=MT.983

Is there any way he could be running in 1080p maybe with component or something like that?

He is using VGA. To do this. To get 1080p. He says that it is not True 1080p but how much worse is it, and can I use DVI to do this, or would DVI be better. I was wondering if I could use DVI-D to do this and what is the diff between DVI-D and all the other DVI's.

Yes but I don't have enough money for a Full HD TV. I can get a 22" Monitor with D-Sub.DVI-D for about 220$. This D-Sub/DVI-D, will I be able to do what my friend is doing by having 1080p that is not true? Also what is the difference between DVI/DVI-D and VGA.

ALSO: The DVI-D has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 (WSXGA+), what does teh WSXGA+ mean.

Answer 1

1080p is pretty friggin huge. That's 1920×1080 pixels, which means that you'll need a monitor capable of 1920x1200 pixels (that's the closest standard size) to display 1080p at a 1:1 ratio.

Just to give you an idea, I think you'll need at least a 23" monitor to display that. My Dell 24" does 1920x1200. You won't find many screens with higher pixel count unless you go up to the 27-30" range.

Honestly, that's over two million pixels per frame, at 30 frames per second. I'd be more worried about getting a CPU and other hardware that can handle 1080p.

Edit: Your friend is watching degraded 1080p. The quality is just tuned down for viewing on hardware that can't hack it. Not a big deal, I imagine. Please see this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p#Computer_monitors

WXSGA+ is just another way of saying the pixel resolution without using numbers - not a big deal, and I find it easier to learn the numbers.

Answer 2

vga support hd 1080p

Answer 3

1080p is a resolution. 1080p is 1920x1080. look for a monitor with that reolution. its normally and monitor 24" or larger has 1080p resolution

Answer 4

you could just go look for a tv that is full had that has a vga input to connect your pc to that way you know its full hd but will work as a moniter and you can watch tv on it too