TV screen resolution

Nearly all of today's HDTVs are "fixed-pixel displays," meaning their screens use a fixed number of pixels to produce a picture. That includes flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs, as well as front- and rear-projection types that use DLP, LCD, or LCoS technology.

All of these fixed-pixel displays have a native resolution that tells you the maximum level of image detail a TV can produce. Two of the most common resolutions are 768p and 1080p, though you may also see 720p.

You may see these same resolutions listed as "1366 x 768 pixels" or "1920 x 1080 pixels." That tells you precisely how many pixels the screen actually has: the first number is the horizontal resolution and the second number is the vertical resolution. Multiplying these two numbers gives you a screen's total pixel count. As an example, 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels, which is usually simplified to "2 million." By comparison, 1366 x 768 = 1,049,088 pixels — slightly over one million.