I have a 19 inch HD LCD screen with a screen resolution of 1440 x 900, how does it claim to support 1080i?

Question

Shouldn't a screen with resolution 1440 x 900 not be able to display resolutions of 1920 x 1080 that 1080i HD uses?

Answer 1

It probably claims to be HD1080i compatible.  Which is 1280x720 (720p).

It also may be able to display 1080i since the displays you are talking about is progressive, not interlaced.

Answer 2

1080i means that each frame consists of two fields, each 1920x540.

Your monitor can simply throw away one field and scale the other to fit 1440x900 (more advanced options are also possible, but you get the idea).

Answer 3

You are confusing screen resolution with video signal resolution.

All HD displays use signal processors to convert the input signals resolution to match their screen resolution.

This is done by deinterlacing the signal, if needed, and then adding or subtracting  pixels so that the screen's resolution is matched.

So, in your specific case, the 1080i signal would be deinterlaced and 180 lines of resolution would be removed.

Because your screen is not 16:9, there would be black bars on the sides, unless some kind of zoom mode were used.