Resolution

In computer terms, this means the number of pixels shown on the screen expressed as the number of pixels on the X (horizontal axis) and on the Y (vertical axis). How sharp your display is is dependent on the resolution, and high amount of pixels in a small monitor will have very sharp display and the other way around. Over the years, the typical screen resolution with PC users has been either 1024 times 768 (1024x768 -- first figure means the number of pixels on single horizontal line and the second figure means the max number of horizontal lines on screen) or 1280x1024. However, now with the growing of popularity of widescreen and HD, the most popular resolutions are becoming 1920x1080, 1440x996, 1280x800 and 1280x720.

Some popular resolutions for media

Source TV System AR Resolution PAR
DVD NTSC 4:3 720x480 10:11
704x480 10:11
352x480 20:11
352x240 10:11
16:9 720x405 40:33
704x480 40:33
PAL 4:3 720x576 59:54
704x576 59:54
352x576 59:27
352x288 59:54
16:9 720x576 118:81
704x576 118:81
DV NTSC 4:3 720x480 10:11
PAL 4:3 420x576 59:54
SVCD NTSC 4:3 480x480 15:11
16:9 480x480 20:11
PAL 4:3 480x576 59:36
16:9 480x576 59:27
VCD NTSC 4:3 352x240 10:11
PAL 4:3 352x576 59:54