#Output to VHS
Jan, my genlock is 640×480 so I don't have first hand experience to know the
answer to your question. NTSC is 525 lines of vertical resolution at 30
frames/sec … but only half that is contained in each field at 60
fields/sec. This interlacing reduces flicker w/o increasing the frame rate.
From what I've read I believe up to a point better resolution from the
source can be noted on even a lower resolution NTSC monitor. But I'm not
sure how much above 525 this applies. I suppose unless other factors
improve along with the resolution then anything over 525 is not a factor at
the NTSC stage. But I suspect the better resolution would still make a
difference in the same sense that 'bumping' the Hi8 up to a higher
resolution format for editing makes a difference even at the lower VHS
resolution. Of course this means you'd need something better than Hi8 as
your intermediate medium.
In going to 800×600, that's fine for a computer monitor but I wonder if
aside from an improvement in sharpness for smaller images whether you'd
really make use of the increased resolution for teaching. It's usually best
to have only one new idea per 'slide', right? The additional information
you could place on each 'slide' might not be a good thing unless it involved
graphic images that now have insufficinent resolution. In other words the
sharpness may well be real but you may be restrained from making use of this
unless you're dealing with graphics that now are not sufficiently resolved,
like graphs, etc.
Of course, bottomline, I'm not able to answer your question … only
speculate. I suspect Marc Wielage or Bill Rood, sysops on CEVIDEO, could
answer your question.
-jts