1080i or 720p

[ejreiss]

I was just wondering what is better. My television is capable of both however I hardly see a difference although I haven't compared the two thoroughly. I would think 720p is better.

 

[billy p]

The way I understand the 2 signals is 720p is better for fast and quick motion ie:sports action like autoracing etc and 1080i would be more for movies and slower motion viewing.In my situation my cable box & tv adjust to the incoming signal which is best for incoming program.Lastly, the P/Q is about the same between the two, both are excellent.
Bill

 

[BMXTRIX]

The real answer: Both are excellent and what you should send your display depends tremendously on what you are using to feed the display and what type of display you have.

Odds are that while your display ACCEPTS 1080i or 720p, it truly only has one native resolution. That could be 1280x720 or 1920x1080p or something else. Many 50" plasmas are 1366x768 for example.

So, what do you feed your display? That's just it - pick one, try it, see how it looks, then try the other, try it, see how it looks. Different displays process video a lot better than others. If it is an upconverting DVD player, many of the cheaper players (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, etc.) don't perform very well. But, their more expensive models, especially Panasonic, perform very well for upconversion.

So, while the above poster is dead on about what format can be better at certain times, it is still impossible to say which format your display should receive.