720P or 1080I - What's the best resolution?

[avliner]

It may sound a dumb question, but i couldn't find any difference between both resolutuons though... may I presume the both are equals then??

Thanks for any comments.

 

[billy p]

I've often wondered to? I've read it shouldn't matter that much, if at all? You set the incoming signal to your tv's native resolution and this will give you IMO the truest picture without your tv's internal scaler constantly adjusting the incoming signal.
PS: you probably already knew this.

 

[avaserfi]

I think quality wise it depends on the television you have. No flat screen panels have a native resolution that is interlaced because of they way they are designed and work and generally the scalers on these TVs seem to do a better job with progressive rather than interlaced source. Otherwise they are pretty similar in terms of quality. So my suggestion is do what Billy P says.

 

[no. 5]

It may sound a dumb question, but i couldn't find any difference between both resolutuons though... may I presume the both are equals then??

Thanks for any comments.

The "best" resolution would depend on how large your screen is, and how far you are sitting from it; for instance, at ten feet on a 32" TV, you wouldn't be able to see a deference, but at that same ten feet, if the screen was 80", the higher resolution 1080i would look better, because your eyes would be able to resolve more detail then 720p could provide.

As every fixed pixel display must scale incoming video to its native resolution, trying to decern a quality deference between 720 and 1080 on a display that scales everything to, say, 768 would indeed make 720 and 1080 look about the same.

 

[gmichael]

1080i is better for watching the Discovery channel or anything else that doesn't move a lot. 720p is better for sports or action films. Because of the way it works, 1080i effectively drops to 540 when in fast motion. The 720p will still be 720.

 

[avliner]

Very interesting comments guys,

my Sony TV has a native resolution of 1280 x 720p and maybe that explains why I haven't see any difference though.

It does, however, accepts 1080i (when I upscale the resolution over the players. IOH, it doesn't accept 1080p at all).

According to what gmichael said, I might as well leave the resolution always at 720p though.

Thanks for clarifying that!

 

[gmichael]

Very interesting comments guys,

my Sony TV has a native resolution of 1280 x 720p and maybe that explains why I haven't see any difference though.

It does, however, accepts 1080i (when I upscale the resolution over the players. IOH, it doesn't accept 1080p at all).

According to what gmichael said, I might as well leave the resolution always at 720p though.

Thanks for clarifying that!

I don't know about the 720p all the time. 1080i can look much better on some shows.

 

[avliner]

Understood gmichael,

matter of fact, the reason why I rose this is because I've heard a guy (AV shop tech guy) saying to someone that for HD signals, "P" will always have a better resolution than "I", even if the "I" is higher though. Go figure...

 

[MDS]

If the native resolution of the Sony TV is 1280 x 720, that is 720p and you will always be displaying images at 720p regardless of what you send it.

If you have a dvd player deinterlace 1080i and scale to 720p then the TV won't touch it so you are just relying on the dvd player doing a better job of converting 1080i to 720p than the TV. The conversion has to happen somewhere so try it both ways and see which you prefer.

 

[no. 5]

...because I've heard a guy (AV shop tech guy) saying to someone that for HD signals, "P" will always have a better resolution than "I", even if the "I" is higher though. Go figure...

That just doesn't sound right to me....

 

[avaserfi]

Understood gmichael,

matter of fact, the reason why I rose this is because I've heard a guy (AV shop tech guy) saying to someone that for HD signals, "P" will always have a better resolution than "I", even if the "I" is higher though. Go figure...

Think in terms of SD vs HD as 480p picture will probably not look better then a 1080i. Its a catchall for those who don't actually know to keep them "safe" from themselves.

 

[mixmaster420]

well, 720p is a definatly a better resolution because there is more information there in every "scan" the interlaced 1080i signal is seeing less resolution because you are only scanning every other line.

 

[avaserfi]

well, 720p is a definatly a better resolution because there is more information there in every "scan" the interlaced 1080i signal is seeing less resolution because you are only scanning every other line.

Again, this will only matter with moving pictures and it still does depend on the screens native resolution as to its actual application and looks versus theory and logic.

 

[no. 5]

well, 720p is a definatly a better resolution because there is more information there in every "scan" the interlaced 1080i signal is seeing less resolution because you are only scanning every other line.

720p and 1080i are both 30 frame per second video, so each one provides a picture at full resolution (720 lines or 1080 lines) every thirtieth of a second.

 

[Rockster]

My understanding is my 42" LCD's native resolution is 1366 x 768 so if I set my incomming signal to 720P instead of 1080I the scaler on the tv will have less work to do to scale up to 768 rather than scaling down from 1080 to 768 which will result in a faster refreash rate. Does this sound right? Any comments would be helpfull.
Thanks, the newby.

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't it first be a good idea to first check to see if your TV is even capable of correctly displaying 1080i pictures? Many don't (http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup//1106hook/), and if you happen to have one that doesn't, you will end up with a 1920x540 picture, in which case the 720p mode would probably be the better choice.

 

[Bryce_H]

Welcome fellow CSpring resident. AVRat is also from Csprings. We have been here for 4 years (from DC area) and love it. Again welcome to the forums.

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

Thanks Bryce. I am also relocated here from near the DC area (NoVA), and have been here for 3 years. Lots of people fleeing that part of the country these days...

 

[no. 5]

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't it first be a good idea to first check to see if your TV is even capable of correctly displaying 1080i pictures?

You are quite correct there, no since in expending the effort to get a "1080p" HDTV, only to find it's a 540p HDTV when it's fed 1080i.

720p and 1080i are both 30 frame per second video, so each one provides a picture at full resolution (720 lines or 1080 lines) every thirtieth of a second.

Every now and then an older thread comes up, and you find out you have learned something since than; 720p is 60 frames per second, not 30.

 

[mtrycrafts]

You are quite correct there, no since in expending the effort to get a "1080p" HDTV, only to find it's a 540p HDTV when it's fed 1080i.
.

Please explain this. I read the link but not convinced. I am not aware of any new TVs with native res with 540 lines. If that TV will process 1080i but its native is 720p, the TV will process it to 720p, otherwise it would have to blank 180 lines?