HD Resolution EXPLAINED

[Munskie]

For those inquiring about HD resolutions of your HDTVs and HD projector displays, these articles should help

HDTV resolution explained

and this

The case against 1080p

This should be helpful to enthusiasts thinking of upgrading to either 720p, 1080i or 1080p HDTVs....

[rok]

sir nasan po yung article? 

[Munskie]

sir nasan po yung article? 

clickity click....on the links 

[pchin]

"Despite the obvious difference in pixel count, 720p and 1080i both look great. In fact, unless you have a very large television and excellent source material, you'll have a hard time telling the difference between any of the HDTV resolutions. It's especially difficult to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p sources."

Good to hear that...will stick to my 720p 42" display for many more years to come until the cost of 1080p becomes really really affordable! 

Though 720p is 2 times the resolution of a 480p DVD, ordinary consumer (such as my wife  ) can't see any difference in the 720p set. For her, it looks the same as any regular DVDs.  

[alvinthx2]

In a way , I agree with the article but only with displays 50 inch and below using HD material. But if you use SD material, I don't think the result will be the same. With PJ's, the result without a doubt will be different.

[av_phile1]

And a lot of hype is attending HD players with 1080p output vs those with 1080i output.  Not only is 1080i and 1080p indistinguishable with HD sources on de-intrlacing upscaling 1080p displays, there are not that many displays recognizing 1080p output. At least not within prices you'd consider affordable.   

[D75C]

I guess the reason why the difference between 720p and 1080p isn't so indistinguishable yet is because of the lack of 1080 sources and a predominance of 720p displays in the market.

10 years back. It was easy to tell the difference a DVD, a Laserdisc and a VCD. visually. Technically, the VCD does 240 lines, Laserdisc displayed 425 lines, while the DVD did 480 which was the maximum a standard definition 

The number of lines matter. Ideally, you have to negotiate the marriage between your source and your display without interpolation and allowing each other to display pixels at native resolution. But like all marriages, you'd have to live with compromise which has a lot to do with scaling.

The 720p display I believe is the compromise product because it falls perfectly in between 480 and 1080. Your DVDs will scale to 150% more, and HD sources will be 150% less. That is why DVDs still look good, and HD sources no different.

For a DVD to be shown on 1080 display. It has to be scaled and interpolated to 225% its size. Even with the best processing, it obviously won't look that good compared to a 720p display of the same screen diagonal.

In digital photography people argue a lot about megapixels saying the same that a 3 megapixel picture is no different from an 8 megapixel picture. If the prints are on 3x5, you can hardly tell, but as the prints get larger (poster to billboard size) megapixels do start to matter.

[pchin]

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer:

Paul Reynolds, the electronics editor of Consumer Reports, which has a cover story on HDTVs in its latest issue, says that in his magazine's tests, it was only sets that were 50 inches or more in size that the difference between 1080p and other hi-def TV sets, such as 1080i or 720p, became apparent.

Reynolds says that going for a 1080p quality set will often cost you a premium of about $1,000 — which might not be worth it to many people. For many buyers, he said, the next level down of high definition — 1080i, or 720p — may be a better value.

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/ap_on_bi_co_ne/good_question_1

Currently some nice HDTV DLP or 3LCD with 42" display 720p only cost 90k (as compared to 180k a year ago) & maybe even lower if you're lucky to hunt for a bargain deal

[barrister]

I agree with the article, but I think the writer left out a crucial element in the comparison: Viewing Distance.

At closer viewing distances, a difference should be noticeable.  So the question should be: What is the viewing distance that renders the higher resolution panel's superiority irrelevant?