Blu-ray / Gaming Trade-offs with PS3 - so which display?

[lupin23rd]

Wow, a lot of information overload going through a lot of the threads and links from this site. There are definitely a lot of good answers, but they never seem to quite answer what I am looking for so I figured I would bring this up, perhaps yet again. Of couse maybe the answer is simply, it depends in all cases

I'm planning on picking up a PS3 and an HDTV, and hoping to do both Blu-Ray and Gaming on this setup.

Now, I don't really need a huge display - I may only get a 32" or 37" smaller screen, or I may go up to something like a 42". Either way, I really don't need a huge screen.

Let's just say I go with a smaller screen, like a 32". Generally, unless I pick up a new 1080p 32" (like the new Sharp), I'm looking at a 720p / 1080i set that actually has a resolution slightly higher than 720p (1366 x 768 or something?).

So first off, does this "odd" resolution really make much difference in a 720p source (say a game like VF5).

Second of all, Blu-ray is 1080p, but since my TV is only 720p / 1080i, I have to do it 1080i. At such a small screen, the word seems to be that it's probably not going to be much of a different between i and p in this case.

That being, said, 1080i is not supposed to be the optimum for action movies like Crank. Will something like this be a huge issue on this size of set?

Now back to gaming, 720p games will likely look fantastic, and I am assuming that 1080p games will be downscaled, but will still look pretty sharp. Is this a fair assumption?


Now let's get to the second scenario, where I pick up a 32", 37", or 42" 1080p set.

Blue-ray will look fantastic, no questions, so let's move onto gaming.

Some games will be 1080p, and will look as fantastic as Blu-ray, the problem comes with the 720p games that are being upscaled.

I've heard reports of some 720p games not looking good (perhaps this is where the TV comes into play) when upscaled to 1080p. Is this really an issue or is this greatly exaggerated?

Assuming it is an issue, again we are looking at a smaller set, so if the upscaling isn't that great, does the fact that it's a smaller set minimize the impact that might be noticable on a 50"+ screen?

On the gaming side of things, I guess it boils down to whether upscaling or downscaling is obviously better than the other in most / all cases.

I don't really care about having the biggest and best TV, but would definitely like a good picture. I haven't really found a lot of information on exactly the above questions, seems like everything is in bits and pieces so sorry if I've covered a few things that have been touched upon before.

I just need to win a TV for free in some contest so I don't need to think about it anymore and just go with whatever

Thanks in advance!