720P vs. 1080i

[JAuritt]

Just hooked up my new PS3 and set it up for 1080i (don't have a 1080P monitor...yet).

Looks real nice, of course, but wanted to know if the consensus is that 720P is better for movie viewing?

Any opinions?

[Casey]

bluray's look great in 1080i/p

[Iceman_II]

Rather than just spit back the pablum that more is better, I would say that more is not necessarily better.

For high motion, progressive is definately better, that is why ESPN, FOX, and ABC broadcast OTA in 720p, hell, fox even claims that it is the best HD signal quality - and depending on how you look at it, it arguably is.

To play back in 1080i, your player has to take the 1080p signal and interlace it, this interlaced signal is then sent to your TV, where (if its an LCD or a DLP) the signal is de-interlaced to convert it back... its my understanding that de-interlacing creates a progressive signal which is somewhat lower in quality than a true original progressive signal of the same dimensions... again, I seem to recall numbers as low as the equivilent of 780 if you have a crappy de-interlacing algorithm in the TV to as high as nearly 1080 if you have a great one.

There is really no way to know how well your TV handles the conversion, short of observation. Personally, I figure the fewer times you manipulate the signal the better.

Your homework is to watch in both, and decide for yourself which looks better.

[JAuritt]

Originally Posted by Iceman_II

Rather than just spit back the pablum that more is better, I would say that more is not necessarily better.

For high motion, progressive is definately better, that is why ESPN, FOX, and ABC broadcast OTA in 720p, hell, fox even claims that it is the best HD signal quality - and depending on how you look at it, it arguably is.

To play back in 1080i, your player has to take the 1080p signal and interlace it, this interlaced signal is then sent to your TV, where (if its an LCD or a DLP) the signal is de-interlaced to convert it back... its my understanding that de-interlacing creates a progressive signal which is somewhat lower in quality than a true original progressive signal of the same dimensions... again, I seem to recall numbers as low as the equivilent of 780 if you have a crappy de-interlacing algorithm in the TV to as high as nearly 1080 if you have a great one.

There is really no way to know how well your TV handles the conversion, short of observation. Personally, I figure the fewer times you manipulate the signal the better.

Your homework is to watch in both, and decide for yourself which looks better.

Thanks...I do plan to do a comparison. Watched some of Goodfellas (my first and one and only BD so far) and did notice that things seemed just a tiny bit shaky in scenes with fast movement, and thats why I asked if 720P might be better. Will check it out.

[Jonalan34]

Originally Posted by Casey

bluray's look great in 1080i/p

Ahem! I hearty agree with you about HD movies look better in 1080i or 1080p. But in 5 to 15 years, most of us will have 1080p HDTV set.

[Alley]

This might be the greatest topic ever, lol. I can't tell you how many times I've switched my HD broadcast signal from 720p to 1080i to try and tell which one is better. I really dont' think I can tell a difference.

[SteveOne]

How much difference is there between 1080i and 1080p?

[Lambchop]

This is a good article on interlaced vs progressive. Unfortunately the topic is slightly more confusing than simply saying which is better.
But, the three main concerns are: 1.Which signals can your tv take in? 2.Which signals does your tv display? 3. How well does your tv process the signals?

Some tv's take in a 1080p signal & can display them at 1080i/720p as well as the tv's native display capability. Others can only take in the signals at 1080i/720p. If your tv has to down scale to 1024 X 768 then 720p is most likely the best signal as there are less tampering with the signal involved from source to display.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...07-part-1.html

[BLU STEAL]

Originally Posted by Iceman_II

Rather than just spit back the pablum that more is better, I would say that more is not necessarily better.

For high motion, progressive is definately better, that is why ESPN, FOX, and ABC broadcast OTA in 720p, hell, fox even claims that it is the best HD signal quality - and depending on how you look at it, it arguably is.

To play back in 1080i, your player has to take the 1080p signal and interlace it, this interlaced signal is then sent to your TV, where (if its an LCD or a DLP) the signal is de-interlaced to convert it back... its my understanding that de-interlacing creates a progressive signal which is somewhat lower in quality than a true original progressive signal of the same dimensions... again, I seem to recall numbers as low as the equivilent of 780 if you have a crappy de-interlacing algorithm in the TV to as high as nearly 1080 if you have a great one.

There is really no way to know how well your TV handles the conversion, short of observation. Personally, I figure the fewer times you manipulate the signal the better.

Your homework is to watch in both, and decide for yourself which looks better.

I always thought discovery channel in 1080i looked the best out of all hd channels

[tron3]

Originally Posted by Alley

... I can't tell you how many times I've switched my HD broadcast signal from 720p to 1080i to try and tell which one is better. I really dont' think I can tell a difference.

Originally Posted by SteveOne

How much difference is there between 1080i and 1080p?

I'd like to know as well. The only difference I can tell from watching 720p and 1080i TV is the increased resolution and sharpness. I see little to no difference in watching 480i vs 480p, but I'll prefer progressive viewing just for the sake of having it.

I guess there are two mind sets when it comes to watching TV.

Mode one: Sit back, relax, and enjoy the overall experience. Image problems are a soon forgotten blur.

Mode two: Anal retentively look for pointless audio glitches and essoteric artifacts to ruin the experience for people in mode one.

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by JAuritt

Just hooked up my new PS3 and set it up for 1080i (don't have a 1080P monitor...yet).

Looks real nice, of course, but wanted to know if the consensus is that 720P is better for movie viewing?

Any opinions?

If you are watching Blu-Ray movies on the PS3, 1080i is 100% better than 720p. The PS3 doesn't do a good job at all of scaling the movies to 720p.

Well, barring a firmware update I'm not aware of.

[Leopold BUTTERS]

When I had my ps3 i had it set to 1080i for a while, but then i noticed that while i was at the XBM when you moved between the tabs it would look grainy, but at 720p when i moved between tabs on the xbm everything looked clear, so i figured that would translate into the movies as well, so i stuck with 720p from then on. I think that 720p and 1080i look almost the same, except 720p seems to be less grainy when something on screen is moving very fast.

[welwynnick]

Originally Posted by JAuritt

Just hooked up my new PS3 and set it up for 1080i (don't have a 1080P monitor...yet).

Looks real nice, of course, but wanted to know if the consensus is that 720P is better for movie viewing?

Any opinions?

The answer will depend on what display you have.

1080i may be better with a 1080p display that has effective video processing, otherwise I expect 720p will probably look better.

regards, Nick

[DavePS3]

720p is equal to 1440i - slightly higher than 1080i but many can't see a big difference. It's more obvious on a large screen projection - 120", that type of thing.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Strannix136

I have a 720p, 50 inch Panasonic plasma. I found that with my BD-S300 putting out at 720, the picture has some specks, almost like a window screen during dark scenes. I first noticed this on Close Encounters. Definitely not the disk, but probably the down conversion by my Blu-ray player. I switched the output to 1080i and the "noise" was gone. The picture quality between the 720p and the 1080i was identical on my T.V. One of my co-workers has the exact set-up that I do (same player and T.V.), and he found the same results.

Set that ps3 to 1080p & your 720p Panasonic will accept it & do the rest! These are secrets I have learned from being an owner of so many Panasonics!!!

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

720p is equal to 1440i - slightly higher than 1080i but many can't see a big difference.

This crap needs to die.

720p is *NOTHING WHATSOEVER* equivalent to a theoretical 1440i.

Well, maybe if 1440i is taller than it is wide. :P

It's more obvious on a large screen projection - 120", that type of thing.

The larger the screen the *better* 1080i will look with respect to 720p, because the flicker is only noticeable by some people but everyone can notice pixels that get bigger and bigger.

[TheTenth]

I have a PS3 and watched movies in 720p for some time, then I tried 1080i and am now still using it. Don't know really why, something about the colors being more real, the contrast being better (my TV does only 500:1)

[SingingTheBlues]

To compound the confusion, your TV is probably 1366x768 resolution, right? That's not 1080i. That means it's taking the 1080i signal and downscaling it to fit 768p, which isn't much different than 720p (but I notice a difference).

If your set is 1366x768, you're not getting actual 1080i.

[tru_to_blu]

I have my PS3 on 720p/1080i. I think it scales to the best. My Vizio supports both 720p and 1080i and when I watch Blu-ray movies it has a awsome picture.

32" VIZIO 720p/1080i
80gb PS3 / Blu-ray player
4 PS3 games / 4 Blu-ray discs soon to own more

[werewuf]

Originally Posted by SingingTheBlues

To compound the confusion, your TV is probably 1366x768 resolution, right? That's not 1080i. That means it's taking the 1080i signal and downscaling it to fit 768p, which isn't much different than 720p (but I notice a difference).

If your set is 1366x768, you're not getting actual 1080i.

You mean 1080p right? 1080i actually delivers 540 lines of resolution x2. See below:

720p versus 1080i

Some broadcasters use 720p50/60 as their primary high-definition format; others use the 1080i standard. While 720p presents a complete 720 line frame to the viewer between 24 to 60 times each second (depending on the format), 1080i presents the picture as 50 or 60 partial 540 line "fields" per second (24 complete 1080-line fields, or "24p" is included in the ATSC standard though) which the human eye or a deinterlacer built into the display device must visually and temporally combine to build a 1080 line picture - in CRT type display. To get all 1080 interlaced lines to appear on the screen at the same time on a progressive high-definition display, the processor within the HD set has to weave together both 540-line segments to form the full-resolution frame. It does so by holding the first field in its memory, receiving the next field, then electronically knitting the two fields together. The combined fields are displayed at once as a complete 1080p frame. The main tradeoff between the two is that 1080i shows more detail than 720p for a stationary shot of a subject at the expense of a lower effective refresh rate and the introduction of interlace artifacts during motion.

While 1080i has more scan lines than 720p, they do not translate directly into greater vertical resolution. Interlaced video is usually blurred vertically (filtered) to prevent twitter. Twitter is a flickering of fine horizontal lines in a scene, lines that are so fine that they only occur on a single scan line. Because only half the scan lines are drawn per field, fine horizontal lines may be missing entirely from one of the fields, causing them to flicker. Images are blurred vertically to ensure that no detail is only one scan line in height. Therefore, 1080i material does not deliver 1080 scan lines of vertical resolution.

In the USA, 720p is used by ABC, Fox Broadcasting Company and ESPN because the smoother image is desirable for fast-action sports telecasts, whereas 1080i is used by CBS, NBC, HBO, Showtime and Discovery HD due to the crisper picture particularly in non-moving shots.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) recommends that its members use 720p50 with the possibility of 1080i50 on a programme-by-programme basis and 1080p50 as a future option.[2][3][4] The BBC is one of the EBU members transmitting in HDTV. It has not yet made a final decision on picture scanning format. Sveriges television in Sweden and Cyfra+ in Poland broadcast in 720p50. All other commercial European HDTV services so far use 1080i50.