Can the PS3 run Blu-rays at 720p?

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by Genocide316

whats wrong with 1080i? I have a 50" plasma that is 1080i and this is what I run everything at. Blu-Ray's look amazing and so do my games. Now on a smaller TV (32") I can't really tell the difference between a 1080i signal and 720P but maybe thats just me.

Nothing. In a nutshell, 720p is generally considered better because it draws the entire frame in one cycle with 720 lines, unlike 1080i which takes 2 cycles of 540 interlaced lines to draw one 1080 frame. By the time 1080i completes 2 cycles to draw the one 1080 frame, 720p will have drawn 2 frames @ 720 lines ea., so 1440 lines.

It doesn't mean 1080i is bad, just that 720p should look better overall.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by red_5ive

Nothing. In a nutshell, 720p is generally considered better because it draws the entire frame in one cycle with 720 lines, unlike 1080i which takes 2 cycles of 540 interlaced lines to draw one 1080 frame. By the time 1080i completes 2 cycles to draw the one 1080 frame, 720p will have drawn 2 frames @ 720 lines ea., so 1440 lines.

It doesn't mean 1080i is bad, just that 720p should look better overall.

This doesn't apply to Blu-ray movies usually, which are typically encoded at 1080p/24 fps. There's more than enough bandwidth to send a 1080i/60fps signal that matches the same amount of picture data; what happens is the display should deinterlace the 1080i signal back into 1080p/24 or 1080p/60.

That said, a lot of players do a better job of downscaling 1080p to 720p versus displays that deinterlace and downscale 1080i to 720p for display since the act of deinterlacing can be screwed up by the display and/or receiver.

Generally speaking, "most" users with 720p sets will end up with crisper images from 720p output as opposed to 1080i output because it puts less performance pressure on their display hardware, but I'd recommend that any users with a 720p native resolution set try both signal types with a good quality high detail animation title like Chicken Little to see which one they prefer.

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by red_5ive

Nothing. In a nutshell, 720p is generally considered better because it draws the entire frame in one cycle with 720 lines, unlike 1080i which takes 2 cycles of 540 interlaced lines to draw one 1080 frame. By the time 1080i completes 2 cycles to draw the one 1080 frame, 720p will have drawn 2 frames @ 720 lines ea., so 1440 lines.

It doesn't mean 1080i is bad, just that 720p should look better overall.

720p is considered more advanced.

Better is entirely dependent upon context...higher resolution can trump more lines, it depends on what you are doing.

For example, putting a slideshow in 720p rather than 1080i would just be silly and pointless.

For most games I prefer higher resolution to more lines as well. I can't really see the more lines, but I sure can see the higher resolution.

For me, the only games which break that mold are twitch games, they "feel" better in 720p.

[Proteus]

I would encourage everyone to read this post a gentleman made on the playstation forums concerning the 720p vs 1080i issue. It was extremely well written and he is certainly qualified.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...cending&page=1

After you read it you will understand why you should ALWAYS use progressive signals on digital displays such as LCD and plasma. Only bother with interlaced on CRT's.

Most games only include a 1080i option (RB6, for example) to allow backwards compatibility with people who have last gen 'HD' televisions that only do 480i, 480p and 1080i. If the game was only 720p, it would be crapped down to 480p unless a 1080i signal was an option.

No modern gamer should ever use an interlaced signal, to be honest. The motion artifacting drives me crazy, I don't know how people can play with that happening. :P

Edit: Wanted to add... Originally, the PS3 listed resolutions in the appropriate quality order (480p, 1080i, 720p, 1080p); however, a few firmware patches back they switched it due to consumer confusion (it's now 720p, 1080i, 1080p) which was probably a bad decision on their part. Originally, you could set it to 720p and 1080i would then automatically be included so your games/BD's would run at the best resolution always. Not the case necessarily now. Someone did mention that Blu-ray's actually only support 1080p/i and 480p on the PS3 and that you must run 1080i settings or it will be degraded to 480p. If true, this would be another negative to changing the resolution orders on the list. Maybe they did something in recent firmware to allow BD's to run at 720p to make listing in this order possible... Who knows.

[crackinhedz]

RUSirius is the man.