Newbie has a question why show 1080p on a native 720p screen

[Kayne314]

Originally Posted by Got2LoveGadgets

Hi im new to this site and new to the world of Blu Ray. I have a question which I hope someone can answer (not stricktly a Blu Ray question). Why output a 1080p image on a LCD or Plasma with a native resoulution of 1280x720 pixels (720p)? I have been doing some testing at home on my 32inc LCD which handles a 1080p signal but is not a full HD set. I downloaded using my PS3 two clips of Ratatouille one at 720p and one at 1080p and I can't tell any differenc in quality when playing them back. So in short my question is why do new LCD's make a big thing of being able to handle 1080p if they are not a full HD set? Because as far as I can tell it makes no differenc to the picture quality.

It doesn't give you one speck of a better picture. The reason they do this is because customers worry that 1080p will become a standard signal, and lower quality LCDs or Plasmas wont work if that happens.

The other reason is so they can put a sticker on the front of the TV that says 1080p input, and customers will think that it is a 1080p television. These companies know most of their customers are uninformed, and prey on that weakness to some extent.

I wonder what the electronics engineer/designer was thinking when he was told by marketing to include this feature.

Not surprisingly, it is primarily Toshiba LCDs that are guilty of this.