Is the difference between 1080P and 720P noticeable on 32 HD TV?

[kashif]

I own Sony Bravia 32 Full HD TV. But I read somewhere that on a 32 inch TV you cannot spot the difference between 1080P or 720P so there is no point of spending extra bucks for Full HD if u are going to buy a 32 Inch TV. The video quality looks the same since the screen size is small. So I want to know that is the difference between 1080P and 720P video noticeable on a 32 Inch HD TV?

I am very happy with my Bravia display. So just curious about the above statement.

[fairchild]

It depends on your viewing distance. You have to sit around 4-5ft from the screen to get the benefit of 1080p on a 32".

[Marcus Wright]

Originally Posted by fairchild

It depends on your viewing distance. You have to sit around 4-5ft from the screen to get the benefit of 1080p on a 32".

This.
And also the condition of your eyes.

[4K2K]

According to the viewing distance calculator site, at a maximum of 4.2 feet (assuming 20/20 vision) from a 32" 1080p HDTV you be able to fully resolve the full 1080p resolution.

To see the difference between 1080p and 720p on a 32" HDTV:
With my calculation (based on stuff from various sites), if you are any closer than around 6.275 feet from a 32" HDTV you will start to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.

It will also depend on the content you are watching - if that's only encoded with a maximum resolvable res of 720p (even if encoded at 1080p - eg. if it was a blurry/slightly out of focus/filtered/up-scaled video) you probably wouldn't see much difference (in terms of resolution - even though the pixel structure will be more visible on a 720p set), but if it has full 1080p of resolvable resolution - you would.

[fairchild]

In other words, if you are going to watch true 1080p content (blu-ray or 1080p gaming), then you would try to get to the minimum distance to get the benefit of 1080p.

If you are just going to watch HD TV, then that only goes up to 720p/1080i (in very rare instances you can get 1080p but that's from pay services like payperview movies from some providers), and you can sit as far as you'd like.

Though obviously, you don't want to sit too far cuz then you will even lose the benefit of 720p.

[4K2K]

Originally Posted by fairchild

In other words, if you are going to watch true 1080p content (blu-ray or 1080p gaming), then you would try to get to the minimum distance to get the benefit of 1080p.

If you are just going to watch HD TV, then that only goes up to 720p/1080i (in very rare instances you can get 1080p but that's from pay services like payperview movies from some providers), and you can sit as far as you'd like.

Though obviously, you don't want to sit too far cuz then you will even lose the benefit of 720p.

1080i can have the same number of pixels (ie. 1920x1080) as 1080p (though it can be more filtered, and especially more compressed on TV - though it can also have a higher frame rate than 1080p on Blu-ray). Though there can be some 720p broadcasts that can be much better than lower quality 1080p24 encoded content, and some 1080i content can look just as good if not better than some 1080p24 encoded content.

[fairchild]

Yep, I was just saying, if you are going to sit that close to your set to watch something, at least myself, it will only be if it's a quality 1080p. In my case when I watch my 42" 1080p plasma, I only sit close (5-6 ft) when watching blu-ray's or gaming. Otherwise I watch at like 8-10ft.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

32" screen size is when the difference STARTS to become noticeable. How noticeable varies depending on a number of variables; most notably, the critical eye of the individual assessing said difference.

Personally, when I had a 32" HDTV, I messed around with settings and varying content qualities. I did notice a difference between most 720p and 1080p sources. However, I will also say that they were fairly negligible differences to those I pointed them out to. Several friends, along with my sister and her now husband, all said that I was crazy for "being that thorough" about my analysis.

That all changed once I fired up a brand new 52" HDTV and made the same comparisons for them. They all agreed that I was pretty savvy for picking up on the minor differences on a 32" HDTV which would become much more noticeable on the 52" HDTV.

Bottom line... at 32" it's all in the eye of the beholder.

[kashif]

Thanks a lot guys for the explanation