Blu-ray down converts to 720p discussion???

[kmb1966]

I am new to Blu Ray having just purchased my Sony PS3. Absolutely love it.
Somebody help me out, I had a person tell me that he doesn't like Blu ray because it down converts to 720p, which is bad for those of us who have 1080i HD tvs. Could someone tell me what this person is talking about???

[w_tanoto]

if I am not mistaken, you are correct. PS3 will downconvert it to 720p if you don't have 1080p TV.

[DavePS3]

It's true but it's merely a cool option for those without 1080p. Technically, 720p is slightly higher rez than 1080i. 720p is equal to 1440i. The fact that the PS3 is able to downconvert for those without 1080p like me, is very frickin' cool. I'll be buying a Loewe 1080p next Feb. and will change my PS3's rez at that time.

[Phane]

No... this isn't true.



Samsung HLP5063W 720p native DLP on a PS3 with HDMI. I selected 720p and 1080i from available resolutions (TV doesn't support 1080p) and pop 300 in and it runs at 1080i. If you WANT it to be downconverted to 720p from the start (like I do) you just unselect 1080i from your available resolutions in the display settings for your PS3.

I'd assume that if you were having issues, you could always deselect 720p from the available resolutions in your settings. The only downside is that some games might get rendered in 480p if you pick that option.

I think one of the above posters were thinking you were asking if it could downconvert to 720p, not if it would forcibly downconvert to 720p instead of 1080i.

[DavePS3]

By the way, if your display is 1080i like my present Loewe, the PS3 will downconvert any 1080p material to that 1080i but concerts shot in HD are usually in 1080i and they look bloody incredible because they're shot on video not film. Check out the Pat Metheny concert on Blu-Ray. It looks the best but is only an hour long. Don't let anyone tell you 720p is worse than 1080i. That is pure ignorance and they don't realize p is double the lines of resolution as i

[ThomasGOAL]

I put my PS3 on my Asus 22" ad the Blu-Ray downscale in 720p and work very well
PS: my Asus don't accept the interpolation

[DavePS3]

If a 1080i CRT cannot do 720p because the yoke overheats, what does that tell you about 720p? Both 720p and 1080p are too much for any CRT. The highest a CRT can scan at is 1080i. Come on, guys! You gotta do some homework! The lower number does NOT meant lower resolution in this case! 720p is higher rez than 1080i.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

It's true but it's merely a cool option for those without 1080p. Technically, 720p is slightly higher rez than 1080i. 720p is equal to 1440i. The fact that the PS3 is able to downconvert for those without 1080p like me, is very frickin' cool. I'll be buying a Loewe 1080p next Feb. and will change my PS3's rez at that time.

since when is 720p higher res than 1080i?

[DealsR4theDevil]

Originally Posted by Phane

No... this isn't true.



Samsung HLP5063W 720p native DLP on a PS3 with HDMI. I selected 720p and 1080i from available resolutions (TV doesn't support 1080p) and pop 300 in and it runs at 1080i. If you WANT it to be downconverted to 720p from the start (like I do) you just unselect 1080i from your available resolutions in the display settings for your PS3.

I'd assume that if you were having issues, you could always deselect 720p from the available resolutions in your settings. The only downside is that some games might get rendered in 480p if you pick that option.

Why would you ever watch anything on Dynamic? Get your TV calibrated man.

[DavePS3]

Dude... get on the net. 720p is equal to 1440i.

[xtop]

All major HDTV broadcasting standards include a 720p format which has a resolution of 1280x720

All major HDTV broadcasting standards include a 1080i format which has a Resolution of 1920x1080

http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/720p.cfm

even tv's that can't do a native 1080i downconverts to a res that is still higher than 720p

[DavePS3]

p is twice as many lines as i, hence 'progressive scan'. If 480p was better than 480i (twice the scan lines), then what do you think 720p is??? Do the math, guys!!!

[DavePS3]

Your talking pixel counts, not lines of rez.

[quaylie]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

p is twice as many lines as i, hence 'progressive scan'. If 480p was better than 480i (twice the scan lines), then what do you think 720p is??? Do the math, guys!!!

I don't like math..but I'm with you in spirit.

[Phane]

Originally Posted by DealsR4theDevil

Why would you ever watch anything on Dynamic? Get your TV calibrated man.

Dynamic is only bad on the preset levels. I've cranked down color and contrast considerably and set it the way I like it as best I can with the calibration tools I have. I just used the dynamic preset as a starting position when most would have used standard or cinema.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

Your talking pixel counts, not lines of rez.

hmm..you may be right there. but either way, i don't think theres much of a difference between the 2 like you're implying

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

It's true but it's merely a cool option for those without 1080p. Technically, 720p is slightly higher rez than 1080i. 720p is equal to 1440i. The fact that the PS3 is able to downconvert for those without 1080p like me, is very frickin' cool. I'll be buying a Loewe 1080p next Feb. and will change my PS3's rez at that time.

You are mistaken.

First, you're forgetting there are two dimensions to this. 1080 resolution is 1920x1080, which is 2,073,600 pixels. 720 resolution is 1280x720, which is 921,600. So even if we accept your logic of only counting half the pixels since an interlaced signal only refreshes half the screen with each field, half of 2,073,600 is 1,036,800 pixels, which is still more than 921,600.

And I do not accept that logic. 1080i can run at 60 fields (half frames) a second. Since movies typically run at 24 frames a second, there is plenty of time to show all the pixel information split between two fields. In other words, you can show all the pixel information for up to 30 frames a second on a 60 fields-per-second interlaced signal. So there is no rationale for halving the resolution.

On the other hand, progressive video does look better than interlaced when there is motion, as the nature of the interlaced signal adds distortion (the comb effect, etc.) during motion since half the image moves at a time. So, depending on how sensitive your eyes are to this and how much motion there is in the movie, a 720p signal could look superior to a 1080i signal.

Anyway, as others have already pointed out, the PS3 will output in 1080i just fine.

[TheRealBob]

On the other hand...

If this is a CRT-based system, then you really don't get the horizontal resolution. You generally won't even get the equivalent of 1280 pixels, so the higher horizontal resolution of 1080i would be a moot point.

So that would increase the odds that on that particular system 720p for movies might look better than 1080i.

If you have a TV like that, then try both ways and see for yourself what looks better.

[bootman]

Guys, the issue is with these 1080i sets.
They accept a 1080i signal (like the pic shows above) but their native resolution is 720p. (actually most are 768p). The only true 1080i sets where CRTs.

So the issue becomes, is it harder for the set to take a 1080i signal and convert it to 720p (or 768p) or is it better to feed it a 720p signal to begin with from the player. (and the player itself is doing the conversion)

The only way to find out what works best for your set (and to your eyes) is to try both and see what looks better to you.

(or you can get a scaler that will match perfectly whatever you feed it to your set's native resolution.)

[JimboTHX1138]

Daves kind of right.

Because 720p is progressive the TV gets all 720 lines in a single pass. With 1080i you get 540 lines in 1/30th of a second and the next 540 lines in the next 1/30th of a second giving you the 1080i@60.

The only time 1080i is better than 720p is if the TV deinterlaces it properly. And that's the problem, most TVs don't do it properly, especially for film. Some discard half of the information by losing one set of the 540 lines and simply upconvert the remaining 540 lines filling in the gaps. Others use bob deinterlacing and again you lose half of the resolution as soon as something moves on screen.

This is why some people prefer 720p over 1080i.

But nothings definitive. Just choose what looks best to you on your set.