Re: Pony? or other tv experts. Update - What did I do ! ! ?
JB it isnt really much of an issue....just this comment "No way would I settle for 720 after having a 1080" is really a misnomber and I wanted to clear up a misconception and wasnt very clear. I often forget that my frame of reference is quite different being that I look at these things daily.
Well first the main distinction is that "i" stands for interlaced and "p" stands for progressive scan. 1080 and 720 refer to lines of resolution. Interlacing is when the TV is displaying only every other line of resolution at any given time. So a 1080i broadcast is displaying 540 alternating lines 50 to 60 times per second. IF the picture is not moving, the sharpness is superior......however 720p is far better when it comes to motion. With lots of motion 1080i will seem to flicker. The 720p braodcast displays the full 720 lines of resolution 24 to 60 times per second. This is why Fox and ESPN use 720p for their native resolution, and Discovery Channel uses 1080i. It really depends on what you are watching, but most of the time we are watching sports or movies or something where there is lots of screen movement..................hence 720p is often (not always) more desireable. 720p is the highest resolution posible for motion resolution that is currently broadcast. This is why I prefer it.
A 720p TV usually (especially new ones) will have the ability to display 1080i through deinterlacing. So really is both a 720p/1080i TV...........depending on what you are watching.
1080p is considered full HD and is the best that you can get currently. Nothing is broadcast in it though. You can only take advantage of it with a 1080p TV and source (ie blu ray). A lot of people simply dont have the visual acuity to see the difference between the formats unless the screen size is really big or they are sitting very close to the set.
JB your regular Satelite looks blurry after HD because it may only be 480p. It may even still be 1080i in resolution but has been upscaled so it looses some picture definition. 720P, 1080i, and 1080p are all HD. The differences are very subtle.....as said many cannot tell the difference. Being that your TV is a few years old it may only do 1080i and not even be able to display 720p. I can't remember your model number off hand.........It really doesnt matter too much anyways. Both have their advantages.
Here is a good article.
"Is 720p vs 1080i worth being concerned about? Yes and no. If you're a consumer looking for a new TV, you can happily ignore the 720p vs 1080i debate because every TV which is described as HDTV or HDTV Ready is required to support both formats.
NOTE: You should be aware though that lots of TVs which support 1080i have fewer than 1080 lines and so scale the 1080 signal down. That's not a huge issue as even scaled down 1080i is far ahead of a regular NTSC signal. It is worth bearing in mind that more expensive HDTVs tend to have better scalers than cheaper ones, and this may be an issue.
However, for broadcasters it's a live issue. Should they broadcast 1080 lines of interlaced video or 720 lines of progressive scan? They could just broadcast two signals, one in each format, but that would use up a huge chunk of bandwidth and be hugely expensive for very little gain.
To answer the question, it's important to understand the difference between 720p vs 1080i. A 720p signal is made up of 720 horizontal lines. Each frame is displayed in its entirety on-screen for 1/30th of a second. This is know as progressive scan (hence the 'p')The quality is like watching 30 photographic images a second on TV. A 1080i signal comprises 1080 horizontal lines but all the lines are not displayed on-screen simultaneously. Instead, they are interlaced (hence the 'i'), ie every other lines is displayed for 1/60th of a second and then the alternate lines are displayed for 1/60th of a second. So, the frame rate is still 30 frames per second, but each frame is split into two fields, which your brain then puts together subconsciously.
Most of the time interlacing works fine, but for fast moving images, such as sports like baseball and hockey it can cause problems which manifest themselves as a 'stepping' effect on-screen. Progressive scan signals don't have this problem and so are better suited to sports.
ESPN puts it like this: 'Progressive scan technology produces better images for the fast moving orientation of sports television. Simply put, with 104 mph fastballs in baseball and 120 mph shots on goal in hockey, the line-by-line basis of progressive scan technology better captures the inherent fast action of sports. For ESPN, progressive scan technology makes perfect sense.'
Bottom line? For us, as consumers 720p vs 1080i is not a debate worth worrying about, so you can relax and focus on all the other criteria on your list when you buy your next HDTV"
