1080i vs 720p


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I recently purchased a Samsuny 50" DLP 720p HDTV. Should my PS3 (will use it to watch blu-ray dvds) to output at 720p or 1080i? From my understanding there isn't that much of a difference between the two but wanted to get a solid answer. Will I notice a large increase in the picture quality if it is set to 1080i?

Any thoughts/suggestions would be great

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1080i = 540 lines of data

720p = 720 lines of data

1080i = artifacts with high motion scenes

720p = smooth scenes

You choose.

Excellent thank you so much. Another random question - is there that noticeable of a difference between 720p and 1080p from over 5 feet away? The gentleman where I bought the TV said that over 5 feet it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the two.

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Detail-wise, probably not, but motion- and smoothness-wise, most likely so. With a lot of horizontal motion 720p will look crisper and clearer than 1080i will.

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1080i = 540 lines of data

720p = 720 lines of data

1080i = artifacts with high motion scenes

720p = smooth scenes

You choose.

Are you sure about the 1080i thing? I think 1080 is still 1080 lines. The only difference is that interlace displays every other line, then the alternate field. Same resolution, slower frame rate. 1080p displays each line consecutively.

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Regardless of what you set it at the ps3 will change the resolution accordingly. It doesn't work like the 360 does or like most cable boxes. On the ps3 you set what resolutions your tv accepts and it uses whatever it wants basically. On my 720p tv for example the ps3 outputs the menus and all at 1080i. Most games are 720p native so when I play those games it shows it at 720p. The ps3 doesn't try to upscale or anything unless playing a regular dvd. Even when I tried a Blu Ray movie it was sent at 720p.

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Are you sure about the 1080i thing? I think 1080 is still 1080 lines. The only difference is that interlace displays every other line, then the alternate field. Same resolution, slower frame rate. 1080p displays each line consecutively.

Correct.

Most people will not be able to tell much of a difference between 1080i and 1080p. Whether you want to use 720p instead of 1080i is up to you... it's not going to be a drastic difference either way. Technically 720p will give you a higher framerate for television, but you're going to have a hard time noticing most likely.

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Well your tv will have a native resolution. The manufacturer will say what it supports. There's no way to just look at a tv and know what it is. Practically every tv that is 720p will support 1080i signals though, but will deinterlace and scale it down.

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Excellent thank you so much. Another random question - is there that noticeable of a difference between 720p and 1080p from over 5 feet away? The gentleman where I bought the TV said that over 5 feet it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the two.

Depends on the size of the TV and your eyes. I see huge difference between 1080p and 720p (on my friend's two LCDs lol, both same size), whereas he doesn't, and regrets buying the expensive 1080p one.

Are you sure about the 1080i thing? I think 1080 is still 1080 lines. The only difference is that interlace displays every other line, then the alternate field. Same resolution, slower frame rate. 1080p displays each line consecutively.

False. In interlace mode, only half the vertical lines are sent and it's the TV's job to merge and smooth the picture, but in almost all cases it is clearly noticeable (to me, at least). Read here, here and here for more information and comparison.

Edited by Leo Natan
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Is there a noticeable difference between 1080i and 1080p?

Sure, yeah, depends on TV, but on most modern TVs the difference is noticeable.

Edited by Leo Natan
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Depends on the size of the TV and your eyes. I see huge difference between 1080p and 720p (on my friend's two LCDs lol, both same size), whereas he doesn't, and regrets buying the expensive 1080p one.

False. In interlace mode, only half the vertical lines are sent and it's the TV's job to merge and smooth the picture, but in almost all cases it is clearly noticeable (to me, at least). Read here, here and here for more information and comparison.

if the TV actually has 1080 lines(and as long as it's not a CRT it's a safe bet it does), then a 1080i60 signal will be reassembled to a 1080p30 signal and will give the same picture as a unit that can receive a 1080p signal (or if in the case the player can only send 1080i instead of p to the tv).

wich actual interlacing TV's such as CRT's and some other, 1080i models who only have half of the vertical lines(don't think they exist anymore). OR if you have a really cheap TV (like bottom of the line in the bargain bin) with a crappy engine for reassembling the i60 image to a p30 image, you can notice a difference. but even then it won't be huge and if the tv is less than 50 inches you're unlikely to notice it from normal viewing distance.

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Here is my rule for TV resolutions

1080p > 720p > 1080i > 480p > 480i

Use the highest you can, witch in your case is 720p.

LOL..I"m sorry buddy , but that's complete nonsense. :)

@ OP:

1080p = 1080i it only requires content to be deinterlaced. Both sources are 1080. With 1080i for example an HD DVD player the deinterlacing process is being done in the TV to re-assemble 1080 material into progressive. That's why your TV quality is kind of important because in general they have good deinterlacers so you get identical content.

HD DVD or Blu-Ray player at 1080p is actually also using depending on the source of course, but with 1080i the deinterlacing process is done in the player itself and then passed on to the TV in the 1080p format.

The only problem you might have with going 1080i output when your TV is 720p is that some TVs (yours seems to be a bit older model) will not properly downsample 1080i source. So you might get some funky thinks like weird interlaced lines.

Your TV does not do 1080i so pushing content through a downscaler is generally not a good idea. Just go 720p to 720p, you will get clear picture and if you sit about 8-10 feet from the TV you won't notice that much difference even if you had a 1080p TV.

Edited by Boz
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From my own experience:

- Leave the ps3 on 1080i, most games will go back to 720p anyway

- On my tv, 1080i looks somewhat better. 1080i may have "half" the data but twice the rate, technically. It's a 1080 resolution scaled down to 768 vs a 720 resolution scaled up to 768. Now, on my tv, there's a huge overscan, meaning that the 720p picture was a scaled up even more than those 768, as I'm missing a huge area on the sides. Like, it scales up the picture to a resolution bigger than 768 but I only see a "centered" 768p picture.

That's why 1080 looks better for me.. because upscaling has to "invent" information and downscaling has not. and the effect of the interlaced wont be as noticeable at lower resolutions, providing the de-interlacer is good. I mean, most people claim theres no difference between 1080i and 1080p...

If your tv doesnt have overscan and the full image is scalled up to 768p, then probably 768p is going to look better for you

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