Home audio & video forum: Poll: Can you see the difference in picture quality...

I own one of each 1080i/40in and 1080p/52in Sony LCD flat screens. With normal DVD and standard TV reception, my untrained eyes can not appreciate the difference. However, with HD TV reception or Blue Ray DVD player, the difference is really awesome! One regret that I have about purchasing a 1080p, I no longer watch 1080i in my master suite.

i originally bought a 1080p dlp (boy was that a mistake) read my review to see what problems i had, it had a great contrast ratio and good black levels but the picture was horrible it was great for gaming tho.

as soon as i started looking for a TV to watch movies and broadcast on i started pointing out 720p's (larger then 40in) as i was walking down the aisle (i can actually see the blank spaces between the pixels, and i can fairly accurately guess the contrast ratio), really hd is relative to the size of the TV, a 50" 1080 isn't going to be nearly as Highly Defined as a 15" 720p, right now I'm on the highest def monitor i have its a 17" CRT that pulls 1200p (4:3) and it has a better picture then any TV i have seen so far.

30i vs 60(p)fps
if your comparing a movie such as the queen (i vs. p) your not going to see much difference, i see a sizable amount of difference between i and p when watching action movies (which is most of what i watch) i use i for my hddvr because most of the TV shows i watch are either originally broadcast in i (so there's no reason for the extra bandwidth to be wasted) and aren't high action (the simpsons, house, etc, etc.).


i bought a 1080p LCD from walmart the picture is ok but the black is way to bright, if cannon would get off there a**'s and get sed out I'm sure we would see a entirely new and better picture then the ones we are seeing now.

Well i dont have that hdtv in my normal television but if i download some HD material from the net and they are a 720p or 1080p..

well then i dont see any other changes than that 1080p is bigger but the sharpnes and quality of the video is the same.

I had my Toshiba 720P 50" right up to my Sony 1080p 50" and they were both being fed the same source material.

During a movie or anything else having movement I honestly couldn't tell the difference in resolution. They both looked pretty damn good.

Where you can tell the difference is when you freeze frame the image (especially with computer graphics) and walk up to both TV's and eyeball them from about a foot away. Things are noticeably sharper on the 1080p set but that difference fades away quickly the further you back off.

In my opinion, unless you just have to have the 1080p sticker on the side of your TV to make you feel better I'd concentrate more on which TV has a better contrast and deeper black levels. My Toshiba may be 720p but I love watching it more than the Sony because the overall picture looks so much better especially during dark and spooky monster movies.

I see a bigger difference between LCD/Plasma though the quality is not necessarily determined by ppi or format. Quality seems to be all over the place.

The technology is here (displays), but all the parts have to come together (content and players) before it will become mainstream.

According to my experience it takes a horizontal resolution (line density) of 3 or more lines per degree to be able NOT to see the individual lines. Get out your trig boooks, it's a simple calculation. That tells you how far from the screen you viewer needs to be to not notice the scan lines with a fixed screen height. Or if viewing from a fixed distance, how small the screen must be not to see the scan lines.

The only time I ever bought a high tech device before the price, development, and bugs were mostly settled out was for a Mac 128. So I will wait a bit longer before taking the plunge. But I have spent hours at the local mass merchant electronics shops viewing their demos and talking the the reps. I love 'em all so far when I'm not paying.

Check it out on a CRT.

If you need to decide between the 720p panel and the 1080p panel, you should also consider the fact that most of the source today is still less than 720p.

The existing DVD's and in countries outside the USA, TV stations and cable services are FAR from providing HDTV. So, if you will have to live watching a new investment in flat panel WITH lower resolution sources, your comparison should include the test of seeing exactly the same program or movie on the 1080p and on the 720p at the same time.

Here you will notice that the 720p image might be slightly less distorted, because the system MUST make up (invent, show from upgrade on the fly) for the missing information as it receives it from the SD source. The HD 720p (and 1080p even more) must fill in 720 pixels, but it is receiving only 480. So it must ADD from certain "logic" of extension the other 300 extra pixels. The 1080p panel must add 600 extra pixels! That is a lot of work and intelligence needed to make a good work, don't you think so?

It is aggravating to see an image on a panel you just paid a fortune for looking so bad compared to a regular old CRT you-know-what-brand TV set.

This is why you need to compare the quality of scaling in the TV, because a standard definition source can look great or horrible on a 720p OR 1080p TV, depending on the scaling quality. With same SD source, a 1080p TV will never be worse than a 720p TV of the same size unless the scaling is not as good. If your TV doesn't scale DVDs very well: get an upconverting (or at least progressive scan if it isn't already) DVD player and connect it with component or HDMI; OR use your computer to play movies, connected with VGA and set to the proper resolution.

Also you seem to be confused about the numbers. 720p is not 720 pixels--it's 720 horizontal lines, each of which has 1280 pixels--hence 720p means a resolution of 1280x720. Likewise, 1080p is 1920x1080. Therefore scaling involves filling in both the extra lines, and the extra width of each line. You seem to have the overall concept right though.

Call me a flat earth society/luddite - I don't watch enough commercial ridden, moronic sitcomm, crummy 'D' movies, reality TV to have more then the bare bones set-up. And yes, I do understand that my 2 Toshiba's are starting to get fuzzy around the edges(good grief, they're only 10 and 7 years old) and something will have to replace them since CRT's have gone the way of the gooney bird so I'll buy the barest bones/price driven TVs.
(now about my Blackberry/Bluetooth/lap top/cell with email, text, web surfing, etc/my book reader/my desktop with 8G ram, 750G HD,Blue-Ray,CD-R/RW, DVD+-R/Digital camera/Digital Photo frame/my new fly by wire P/U truck/etc, etc, etc where does it end??)

Cannot get HD picture on a SDTV set. BUT if you can continue to tolerate your set (and why not since you've had it for eons) don't buy until it dies. If you move or downsize your abode, consider a plasma or LCD TV since they take up less space and generally look snazzier. The lady who opined to you probably never compared a SD vs. HD picture side-by-side.

to get HD picture on your HDTV, the program content has to be HD and the signal carrying the program to TV set is digital. TWC launched HD earlier this year but not in all regions so I'm still seeing SD-TWC. SD programming on digital signal (via cable) looks better on my old tube than on an HDTV. So if the TWC lobby only has SD content (can't imagine why they would start an HD service but not display HD in their lobby) it would explain why she thinks her converterbox/SDTV combo looks as good as HDTV.

If you get a chance, check out a PBS HD program http://www.pbs.org/digitaltv/ but hang onto your money tightly. It will forever change your opinion on which format you would rather watch.

I have a Panasonic 42 inch, I put it on 720 and its not crisp compared to 1080.
My cousin saved money and got a Mitsubishi 42 inch. It has 720.
We both have directv with HD stations.
But 720 doesnt compare to 1080 when you use HD stations.
But.....He is happy with his.....I am happy with mine.

And that is the bottom line.

Actually most cable HD (in my area at least) is delivered in 1080i and I am pretty sure that one of the leading HD carriers (direct TV, who is going to have a huge HD channel lineup by year end) is also 1080i. Not to mention blu-ray or HD-DVD will be 1080p. 720p will be a thing of the past soon I think. Most top LCDs are 1080p now and it looks like most new plasmas are the same way.