i've been seeing a lot about 720p, 1080p, 1080i, HD DVD, etc etc etc......

and i was wondering if you can really see a difference or is it a "perception" that is sold to us via marketing???

personally i have a 40" plasma and run all my stuff, 360, dvd, stb, austar, via a Pioneer VSX-816 home theatre with Dream speakers and a 12" sub...........some sound via digital cable (only 2 avail on 816) and vid via component......

and i am extremely happy!!! sounds good, looks good, works excellent and does all i want.....

so back to the main question..............what is the main differences?? and do these differences depend on output type IE. plasma v lcd.........

or are we being conned by clever marketing and peer pressures????

now don't get me wrong i'm not saying that we are being "conned" i'm just seeking to understand the differences and i'm particularly interested in understanding how these differences might effect my set up.....will i see things clearer, richer, lighter, darker, more intense.....what???

heres some pics of my system http://picasaweb.google.com.au/crazymorton/EntCentre

The numbers are the vertical resolution, eg. 720p is 1280x720 pixels. So yeah, you can see a major difference because there is way more information in each frame. The p and i are just progressive scan or interlaced.

Depending on what resolution your plasma can handle you may already run the X-Box in HD. It's just a question of what the TV supports. Most LCD and Plasmas these days do 720p, but if you want full HD at 1920x1080 there is a bit of a jump in price.

As far as HD-DVD is concerned, you could pick up the add-on drive for the 360 and be good to go.

last edited by dais at 19:40:47 19/Oct/07

720p and 1080i are recorded at the same bitrate, so technically there is NOT more information in 1080i. Infact the picture must be compressed more at higher resolutions.

Well that's good, I was explaining the difference you can see between standard and HD.

Another thing worth noting is that interlaced and progressive are the exact same resolution. Lots of 1366x768 TVs say that they support 1080i, but technically they can't, since 1080i is still 1920x1080. In reality, you're better off ignoring the i's and p's on the ends of the resolutions, because the difference is barely noticeable. That, and most TVs will deinterlace into progressive anyway.

As for seeing the difference, most (if not all) 360 and PS3 games are actually only rendered at 720 anyway, and then upscaled.

I can't remember exactly what I was trying to get at, but basically, you're best to just ignore the hoopla between interlaced and progressive. 1080 is more than 720, but the difference isn't that huge.

I think that you can definitely get carried away with numbers when it comes to this type of comparison. Obviously the higher quality systems, be they televisions, stereos or monitors etc will technically give you a better picture and/or sound, but what is it that's actually better?

There are so many brands and combinations that it really comes down to personal preference. The only way to tell what looks/sounds better is to have the two systems side by side and use your eyes and ears.

Everyone's different when it comes to optimum video and audio. Sure there are recognisable standards ie. resolution wise, 800 x 600 looks far less impressive than 2048 x 1536, but when it gets down to splitting hairs, personal preference wins out over technical specs every time.

Yeah, if it looks great to you, then that's what's important. Don't get too hung up on the numbers.

Much, much more than youe ver wanted to know about 720p vs 1080i vs 1080p.

My head hurts just skimming that.

How does your 360 go with your plasma tv? Do new plasmas have any burn in issues? Went to myer a few weeks back and the guy was telling me
to definitely go LCD over Plasma

Don't start an LCD vs. Plasma debate, neither is better than the other. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, and anyone who blatantly says that one sucks obviously doesn't know what they're talking about.

EDIT: and burn-in is far less of a problem with plasma now days. Most incorporate 'pixel wobble' technology, which shifts the pixels around constantly to stop burn-in. It's not visible to the naked eye, afaik.

last edited by Midda at 21:50:58 19/Oct/07

What's the score with the Xbox 360 and DVD up-scaling? I was reading that they had or were releasing an update to allow the Xbox 360 to up-scale DVD's to 1080i over component and 1080p over VGA? I've got a 40" LCD, but the manual says the VGA does 640x480....I'm assuming then that the TV couldn't do 1080p over VGA with the 360...or is it irrelevant and depends on what the Xbox can do?

To answer your question I watched The Matrix at 720p last night and straight after tried to watch Spiderman 3 on normal dvd straight after and thought I was watching a bootleg. The difference is very noticeable imo.

test post: ya mum

last edited by Slowdown Champ at 22:39:28 19/Oct/07

Yeah, I don't get why people are getting all excited about DVD upscaling. It doesn't make the DVDs look any better, they just fill up the whole screen. I don't actually see myself buying any more DVDs at all.

I did a test just before and loaded my 360 up at 720p and it looked like ass compared to it running in 1080i mode. Maybe it's just my tv but there was a big difference, especially when it came to reading text. Words didn't look as crisp as the 1080i mode.

I imagine its the same as the native resolutions of regular PC LCD monitors.

If you have a 1080 screen, and run stuff in a non native res ie 720 then of course its not going to look as nice.

I would be interested to see if there was any real difference watching a movie at 720 on a 720 screen next to a 1080 playing the same thing in 1080.

^^ why not just try it on a CRT since they don't have native resolutions? I play my xbox360 on an old 19" CRT and it looks nice no matter what res I'm in as opposed to my LCD which looks like the s*** a monkey throws at oglers on anything but 1280x1024 (my LCDs native res)

i've been seeing a lot about 720p, 1080p, 1080i, HD DVD, etc etc etc......

and i was wondering if you can really see a difference or is it a "perception" that is sold to us via marketing???

They have a real perceivable difference especially between 720p and 1080p. The problem is you really need to see them compared side-by-side with a) A pretty well configured screen i.e. large enough and display native resolution b) Native resolution content i.e. HD-DVD or Blu-Ray for 1080p stuff.

Once you see them side-by-side then the improvement can really be seen. But you are right without it the impact is somewhat "meh". Personally I'm happy with the DVD res. without up scaling or anything like that. Maybe one day I'll get on to the whole "high def" thing when the format war is settle...

The biggest difference I've noticed when in HN or JBs is the pixel size on the 720p 50 inches vs the 1080p ones. The pixels are quite clear on the 720p one and make the image look a little dirty despite both displaying the same HD TV stream or DVD. That's looking up close and comparing them side by side though, I doubt it would be an issue if you were sitting 3+ meters back in a good lounge chair.

That's at 50" though, the pixels are much smaller at 40" and less obvious.

My xbox is connected via HDMI and runs at 1080p or i, not sure which but it looks awesome. I haven't tried it at 720p so can't comment on the difference.

How does your 360 go with your plasma tv? Do new plasmas have any burn in issues? Went to myer a few weeks back and the guy was telling me

no bunr in issues....mine 2 years old now but as Midda says they come wth various "refresh" features if this becomes a problem....

thanks to all the rest for your input....now i don't feel like i'm "missing out" on something!!

I don't personally think that for most people its worth paying the extra cash for 1080p on a normal 38-42" screen. In most setups people sit far away from the screen and don't leave Aspect of the Hawk on - you just won't see the difference. I am not a fan of interlaced technology and would rather a 720p set than 1080i, but that's my personal preference.

The biggest marketing swindle of the last year or so is referring to 1080p as 'full' HD. For most consumers the extra pixels just aren't worth the bling. I have a 720p set and 99% of people people have to ask if its 1080p or not.

As you get into larger screens and more sophisticated kit producing signal then yes you will get some improvement at higher res.

All that matters is if you are happy with it.

Before anyone buys a new tv i'd do some research on the new 100hz LCD's the reviews have been realy realy good. I think there are some for sale already.