Confused on 1080p

[Madoka_home]

I'm sorry if this has been answered elsewhere. If so, if you would kindly point me in the right direction and lock this thread, I would appreciate it.

I am confused on what a TV would do with an 1080p signal (that's not a 1080p TV). Say one has a HDTV that can do 720p and 1080i. Can it accept a 1080p signal or is that dependent on the TV set? I also read somehwere that plasmas and LCDs are inherently progressive. So if a LCD 1080i set received a 1080p signal, is it still displaying that signal in progrssive mode as that's what the TV does? Or does it have to throw away half the data in the signal to do so? And finally would a 1080p picture look that much better than a 1080i picture? I've gone to CC to look, but they have the sets at such different settings (and models) sometimes that I can't tell if the difference is the display mode or just the settings that they have applied.

Thanks.

[Skywise]

There is no such thing as a 1080i LCD set. It's quite simple really as 1080p isn't a part of the ATSC standard - only true 1080p sets (ones that have a native resolution of 1920x1080p) have the capability of supporting 1080p. Even then, not all 1080p supports 1080p on the inputs and it's something you have to check. Lower resolution sets don't support 1080p at all.

[quenelf]

As for the quality, I have no personal experience of this but... a while back, I remember reading that one study showed that progressive displays were perceived as equivalent to those having roughly 20-30% more resolution.

I believe that study was done at much lower resolutions, but it might still apply.

--quen

[Ty]

To add to what Skywise said, if Bluray and HD-DVD take off well enough we will start to see 720p resolution LCD and plasma sets which will advertise the capability to accept a 1080p input signal, but this does not mean you are getting 1080p resolution. Those sets will be downscaling the signal to match their native resolution, and will just have the added convenience of being able to accept all the compatible signal types for the sake of consumer friendliness. There are some that do this already, such as Hitachi who advertises 1080p capability even though their display does not have 1920x1080 resolution.

[naiera]

One very important thing to remember in this 1080p business is the fact that 1080p can also be 24fps, for example from a Blu-Ray player. That's a very nice signal, because it's the same speed as movies in the theatre. Pioneer plasma TV's accept this signal to give the 'smoothest' movie experience, while displaying the signal at 72Hz. This is why 1080p support will be more widespread in the near future.

[Ty]

I'm personally very much looking forward to what the Micronas TruD processor can do for this. 120hz may be the answer to all of our framerate troubles and supposedly is LCD's saving grace with regards to motion blur as well. Whether or not this is true will hopefully be answered when the Sharp D92s appear soon.