[andy8]

Didn't know that much about HD until this week
Bought a Sony TV with hd-ready on the front, but it's not really, or is it?
Is the picture I'm getting with blu-ray 1080i worth it or should I have waited? I have had a look online and the 1080p hd-tv's are nearly double the price! Most sites I've been reading say not to bother with 1080i and opt for the 1080p I think the 1080i looks ok on blu-ray and the ps3 looks great also! What have I done?
Andy

[homerpovey]

1080p (progressive) is the best picture you can get as it is FullHD, 1080i (interlaced) will still look good though. Like you say, the price of the 1080P sets are quite expensive at the mo though the Sony Bravia LCD's are quite reasonable.

[TheReverend]

The reason 1080i tvs are much cheaper than 1080p tv's is because the mojority of the time the 1080i will have a resolution of something like 1366*768. They don't have enough pixels to show the 1080p picture, so technically they don't have enough pixels to show a 1080i picture either. They can take the signal and convert it down in reolution though to fit the tv screen.

So it all depends on your tv's downscaling capabilities whether a 720p picture looks better or worse than a 1080i picture. With Sony I would imagine the downscaling would be quite good, so 1080i may well look better, but it won't be anywhere near as noticable as a 1080p screen, which will have a helluva lot more pixels to show a far more detailed picture.

I'd personally not bother with a 1080p tv until there's more content out that's worth it, so there's nothing wrong with getting a 1080i tv in the meantime. Unless of course you don't plan on getting anything new for a very long time, in which case you'll start to get a bit annoyed when it's out of date

[andy8]

Thanks for clearing things up. I will wait a bit for a 1080p then!
lol :grin:
Andy

[andy8]

Well, I couldn't wait and bought the 1080p
Hooked the blu-ray and the hd-dvd up to it and have to give the blue-ray the thumbs up
I think hd-dvd will sadly go and blu-ray win!
lol
Andy

[smashed]

You are mad :(
1080P will drop loads in price.
And 1080P TV will struggle with a low SD res source such as SKY, standard DVD etc.

If you spend most time on Bluray etc then great. But its highly likely that most of your viewing will be SD and therefore a worse image than if you bought a cheaper TV

[andy8]

Originally Posted by smashed

You are mad :(
1080P will drop loads in price.
And 1080P TV will struggle with a low SD res source such as SKY, standard DVD etc.

If you spend most time on Bluray etc then great. But its highly likely that most of your viewing will be SD and therefore a worse image than if you bought a cheaper TV

Yes, I am mad!
I don't watch much tv except for dvds. I bought a hd-dvd drive and ps3. Spend most of my time on the pc! :grin: I'm enjoying the next gen of disc's and also bought a upscaling dvd player for the old ones. :grin:

[andy8]

Oh, yeah, have no intention of getting sky!
lol
Andy

[mrfisher_uk]

Just purchased a 42" 1080p LCD and the picture quality is fantastic - even on standard definition - all it needed was a few tweaks with the contrast/brightness settings etc, the ps3 output with the Blue Ray 'Planet Earth' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' is stunning. The new upscaling tweak for the ps3 works wonders too, so no need to get rid of all the SD stuff.

[KirkSi]

What people forget with the 720p/1080p discussion is that you also have to factor in the screen size and your viewing distance. I personally went with a 37" Toshiba (you can see it in my sig. it's a 37WLT68) and we sit about 14ft back from it. At that distance there's no way in hell I could make out the difference between 1080p and 720p. Now take it up to a 50" screen and you probably will notice a difference.

A while ago people were saying that 1080p is only really necessary for screens over 42". I was reading something the other day that 1080p was only really necessary for 50"+. Blu Rays and HD-DVDs are great, but since the 1.8 update to the PS3 that turns it into an upscaler it's given my SD collection a second lease of life and until the HD discs come down in price I'm sticking with SD!