I wish everything sent down was 1080p/24. Smaller bitrate needed for better quality than the hogging 1080i.
Is the HD quality of today really getting worse
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elwaylite said:
NBC and CBS (1080i) are superior to ESPN and FOX (720p) in my market for sports. Picture is much sharper.
From a marketing standpoint 1080 has more wow appeal than 720, even if the average buyer doesn't understand the significance of the "P" vs. the "i'. It wasn't that long ago that 720P was the highest resolution available. Then the LCD folks saw a marketing opportunity to one up plasma because manufacturing LCD at 1080 was pretty simple but very difficult and expensive for plasma to do the same. So suddenly 720 was bantered to be inferior to 1080 by many sales people and for the most part the consumer drank the 1080 Koolaid. Plasma saw that they had to offer 1080 so after a couple of years they also hit the market place with 1080. You can still find new plasmas in the 42-50" range offered at 720P. They get a great picture and offer tremendous bang for the buck. From 10-12 feet most won't be able to see a difference in anything 50" and under, especially with a plasma.
You two are lucky. In my market,CBS macroblocks at motion, sucks. Stands during a football game, especially people waving are a big ol mess. My CBS has 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 channels, which does not help.
In truth, 1080i has been available longer than 720p. Pioneer introduced their first 1920x1080 Kuro Plasma six years ago!.
Show me at least three 2011 models that offer native 1280x720 matrices. The budget Samsung plasmas are 1024x768 as are the low-end Panasonic and LG models.
With such a difference in resolution, it seems silly to suggest that these TVs are somehow so much "sharper" with the scaling (shrinking horizontally and streching vertically) and dithering needed to get from 1280x720 to 1024x768.
On the LCD side, the lion's share of 720p TVs have always been somewhere around 1366x768 requiring substantial dithering as well. At least the LCD matrix aspect ratio is more or less 1:1.
In the end, people see what they want to see and many are fooled by various implementations of "torch mode".
That's the main reason I watch those channels(Fox and ABC) through my MT2(Dual Over The Air Tuner Module) in my 722k.
ESPN is also looking good through the 722k.
But I still keep my HD satellite locals in the list to access for when the station's have problems with their broadcast towers,it's better than nothin.
Most look great on my 63 inch Samsung Plasma. TVs that are 40 inch and below do not show a great HD picture.
SD also looks better on a smaller screen. The proof of the PQ is when viewed on a 60" or larger screen. There's a dozen reasons why the PQ has gotten worse over the years and the tide was slowed a bit with the introduction of Mpeg4. But the bottom line is $$$$$$. If they can decrease the PQ and increase the number of channels that puts more $$$$ in the bank. That would be their bank, not our bank. So, as long as the subs don't oink and complain too much the status quo will remain the same.
The new Hawaii Five-0 series on CBS looks great in HD. We usually replay the scenery shots several times!
It looked great (in your eyes) because they produced it in "torch mode"...all the chroma pumped up beyond reality. I could barely watch it because of that. There is NOTHING as green on the planet as what you see there.
