Just thought I'd post this for anyone needing some extra info on buying an HD TV.
720p vs. 1080p HDTV: The final word - Fully Equipped - CNET reviews
720p vs. 1080p HDTV: The final word - Fully Equipped - CNET reviews
720p vs 1080p
- Thread starter Hemi 6.1
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Good read. If most people go to a Best Buy or Circuit City, They would be hard pressed to tell which was 1080p or 720p without looking on the tv for information.
Great article! Thanks!
Some of us noobs need something nice and simplistic to help explain all of this.
Isn't that EXACTLY what the article said? I don't like sitting too close to my screen anyway.
I thought it was a good story. Theres so many explainations on Cnet Thats the first place I go to when buying a tv,to Look at all the reviews.
I've been watching 720P LCD's at my Mother's house and a 720P projector at my place for the last several years. Earlier this year I picked up a 1080P LCD. It really does have to do with the distance you sit from your set. My Mom has a 32" Sony 720P set. It was pretty much top of the line 2 or 3 years ago. She sits about 13 feet away from it and says she can't tell the difference between SD and HD. Well at 13 feet I have trouble too some times. At my place I sit about 9 feet away from a 46" 1080P Mitsubishi set, and it looks phenomenal. It definitely blows away any 720P set I've watched, including my brother's 720P plasma. That said, I have an open floor plan with my kitchen, dining room, and living room all sharing the same space. It's about 30'X20'. When I'm not sitting in the living room, my eyes aren't good enough to see how good the 1080P screen is.
Crutchfield has a great chart in their catalogs and probably their web site too with recommended screen sizes for seating distances. If the set you're looking to buy isn't as large as they state for your seating distance then you probably aren't going to gain anything with 1080P. If you can afford the larger set however, 1080P is the way to go. Incidentally, the sets on display at the big box stores are rarely set up properly. They're usually splitting the same signal 20 or 30 times, usually a pizza dish signal at that, making the picture look like crap on every set in the store. The only exception is when they have a BD or HDDVD deck connected directly to a set.
Crutchfield has a great chart in their catalogs and probably their web site too with recommended screen sizes for seating distances. If the set you're looking to buy isn't as large as they state for your seating distance then you probably aren't going to gain anything with 1080P. If you can afford the larger set however, 1080P is the way to go. Incidentally, the sets on display at the big box stores are rarely set up properly. They're usually splitting the same signal 20 or 30 times, usually a pizza dish signal at that, making the picture look like crap on every set in the store. The only exception is when they have a BD or HDDVD deck connected directly to a set.
The quality of the set makes more of a difference.
Look at a 720p Panasonic Plamsa vs. a 1080p Olevia, Vizio, Element, Insgnia, etc. LCD. The Plasma will look much better.
Look at a 720p Panasonic Plamsa vs. a 1080p Olevia, Vizio, Element, Insgnia, etc. LCD. The Plasma will look much better.
I agree. There are some out there that will make themselves believe this is not true.
Big Screen
When one is using a large screen, like in my setup, it would make a very big difference. (Epson Home Cinema 1080 on Dalite 110"CV) With a screen this large imperfections will be noticed a lot more.
Before I bought the DVDO VP-50 Audio video processor I would notice the change from 720P to 1080p. The 1080p picture just had a smoother look to it as well as more punch in color saturation. This, of course, attributed to the larger pixel count of 1080p. Now with the vp-50 scaling and outputting everything at 1080p@60, I don't notice the change anymore. 1080p rules the roost IMHO!!!
On a smaller set everything is "squished" together in 32"-42" At that size one would be hard pressed to notice a difference at viewing distances above 10ft. Stretch that picture out over 92" and one will see if the money they spent on their "set/projector" was well spent.
LW
When one is using a large screen, like in my setup, it would make a very big difference. (Epson Home Cinema 1080 on Dalite 110"CV) With a screen this large imperfections will be noticed a lot more.
Before I bought the DVDO VP-50 Audio video processor I would notice the change from 720P to 1080p. The 1080p picture just had a smoother look to it as well as more punch in color saturation. This, of course, attributed to the larger pixel count of 1080p. Now with the vp-50 scaling and outputting everything at 1080p@60, I don't notice the change anymore. 1080p rules the roost IMHO!!!
On a smaller set everything is "squished" together in 32"-42" At that size one would be hard pressed to notice a difference at viewing distances above 10ft. Stretch that picture out over 92" and one will see if the money they spent on their "set/projector" was well spent.
LW
When one is using a large screen, like in my setup, it would make a very big difference. (Epson Home Cinema 1080 on Dalite 110"CV) With a screen this large imperfections will be noticed a lot more.
Before I bought the DVDO VP-50 Audio video processor I would notice the change from 720P to 1080p. The 1080p picture just had a smoother look to it as well as more punch in color saturation. This, of course, attributed to the larger pixel count of 1080p. Now with the vp-50 scaling and outputting everything at 1080p@60, I don't notice the change anymore. 1080p rules the roost IMHO!!!
On a smaller set everything is "squished" together in 32"-42" At that size one would be hard pressed to notice a difference at viewing distances above 10ft. Stretch that picture out over 92" and one will see if the money they spent on their "set/projector" was well spent.
LW
Take a look at this post. It shows that if you have a 1080P source with a 92" screen you would need to sit only 13 feet from the screen to see all the resolution. If you sit that close then yes your 1080P projector was money well spent. In my case I sit 18' from a 106" screen so 1080P would be a waste.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/974649-post12.html
Seems to me the most important thing is matching the display with the camera that caught the image. If the camera was 720, the picture will look best on a 720 display. Same for a 1080 camera/1080 display.
If the camera was 1080 and the display is 720, some manipulation of the pixels has to occur, degrading the original image. The same is true in the reverse case.
I expect all cameras will eventually be 1080, so I’ll be purchasing 1080.
If the camera was 1080 and the display is 720, some manipulation of the pixels has to occur, degrading the original image. The same is true in the reverse case.
I expect all cameras will eventually be 1080, so I’ll be purchasing 1080.
Exactly.720p and 1080p aren't as different as most would suggest,to most customers.And I don't want to knock Front Projectors ,but theirs alot more things that effect the picture quality,mostly light! The only one I Ever saw that had Breath taking HD on it was at an IMAX theater. Which I might add was in a totally black dark room. I have friends with Front projectors and none of them use them for everyday tv viewing.Movie night for his friends is when we watch his $10,000 Front projector. If we are their for football we watch his 72" inch Sony.So IMO unless you like to watch Football ,Baseball or even the news in a pitch Black room IMO Front Projectors are the way to go.If you want breath taking HD you can watch anywhere Plasma ,LCD is the only way.
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to each his/her own
Thank you for agreeing with me. Like I said, viewing distances need to be taken into account. Also if one sits a great distance from anything it looks good. Take the saying "it's like a Picaso... good from far but far from good." I agree.
Not saying smaller displays or lower res. are bad or anything but, I choose to sit in the correct viewing distance and correct lighting environment to enjoy 1080p for what it is. The best HDTV (standard) video resolution to date. 1920x1080 = a lot more pixels viewable in the "correct" environment. If one chooses to go outside this Sweet zone, more power to them, and it is a waste to spend on anything including 720P. To each his/her own.
BTW, I have a 1080p LCD TV as well and it does not get much use... Size matters.... In my book home "Theater" does not mean 42"plasma/Lcd especially for HD content.
Cheers...:up
Thank you for agreeing with me. Like I said, viewing distances need to be taken into account. Also if one sits a great distance from anything it looks good. Take the saying "it's like a Picaso... good from far but far from good." I agree.
Not saying smaller displays or lower res. are bad or anything but, I choose to sit in the correct viewing distance and correct lighting environment to enjoy 1080p for what it is. The best HDTV (standard) video resolution to date. 1920x1080 = a lot more pixels viewable in the "correct" environment. If one chooses to go outside this Sweet zone, more power to them, and it is a waste to spend on anything including 720P. To each his/her own.
BTW, I have a 1080p LCD TV as well and it does not get much use... Size matters....
In my book home "Theater" does not mean 42"plasma/Lcd especially for HD content.Cheers...:up
Good post, I agree, to a point. Like my name implies VP50 to 1080p for me!! I see a big difference when I pass the 720 signal to the PJ then when I run process the signal to 1080p. My VP is money very well spent, and mine is not even high end!! Enjoy your new camera... It's all about Pixel count.
cheers:up
i agree that the quality of the aset matters but i disagree that plasma is always better. Both Screen types have pros an cons and I am sure that the DLP crowd can chime in with advantages for their preference as well.
Well I was referring to the Panny plasma specifically compared to the multiple LCD's I mentioned.
In most cases plasma looks far better than LCD. Obviously a Planar or Nuvision LCD will look much better than a cheap plasma, but in the same price range, a Pioneer Plasma will look better. In almost any price range, the plasmas look far better than the LCD's.
But that's not what I was saying anyway.
The quality of the set is much more important than the resolution. Sure, a 1080p Vizio might look better than a 720p Vizio, but a 720p Panny Plasma might look better than them both.
In most cases plasma looks far better than LCD. Obviously a Planar or Nuvision LCD will look much better than a cheap plasma, but in the same price range, a Pioneer Plasma will look better. In almost any price range, the plasmas look far better than the LCD's.
But that's not what I was saying anyway.
The quality of the set is much more important than the resolution. Sure, a 1080p Vizio might look better than a 720p Vizio, but a 720p Panny Plasma might look better than them both.
Actually many think LCDs are better in some circumstances. But I agree tha there are bad LCDs and plasmas out there.
There are a couple more variables to be accounted for...
A while ago I read that an average human (J6P?) puts the TVs specs
1. Contrast
2. Saturation
3. Resolution
in the listed order of importance when evaluating the quality of a new TV set.
And that means the first two should be right, i.e. basic calibration should be done to the TV set.
Our local Costco has about two dozen DLP/LCD/Plasma sets running HDNet/Discovery from BEV most of the time.
Two of them are Pioneer plasmas - the most expensive from the bunch. The image is awful.
If I hadn't seen them properly calibrated and fed the right signal, I'd think it is the worst TV manufacturer...
Diogen.
No, it's not all about "pixel count." 720 60p refreshes twice as fast as 1080 30i. Temporal resolution counts, too.
Quality of the set would depend on factors such as contrast, etc.
Yet another reason not to buy a TV based on what it looks like at a place like Costco. Torch mode will make any observations useless.
BTW, have you seen the new Kuros? Those things look absolutely amazing.
Yet another reason not to buy a TV based on what it looks like at a place like Costco. Torch mode will make any observations useless.
BTW, have you seen the new Kuros? Those things look absolutely amazing.
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