HD way better on 1080i

ride525

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 7, 2003
443
0
SF Bay Area, California
I have a Samsung DLP TV (native resolution 720p).

I was checking yesterday, and HD seemed to be a lot clearer picture when the 811 was outputting 1080i, vs 720p. This was on the four Dish HD channels, as well as one local OTA independent station that was broacasting in HD at the time.
 
I find best results when the Dish 811 outputs native of the HD broadcast, 1080i stations @ 1080i, 720 stations @ 720p.

The culprit is the scaler/deinterlacer of the 811, which is weak on 1080i --> 720p.

Cheers,
 
I have the same setup and I have noticed the same thing. My local ABC station brodcasts in 720p and even that seems to look better when the 811 is set on 1080i.
 
UglyFatKid said:
I have the same setup and I have noticed the same thing. My local ABC station brodcasts in 720p and even that seems to look better when the 811 is set on 1080i.

Same setup here and I keep my 811 on 1080i. My local ABC also broadcasts in 720p. VA area.
 
John Kotches said:
I find best results when the Dish 811 outputs native of the HD broadcast, 1080i stations @ 1080i, 720 stations @ 720p.

The culprit is the scaler/deinterlacer of the 811, which is weak on 1080i --> 720p.

Cheers,

Like Ugly and Oaken, I too find that ABC (broadcasting in 720p) looks better when the 811 is set for 1080i output. My advice is to leave the 811 set to 1080i at all times.

I've heard a number of people say that the 720p output is not ture 720p. They feel it is up-converted 420p.
 
Gary,

Why do I suspect that all those who think the 1080i output is best have native 1080i displays?

The best HD material that I see is from ESPN-HD and ABC-HD, both of which utilize 720p which natively matches my projectors 720p panel.

Cheers,
 
John Kotches said:
Why do I suspect that all those who think the 1080i output is best have native 1080i displays?

Not true for me. See my first post above. My Samsung DLP is native 720p to my understanding. But 1080i seems best, centainly better when source is 1080i, and about equal for 720p when 811 is on 720p material.
 
Well, I used to think that 1080i was always best. Then one day I actually started watching a 720p broadcast (NYPD Blue maybe ...). I switched back and forth a few times, and there was no doubt that setting the 811 to 720p was better. 1080i was great, but 720p was great plus a wee bit. Later, I noticed that 720p broadcasts with the 811 set to 1080i showed jaggy diagonals.

I rarely watch ABC or ESPN, but when I do, I set the 811 to 720p. I don't believe the 811 converts anything ... it has no reason to do so, I think it just passes the signal it receives right on down the line.

My set is a 720p native RP-LCD.
 
GaryPen said:
Like Ugly and Oaken, I too find that ABC (broadcasting in 720p) looks better when the 811 is set for 1080i output. My advice is to leave the 811 set to 1080i at all times.

I've heard a number of people say that the 720p output is not ture 720p. They feel it is up-converted 480p.

I read that also that the 811 will downconvert 1080i to 480P then up convert it to 720P-yech
I have never check it since my Toshiba is native 540P/1080i but my projector is native 720P but I don't want to go thru with the unhooking and rehooking and my wife would kill me.
 
ride525,

I find that the 811 looks best outputting native, which bypasses the scaler. I've said that before, even in this thread.

1080i --> 720p is done better in my projector.
720p --> 720p is best overall picture.

While it's a PITA, I switch between the various output options based on the content. An "output native" would be a nice feature to add.

Cheers,
 
ride525 said:
Not true for me. See my first post above. My Samsung DLP is native 720p to my understanding. But 1080i seems best, centainly better when source is 1080i, and about equal for 720p when 811 is on 720p material.
I agree with you. My Samsung 46inch DLP looks best when the 811 is set to output at 1080i. I can't confirm the statements about ABC and native 720 output from them as I haven't been able to get them OTA long enough to make any judgement.
 
AcuraCL said:
I rarely watch ABC or ESPN, but when I do, I set the 811 to 720p. I don't believe the 811 converts anything ... it has no reason to do so, I think it just passes the signal it receives right on down the line.

My set is a 720p native RP-LCD.

Of course it converts. When you have it set for 1080i output, it converts everything to 1080i, that isn't originally 1081 of course.

The same would be true for any output setting. It's going to convert it to that scan rate, unless it's originally at that rate.

OTOH, a native pass-through would be great! Let our displays do the conversion, instead of the 811's. Makes great sense.
 
GaryPen said:
Of course it converts. When you have it set for 1080i output, it converts everything to 1080i, that isn't originally 1081 of course.

The same would be true for any output setting. It's going to convert it to that scan rate, unless it's originally at that rate.

OTOH, a native pass-through would be great! Let our displays do the conversion, instead of the 811's. Makes great sense.

Yes, of course you are right. I expressed myself badly. I didn't mean "I don't believe the 811 converts anything" ... I meant I don't think it converts a 720p signal to anything else before passing it downstream. There was someone on these forums who swore passionately that the 811 was not displaying HD on the 720p setting. I think that may be part of why folks think there is an issue with it.

To be sure, 1080i broadcasts look worse on my set when the 811 is set to 720p. And also to be sure, everyone's tv are different. But to my eye, setting a 720p broadcast to 720p on the 811 looks better. Not trying to be argumentative ... just clarifying my dumb-sounding statement.
 
Eventually I see the "highend" fixed panels having 3840x2160 resolution. This is 2x 1920x1080 and 3x 1280x720. Once displays can do this they will be able to scale either input without artifacts... When in 1080 mode they make 2x2 pixels, when in 720 they do 3x3 pixels.