No difference between Native On/Off and 480, 720, 1080...

[CHaynes112]

Greetings,

I'm new to the HDTV scene (but fairly tech savy). I just bought a new 60" Plasma (LG 60PS11) and have been trying to "tweak" everything to get the best possible experience. I have did a few basic things like disable energy star mode, change from vivid to standard, and enable 24p mode. I have also made a few audio changes like enable auto volume level and enable TruSurround XT (as I don't have a real 5.1/7.1 surround system yet). I am getting ready to calibrate my TV as well (hopefully this will improve my SD quality). I am currently using a HR20-100 (0x368) and have it connected to my TV via a HDMI cable.

I have been trying to experiment with the Native feature, and also different resolutions. Here's the thing... I can't seem to notice ANY difference with Native ON versus Native OFF? Also, I don't notice ANY difference when swapping resolutions (like going from 480i to 480p to 720p to 1080i)? Can someone explain this to me... Is my TV 'converting' everything to 1080p?

I have all the modes enabled 480, 720, 1080...

Just an FYI, I do see the differences when toggling between Original, Crop, Pillar, etc....

-Thanks

 

[yorktown]

I read on one of these forums that the new 1080p tvs upconvert whatever signal comes in to 1080p.

 

[GregLee]

Can someone explain this to me... Is my TV 'converting' everything to 1080p?

Yes. But if you turn Native off, it is your satellite box that will convert everything to whatever resolution you choose -- probably 1080i -- then the TV will convert that to 1080p. If the TV and the satellite box do the conversions equally well, the picture will look equally good, regardless of the setting of Native. I found that, for my Samsung 720p TV, SD TV at 480i looked better with Native on, but for 720p and 1080i, I couldn't tell the difference. So I have Native set on, for the sake of 480i programs.

 

[Jimbo]

Yes. But if you turn Native off, it is your satellite box that will convert everything to whatever resolution you choose -- probably 1080i -- then the TV will convert that to 1080p. If the TV and the satellite box do the conversions equally well, the picture will look equally good, regardless of the setting of Native. I found that, for my Samsung 720p TV, SD TV at 480i looked better with Native on, but for 720p and 1080i, I couldn't tell the difference. So I have Native set on, for the sake of 480i programs.

Suggestion :
Turn off any resolution below 720P.
Do you really want to see a 480p or i on your screen ?

 

[GregLee]

Suggestion :
Turn off any resolution below 720P.
Do you really want to see a 480p or i on your screen ?

It's not possible to see 480p or i on my screen. The screen has 728 vertical pixels. The only choice I have is whether to let my D* box scale a 480i picture up to 720p (or whatever I've told it to scale to) then the TV scale from 720p to 728p, or let my TV do the scaling from 480i to 728p. In any case, it has to wind up as 728 pixels high, because that's the vertical count of physical pixels on the screen. I'm just saying that in my judgment, letting the TV do the scaling from 480i to 728p gives a better result. That may be because there is just one scaling rather than two.

 

[Jimbo]

It's not possible to see 480p or i on my screen. The screen has 728 vertical pixels. The only choice I have is whether to let my D* box scale a 480i picture up to 720p (or whatever I've told it to scale to) then the TV scale from 720p to 728p, or let my TV do the scaling from 480i to 728p. In any case, it has to wind up as 728 pixels high, because that's the vertical count of physical pixels on the screen. I'm just saying that in my judgment, letting the TV do the scaling from 480i to 728p gives a better result. That may be because there is just one scaling rather than two.

If it's not possible to see the picture in 480i,p, whats the point in having the D* box checked to accept them ?

 

[Ronnie-]

If it's not possible to see the picture in 480i,p, whats the point in having the D* box checked to accept them ?

That just means that is what the box outputs the signal at.
The TV will scale it to whatever the native rez. of the set is anyway. Which I THINK is what he meant.

 

[GregLee]

If it's not possible to see the picture in 480i,p, whats the point in having the D* box checked to accept them ?

If that box is not checked, the D* box will scale 480i to something else. If that box is checked (and Native is on), the D* box will not scale 480i and the TV will scale it. I have decided to let my TV do the scaling, and so that's why I check that box.

Checking the 480i box does not mean that the D* box will accept 480i -- it will in any case. It tells the D* box that the TV accepts 480i, so that it's okay for the D* box to send a 480i signal to the TV.

 

[CHaynes112]

GregLee,

Thanks for the information. I believe I understand it all now.

 

[kovach]

Just depends, as someone else suggested, if you want the TV or your satellite receiver to do the conversion.

Every piece of equipment has their own algorithms. Most trust their TV more.

But...there's a downfall to that, if you let your TV convert, switching between different types of feeds will cause some flashing on your screen for a second or so. At least that's been my experience. Due to that, I let the receiver convert.