720p vs 1080p LCD

[AMCRambler]

Will a 1080p 1920x1080 res LCD look any worse than a 720p LCD, when they're displaying a 720p source? Just wondering if there's an issue with what I guess would be downscaling on the higher resolution screen?

 

[Oyeve]

It really depends on how close or far you are from the lcd. 720p should look fine

 

[Matthias99]

Just wondering if there's an issue with what I guess would be downscaling on the higher resolution screen?

That would actually be "upscaling".

In theory, you lose some sharpness compared to having the resolution of the content and display perfectly match. In practice, having a higher-resolution display device doesn't hurt IQ as much as having a lower-resolution one, although there is some loss. Of course, many "720p" HDTVs are actually something like 1366x768, and on those displays even a 720p signal has to be scaled internally.

Given that 1080i/1080p looks significantly better on a 1080p display, and that 720p won't look much worse, I would tend to lean towards a 1080p HDTV even if the content you'll be watching right now is mostly 720p.

 

[mercanucaribe]

A 1920x1080 screen showing 720p video should look better than a 1366x768 screen showing 720p video.

 

[jkresh]

Yes it will look a little worse but the benefit for 1080p/1080i content is worth it (depending on how far away you sit from the screen and its size), also if you want to use it as a monitor/htpc then 1080p has significant benefits. Remember that while outside of blueray/hddvd there is little 1080p conent (pc/games and some nature channels on satalite), there is a lot of 1080i content which will look much better on a 1080p set then on a 720p (deinterlacing vs deinterlacing and downscaling).

 

[Deinonych]

Like others have said, it depends on the size of the screen and how far you sit from it. For 37" TVs and smaller (some say 42" or smaller), you won't be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p. As you increase the screen size, the differences become more apparent.

 

[gobucks]

If you are going LCD, i would shell out a little extra an grab a 1080p TV. neither 720p nor 1080p looks bad; in fact, I have a 720p projector set up to 92" and the content still looks great at that large size. In my case, I decided to spend $1200 on a 720p projector rather than $5K on a 1080p one, but with LCDs, the price difference isn't nearly as great, so I'd think you'd be better off to just buy the 1080p set and not have to worry about having to downscale 1080p content on a 720p set in a year or so. This will be especially important when one of these stupid HD DVD formats dies and people actually start buying the damn things, since both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are encoded at 1080p.

 

[jae]

not enough that will make you trade it in or take it back

 

[Liberator21]

1080p FTW!

 

[Auric]

I posit the "savings" with a 720 are only worth it if likely to be replaced within a year at most -and that's only if the primary viewing content it crappy disposable broadcasts. If into movies, documentaries or games, then anything less than 1080 is a travesty.

 

[AMCRambler]

Thanks for all the info. Sounds like 1080p will be what I go for. I don't want to have to buy a new tv in 2 years. Got some more HD questions. When it comes to cable tv and HD content, I'm looking at my cable company's packages. Now they offer regular and digital cable. I believe the regular package is analog however they still list some HD content on the regular package like NBC HD, ABC HD, etc. Wouldn't you lose the HD by sending the signal out as analog? I thought HD required a digital signal?

 

[tigersty1e]

I'm not too sure about full HD requiring a digital signal, but those channels you listed send out at the most 1080i.

Going back to your original question. My parents have a 1080p lcd tv and 720p looks really clear. More clear than 1080i. I have yet to see 1080p on their tv so I don't know how much clearer the picture gets, but 720p was better than anything I've seen at the tv store.

 

[VashHT]

I bought a 1080p set for a couple reasons. The main one is that I use it as my monitor as well, so 1920x1080 looks a lot better than 1366x768 for my computer. Second is that my 360 can run everything at 1080p anyway, so I might as well get it. HD is just a buzz word btw, referring to hgiher resolutions. The 360 can do 1080p over component(analog), and actually all of the 360s barring the elite output only analog, so yeah you don't need digital at all.