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When is 720p Not 720p?

Posted by Hemos on from the the-tricks-of-the-eye dept.

Henning Hoffmann writes "HDBlog has an interesting entry about many home theater displays.
Home theater displays around the resolution of 720p (most DLP, LCD, and LCOS displays) must convert 1080i material to their native resolution for display. No surprise there. But many displays do this by discarding half of the 1080i HD signal, effectively giving 720p viewers an SD signal - not watching HD at all! "

5 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Resampling by FlyByPC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's got to be a fairly straightforward formula relating inherent resolution loss when performing any noninteger upsampling, or any downsampling. Any other change in resolution must necessarily degrade the signal, yes? (Except perhaps if a clever algorithm could losslessly encode the original data in a 1.5x-upsampled version, without distorting it.)

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  2. When is 720p Not 720p? by t_allardyce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When the un-washed masses can't actually tell the difference (they can't even see DCT blocking) and you can get away with selling this crap to them..

    --
    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  3. Good Ol' CRT by goldspider · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I upgrade to an HD idiot box, I plan on sticking with tried-and-true CRT. IMHO, you can't beat the picture quality/price, and I have yet to hear a compelling reason to fork out thousands of dollars for the trendier offerings.

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
  4. Should have bought a 1080i screen then! by node+3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the broadcast is 1080i, and your display isn't 1080i, I don't think it's logical to assume the quality of the downsampled video will be equivalent to a true 720p broadcast.

    When I get around to buying a HD television (not any time soon, I do all my televisioning on my computer), it will be a true 1080i (are there 1080p televisions?) display so I'll know I'm getting the full potential of HD.

    Unless I'm strapped for cash, of course, in which case I'll just suck it up and know my 720p won't be the best thing for watching 1080i content on.

    On the plus side, it's important to get the facts out there for the consumer, who will likely (although not logically) assume he's/she's getting more than they really are.

  5. Hey, Bloggers... by Gruneun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not submit a link to the original article, rather than a link to your blog, which consists only of a link to the original article?

    Otherwise, people might assume this is a shameless attempt to draw traffic to your site.