Is there a big difference between 1080P and 720P?

CorkMan · 11-01-2011 04:09AM #1

It says that 1080P is double the detail of 720P, is this true?

BTW I am 5 feet away from my TV set.

slave1 · 11-01-2011 07:37AM

What is "it"?
What is your TV?
What do you watch on TV?

CorkMan · 11-01-2011 10:41AM

I was reading a website and a paragraph stated 1080P is double the resolution of 720P.

I have a 32inch 720P at the moment, I am not sure of the exact model though. I play Blu-Ray movies and computer games on my playstation 3. It won't be for watcing RTE 1/2 through the aerial, it is solely for High Defintion entertainment.

slave1 · 11-01-2011 12:36PM

1080 means 1,080 horizontal scan lines
1080i means every second line is refreshed at a time
1080p means every line is refreshed every time
Time depends on your TV refresh rate

So 1080 is not 'double' 720.

Blu Ray is 1080p but I'm thinking you don't have a 24MHz TV so you are probably not optimising your potential picture right now.

5 feet is quite close (bedroom setup) but for a 32" screen I would say any difference is in the minutia, if you were buying a new TV you may as well get a 1080p if the price difference is low/acceptable but I would most certainly not buy a 1080p 32" to replace an existing 720p TV, you'll just be throwing your money away, better off getting some level of sound upgrade or go out for dinner/something else.

I have a 10' screen from 15' and see marginal difference between 1080p and 720p

I don't have a PS3 so can't comment on game resolutions.

Idleater · 11-01-2011 12:59PM

slave1 wrote: »

So 1080 is not 'double' 720.

Assuming 16*9 aspect ratio then:

1080*1920 = 2,073,600
720*1280  = 921,600

So yes, 1080p has twice the amount of pixels and thus information than 720p per frame.

slave1 · 11-01-2011 03:01PM

Correct, not the best worded response by me there.
I was not comparing two progressive scan rates though as certain sources are not 1080p they are 1080i (SkyHD) and therefore only every second pixel get's refreshed.
So to clarify, 1080i is not double 720p however as you correctly pointed out 1080p is double 720p if truly using a progressive scan source...

Getting pedantic, a 1080p TV will 'upscale' any source, whether 480p US DVD, 576 Euro DVD or 720p/1080i HDTV but that's just circuitary.....

I would go further as say that after resolution you need to look at refresh rate as 1080p at 24 (23.976) frames per second is optimal viewing as this is Blu Ray native encoding, but irrelevant for a 32" screen as judder and the likes will be less problematic.

Effluo · 12-01-2011 04:24AM

lol

I think the matter has been over complicated and I doubt that Corkman is any closer to really what he wants to know.

Bottom line, Resolution isn't the "be" all and "end" all for picture quality and you could have a lower resolution screen which actually gives a better overall picture.

Technically Full hd is just a range of resolutions(amount of pixels on the screen)

But I wouldn't be concerned with having a 720p screen. The difference between full hd(1080) and 720p even for a 32" screen size isn't so noticeable. Sure it makes a technical difference, but if you were to get similar screens at that size, one 720p and one full hd it's not THAT big a difference.

For instance, your ps3 are still only a handful of playstation games which play at 1080p. Most ps3 games play on 720p resolution. So for gaming on a ps3 a 720p tv is just as good for almost all games. (a lot of games will say on the box that they play in full hd, but in fact only their cutscenes will play in 1080.)

Bluray is a type of media which plays on full hd. I find on my hd screen(albeit only 21.5") that whether watching an avi file or a bluray there is very little difference between them or at least it's not at the point where it effects my enjoyment of the video.

As I've said before, if you want to upgrade your tv. Then upgrade it, but the biggest differences you'll notice will probably be from other panel upgrades and not necessarily the resolution.

Full hd + certainly "hd ready" are terms used by marketers and salespeople. Although they do have technical relevance, they not really that big of a deal, although if buying a new tv over 27"s I would expect the tv(at every price) to be full hd as almost all of the newer tvs are now.(ie. if you buy a tv which isn't full hd, then it's probably a much older model)

CorkMan · 12-01-2011 07:04AM

The TV I have my eyes on is 40 inches, 1080P and has 3D.

slave1 · 12-01-2011 08:53AM

I'm goin to jump in then and say 1080p at 5feet from source is the better option purely given your viewing distance.
I'm on the fence with 3D TV, just an attempt to stoke some money into the TV industry as far as I'm concerned.

Effluo · 12-01-2011 11:11PM

Google reviews of the 3d tv's you were looking at and see what people have been saying about it.

I know nothing about 3d tvs, but if I were to try and find out I would google it.

I rather like http://www.testfreaks.com/ they simply link to a range of reviews for almost every product and give an overall user and critic rating.

I'd also look for general 3d tv reviews to see what people are saying if it is worth the money or not. Generally if a person chooses to be one of the first people to uptake on a new type of technology then they get stung with a high premium price.

So it's worth checking out what people are saying. Something that I would also be wary of is the lack of content for 3d tvs now too. You could end up paying extra for a feature which you may never use...

So check these things with google before you buy

Kristopherus · 18-01-2011 06:45PM

Absolutely superb advice,Effluo.

andy1249 · 19-01-2011 10:09AM

Is there a big difference between 1080P and 720P?

It totally depends on your sources and the content you are actually watching on your set.

If your just watching TV , then no , theres no big difference.

If however , you have any of the following ,

A Blu ray player
A media player ( any kind , WDTV , popcorn hour , the list is endless ...)
A PC connected to your TV , commonly called a HTPC or Home Theater PC ,
A 40 inch or bigger screen ...

Then , there is a very big difference indeed.

Blu ray , because its the only way to watch the content unspoiled , Blu ray comes in 1920 x 1080 x 24fps .... so a 1080p set is ideal for this medium.

Media Players because most media players output content in 1080p

With a PC because of the screen real estate , that is the amount of any particular website you can see while browsing , the size of the desktop etc, is twice as big and that is crucial.

Also remember , that with HD content , there are two resolutions that are common , 1280 x 720 or 720p , and 1920 x 1080 or 1080p.

Non 1080p sets have native resolutions like 1024 x 768 , 1366 x 768 , etc , note hardly any of them match the native resolution of any content. So scaling applies to every signal they get. The scaler had better be good.

1080p sets match 1080p content , which means as little processing as possible , thats always a good thing.

If your buying a new TV , 40 inch or over , I would go with 1080p.

3D is too new to comment on , content is scarce indeed , with most titles being tied into exclusive deals. Avatar for example , cannot be bought except as part of a very expensive panasonic deal , or at ridiculously high prices on ebay.

Its seems like a fad to me , but too early to tell , and there a many problems with the new tech as there always is with any new tech.

imitation · 23-01-2011 10:12PM

Just inferring this from the question, the price difference between 1080p and 720p sets is so small now I think its always worth spending the bit extra for 1080p. Then again I'm biased, having used pcs for 15 years and starting from 320x240 and working my way up, every step up in resolution has been a joy to behold.

Its definitely true to say you benefit more from 1080p under certain circumstances (Closer to the screen, bigger screen and proper 1080p content instead of some up-scaled nonsense).

Butch Cassidy · 07-02-2011 03:07AM

As this thread has shown yes there is a difference but it's complicated.

The question you should be asking yrself is: Will I notice a difference? Will I care?

With respect to this set of question I suspect the answer will be no you won't notice a difference and you won't be too bothered by it.

I have run films on DVD and blue ray full HD setup via PS3 (as well as DVD upscaled) and showed the family and in general they couldn't tell the difference until you point it out.

It's all to do with the source. There have been less than stellar blue ray releases and excellent DVD ones that will stand up for many years to come. Hell, even some VHS tapes still hold up. Cable TV on a larger LCD screen will look v. poor and pixelated hence the marketing pitch for HD subscriptions.

Someone made the comment that it's a fad. This is kinda getting at the nub: with regards to entertainment systems people generally have gone for convenience over technology.

So all them new fancy HD LCD screens people bought primarily because they weren't massive like the CRT ones. Same goes for CD over vinyl: storage. With VHs tapes I'm not sure the masses really collected such massive film libraries as you now see in nearly every home. DVD afforded everyone the opportunity to own over a dozen Hitchcock films for only a few hrs worth of min wages.

mossym · 11-02-2011 05:03PM

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

I have run films on DVD and blue ray full HD setup via PS3 (as well as DVD upscaled) and showed the family and in general they couldn't tell the difference until you point it out.

.

which, just to be perfectly clear, has nothing to do with 1080p vs. 720p, and only to do with upscaled versus blu-ray. you can't compare 720p and 1080p on one tv. you need two, a 720p native resolution tv and a 1080p native resolution tv. your TV can't output two different resolutions,if your tv is 1080p you will always be watching 1080p output, either native or scaled from a lower resolution, so your experiment couldn't have compared anything other than scaling.

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

It's all to do with the source. There have been less than stellar blue ray releases and excellent DVD ones that will stand up for many years to come. Hell, even some VHS tapes still hold up. Cable TV on a larger LCD screen will look v. poor and pixelated hence the marketing pitch for HD subscriptions.
.

if comparing 720p and 1080p the best way to do it is use the same source into a 720p tv and into a 1080p tv and see if you see the difference, by using the same source you rule out a variable factor and just leave one, the tv

Is there a big difference between 1080P and 720P?

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