1080i vs 720p (not picture quality)

oweneades · 4 Jul 2007 at 07:26

Hi all,

I have noticed something quite odd with my 360 over the past few nights.

Basically I bought Forza 2 at the weekend and after a few hours of the normal crash after 10 mins play for hours on 720p I decided hmmm I wonder what 1080i looks like.

Well not only does 1080i look better in forza 2 on my tv I have had not one single crash.

So for me this is a double bonus lol.

Has anyone else found this to be the case? Is there any reason for why my 360 freezes / crashes (no red lights) when on 720p in forza yet in 1080i all is well.

I'm confused lol.

Kreeeee · 4 Jul 2007 at 07:42

The only difference between 720p and 1080i is that the scaler chip is used. There should be no stability gained from it.

oweneades · 4 Jul 2007 at 07:53

Kreeeee said:
The only difference between 720p and 1080i is that the scaler chip is used. There should be no stability gained from it.

Indeed and this is why I am totally baffled.

In terms of heat produced there is no difference and everything else is the same so it would be logical that my 360 should crash when using 1080i just as it does with 720p. Yet it doesn't. lol I won't moan though

Kreeeee · 4 Jul 2007 at 07:57

oweneades said:
Indeed and this is why I am totally baffled.

In terms of heat produced there is no difference and everything else is the same so it would be logical that my 360 should crash when using 1080i just as it does with 720p. Yet it doesn't. lol I won't moan though

Does it crash if you go back to 720p now? It may be unrelated to the resolution, or alternatively it could be a software bug.

Bigpops · 4 Jul 2007 at 09:00

I read somewhere in the last couple of weeks a rumour that the scaler chip (ANA) everyone was talking about, doesn't actually do any scaling, and it's just a video encoding chip. Scaling is done on the GPU.

Maybe that's true.

weescott · 4 Jul 2007 at 09:05

I read that as well, it came from M$ so I would hope it was true.

Margaret · 4 Jul 2007 at 09:06

Only thing I noticed from 720 > 1080i was that menus seemed sharper.

KNiVES · 4 Jul 2007 at 10:46

The jaggies are much less prominent on 1080i for Forza 2. Especially when you look in the distance. I found this quite strange, as I couldnt see a difference in any other games.

ZXSpectrum · 4 Jul 2007 at 10:51

I noticed that if i play PGR3 at 1080i the intro bit with the cars racing around starts to stutter where as its totally fine at 720p... :confused:

Dutch Guy · 4 Jul 2007 at 11:59

Isn't 1080i = 30fps and 720p = 60fps :confused:

squiffy · 4 Jul 2007 at 12:04

1080i is 1920x1080, Interlaced.

knowledge123 · 4 Jul 2007 at 12:10

Dutch Guy said:
Isn't 1080i = 30fps and 720p = 60fps

it is

Dutch Guy · 4 Jul 2007 at 12:32

knowledge123 said:
it is

So if the game crashes at 720p and not 1080i can't it be that the game is less stressing for the system at 1080i as it only runs at 30fps instead of 60fps?

knowledge123 · 4 Jul 2007 at 12:41

Dutch Guy said:
So if the game crashes at 720p and not 1080i can't it be that the game is less stressing for the system at 1080i as it only runs at 30fps instead of 60fps?

This is single-handedly the most bizzare glitch i've ever heard of, tbh, even more so then the 'shoot the crossbow at the police station to destroy it' glitch in Boiling Point.

I loved that game

oweneades · 5 Jul 2007 at 07:19

Kreeeee said:
Does it crash if you go back to 720p now? It may be unrelated to the resolution, or alternatively it could be a software bug.

I havn't actually tried that tbh (since forza 2 looks better in 1080i on my tv as well as it crashing on 720p before I don't see the point. However I think I will do a bit of testing.

Its interesting about the 30-60fps difference however in game I see absolutely no difference even at speed (ie if I did a blind test I couldn't tell you which is 30fps and which is 60fps).

Overall if the game looks better added to the fact I get no freezes I am not complaining.

Now I really need to get another VGA cable. (mine broke)

oweneades · 5 Jul 2007 at 07:23

KNiVES said:
The jaggies are much less prominent on 1080i for Forza 2. Especially when you look in the distance. I found this quite strange, as I couldnt see a difference in any other games.

just to reply to this post as well.

I have noticed this. Forxa 2 for me is the only games that shows a noticable improvement for me at 1080i compared to 720p in terms of the on screen image quality.

In stark contrast RB6:V looks quite frankly terrible in 1080i compared to 720p.

Whether this has something to do with the scaler chip and how the console is rendering the game I don't know however it just seems well odd.

Kreeeee · 5 Jul 2007 at 08:03

oweneades said:
I havn't actually tried that tbh (since forza 2 looks better in 1080i on my tv as well as it crashing on 720p before I don't see the point. However I think I will do a bit of testing.

Its interesting about the 30-60fps difference however in game I see absolutely no difference even at speed (ie if I did a blind test I couldn't tell you which is 30fps and which is 60fps).

Overall if the game looks better added to the fact I get no freezes I am not complaining.

Now I really need to get another VGA cable. (mine broke)

It's not 30 fps.

You still get 60 refreshes a second but during each refresh only odd or even lines (half the screen) is refreshed. This results in blurred and poorly defined edges but a higher resolution using half the bandwidth.

With 1080i there are 30 complete refreshes a second but you'd have to be very naive/misinformed to say it's the same as 30fps as it clearly is not.

james.miller · 5 Jul 2007 at 08:21

Kreeeee said:
With 1080i there are 30 complete refreshes a second but you'd have to be very naive/misinformed to say it's the same as 30fps as it clearly is not.

its 30 full frames per second however you cut it.

Kreeeee · 5 Jul 2007 at 08:33

james.miller said:
its 30 full frames per second however you cut it.

Yes, but even you can understand that it's very different to 30fps progressive, as new data is being displayed every 1/60th of a second rather than every 1/30th. This makes an obvious difference.

james.miller · 5 Jul 2007 at 09:38

even i? what are you trying to imply?

there are 30 full frames displayed per second. with interlaced material these frames are split in to fields. all the odd numbered lines are drawn in the first field, all the even numbered lines are drawn in the second field. each two fields = 1 frame.

yes, the screen is 'updated' 60 times a second. it wouldnt matter if it were updated 1000 times a second, there's still only 30 frames to display.