1080p v 720p

elmuzzy66. · 6 Jun 2007 at 18:26

Is there a big difference in IQ bewteen 1080p and 720p on 360 or PS3 titles that support these modes?

"andy" · 6 Jun 2007 at 18:49

more pixels on the screen ,there a difference but not a HUGE difference

Born_2_Kill_83 · 6 Jun 2007 at 18:57

so which is the better?

e36Adz · 6 Jun 2007 at 19:10

1080p would be better as its more pixels but I reckon you can only really notice the difference between 720p and 1080p on a large enough screen, say 40" plus?

I have a 26" samsung LCD which does 720p and the images are sharp and crystal clear, I doubt 1080p would offer any noticeable difference at all on such sized screens, whereas for 40"+ I would guess it would be a lot more noticeable.

silversurfer · 6 Jun 2007 at 19:17

It has to be about the game I think, if the game can render that high then of course you'd notice it especially if it didnt have aa allready

Meatball · 6 Jun 2007 at 19:35

On my Sony Bravia 55" 720 Vs 1080 is pretty obvious, 1080 is just sharper.

suarve · 6 Jun 2007 at 19:45

elmuzzy66. said:
Is there a big difference in IQ bewteen 1080p and 720p on 360 or PS3 titles that support these modes?

my uncle has a huge HD screen that supports this resolution. IMO this is way too large a resolution to play at unless your sitting about a mile away. I find 720 to be far better/playable.

Psyk · 6 Jun 2007 at 19:53

suarve said:
my uncle has a huge HD screen that supports this resolution. IMO this is way too large a resolution to play at unless your sitting about a mile away. I find 720 to be far better/playable.

Surely the screen is the same size either way? :confused:

Just 1080p will be more detailed.

Energize · 6 Jun 2007 at 21:30

Psyk said:
Surely the screen is the same size either way?
Just 1080p will be more detailed.

Yep, in fact 1080p is useful if you are sitting closer not further away.

Margaret · 6 Jun 2007 at 21:32

The difference between 480p and 720p is 100x more noticeable than 720p to 1080p, it's not that big a step up at all.

sid · 6 Jun 2007 at 21:45

Aren't all games internally rendered at 720p and then scaled up to 1080p by the scaler chip?

So its not the same effect as increasing the resolution on the pc monitor from 1024X768 to 1920X1200 .

Nothing extra is being rendered. The picture sharpness probably comes from the fact that the scaling chip in the console does a better job than the TV.

sid

t@xman · 6 Jun 2007 at 22:00

My take on it all:
Clarity of resolution is proportional to both the size of the screen and the viewing distance from that screen. The further away you sit the less resolution is appreciable, whereas inversely the larger the screen the more resolution is needed.
The following graph gives a good idea of how near or far you'd need to sit in order to appreciate the extra resolution - note with a 40" screen you'd have to sit within 5' to get the full benefit of 1080p over 720p, which in my opinion just goes to highlight the snobbery of all those championing their 20" 1080p Sony blah blah blah TV's!
http://www.carltonbale.com/wp-content/uploads/resolution_chart.png

best · 6 Jun 2007 at 22:24

1080p is a much larger resolution and outputs over twice the information! 2 million pixels compared to 720p's 0.92 million pixels, but the standards seem to have been set more towards 720p (sky and most games) except for blueray films, i would imagine both ps3 and 360 couldn't keep decent frames for that resolution with many games... anyone into pc gaming will understand cause the resolution is something i used to have to comprimise a lot when i were a pc gamer.

so 1080p is twice as good as 720p lol, but HD will be double 1080p one day...

Margaret · 6 Jun 2007 at 22:25

best said:
so 1080p is twice as good as 720p lol,

Theoritically maybe but it actually isn't if you see it in real life.

Energize · 6 Jun 2007 at 22:29

sid said:
Aren't all games internally rendered at 720p and then scaled up to 1080p by the scaler chip?

No they are rendered at 1080p.

Energize · 6 Jun 2007 at 22:30

best said:
so 1080p is twice as good as 720p lol, but HD will be double 1080p one day...

Only if you sit twice as close to the screen or get a tv twice the size.

The wavelength of light is between 400nm and 700nm and the pupil of the eye is about 5mm.

sin-1 (550nm/5mm) = 0.0063 degrees.

Then 2m*sin(0.0063) = 0.22mm.

That means at 2m at best you can make out individual pixels 0.22mm apart, any closer together than that and increasing the resolution has no effect.

rp2000 · 6 Jun 2007 at 22:37

Energize said:
No they are rendered at 1080p.

Actually nearly all 360 and ps3 games are rendered at 720P and scaled upto 1080P by the respective consoles. I think there is 1-5 games that are natively rendered at 1080p on the 360 (And then scaled down if you use a 720P display), Probably abut 1-5 on PS3 as well. (This is all excluding XBLA and PS store games).

rp2000

Mr Latte · 6 Jun 2007 at 23:53

elmuzzy66. said:
Is there a big difference in IQ bewteen 1080p and 720p on 360 or PS3 titles that support these modes?

To read your question properly and answer it fully it depends really what you want to know. Are you enquiring if you will notice much difference and trying to determine between a 720p based or 1080p display or if you have a 720p display that actually accpets a 1080p signal and use that from a console instead of the 720p output.

For instance a lot of the recent displays within the past year will offer a native res closer to 720p typically (1366x768) This includes most LCDs and Plasmas of 50". Plasmas of 42" size are typically 1024x768 in resolution so they cant even fully display all the detail within a 720p content, be it a game or film material.

Pause, think....

Ok dont automatically fall into the trap of ahh more pixels = better quality. Resolution isnt a deciding factor on tvs at all. It depends as much on the individual technology and models abilities more than if its a 1024x768 Vs 1366x768 Vs 1920x1080 display.

Regards, gaming, thiers not anywhere near as much benifit as thier is in films with 1080p. I will say youll get less jaggies but primarily the image will be sharper more defined. This also depends on the Tv or display too and really for gaming 1080p is still a bit OTT at the moment. Personally i find setting the X3560 to upscale to 1080p and then my Projector to accept that 1920x1080 image but display it within its 1280x720 pixles looks actally better than the standard 720p setting. In theory it shouldnt as im adding an extra scaling cycle but in practice it does improve the image. Practising with your own hardware is the only way of determining whats best for you as each system may offer different results.

fish99 · 7 Jun 2007 at 00:27

rp2000 said:
Actually nearly all 360 and ps3 games are rendered at 720P and scaled upto 1080P by the respective consoles. I think there is 1-5 games that are natively rendered at 1080p on the 360 (And then scaled down if you use a 720P display), Probably abut 1-5 on PS3 as well.

Yep, neither PS3 nor 360 have the power to render most of their games in 1080p, it's just too many pixels for them. The only games with 1080p support are ones that aren't demanding on the graphics hardware (fighting games etc).

Still well worth getting a 1080p LCDTV though for Blu-ray/HD-DVD.

Metalface Mark · 7 Jun 2007 at 09:20

You can only really see 1080p in true light with a PC running things.

With both PS3 and Xbox 360 its hard to see a difference in games, you would see things more noticably if you were playing something like command and conquer 3 where you had a bigger display area, but this game is 1080i. They do look sharper, although not in the same scale as going from 480p to 720p, I believe this is just the limitation of the source and not indicitive of what 1080p can do.

When you hook up an HTPC you see the true beauty of 1080p, some of the high definition demo's look truly amazing, and put blueray and HD-DVD titles to shame.