50" 1080p? or 1080i? Is it really worth spending the extra £££?

/\ndy · 27 Nov 2009 at 23:56

Hey guys,

Currently have a 37" 1080p tv and want to upgrade to a 50" plasma seeing as there so cheap. Am i really going to see the difference between the 1080i and the 1080p versions? All i am going to use if for is for gaming (xbox and ps3) and watching films.

Thanks for reading.

kylew · 28 Nov 2009 at 06:15

1080i doesn't actually mean the TV has a 1920x1080 screen, it just means it can accept a 1080i input.

You'll need to find out what the exact specs of the TV are.

Not all HD TVs are even proper HD either, a lot of them are just branded "HD Ready" meaning they can accept a HD signal via HDMI.

RSR · 28 Nov 2009 at 11:39

It all depends really on the content you are going to be watching whether it be mostly HD content or SD content.

mame · 28 Nov 2009 at 11:49

The cheap plasmas I see tend to be 1024x768 even now

deadite66 · 28 Nov 2009 at 11:57

my panasonic is crap, no edid on vga and only 1280x720 on hdmi, can't turn off overscan so i loose the edges.

lunarwolf · 28 Nov 2009 at 12:00

yes 1080p especially for large screen. unless you sit really far back. on smaller screen like 32" you can get away with 1080i, but it shows lot more on larger ones

TALON1973 · 28 Nov 2009 at 12:04

/\ndy said:
Hey guys,

Currently have a 37" 1080p tv and want to upgrade to a 50" plasma seeing as there so cheap. Am i really going to see the difference between the 1080i and the 1080p versions? All i am going to use if for is for gaming (xbox and ps3) and watching films.

Thanks for reading.

hes quoting 1080 "i" v 1080 "p" - 1080i is the same as 720p . i think hes confused himself abit

because if was using 1080i to watch movies on the new 50" tv id say whats the point ? hes got a full 1080p already

lunarwolf · 28 Nov 2009 at 12:07

TALON1973 said:
1080i is the same as 720p .

no it isn't.

deadite66 · 28 Nov 2009 at 12:17

would 1080i be better than 720p if the panel can do 1366x768?
i assume the tv would scale the image to 1366x768 with a 1080i signal.

TALON1973 · 28 Nov 2009 at 12:19

lunarwolf said:
no it isn't.

its a few pixels either way .. near as dammit the same

lunarwolf · 28 Nov 2009 at 12:28

TALON1973 said:
its a few pixels either way .. near as dammit the same

no it isnt; one is progressive and the other is interlaced, 720p has more pixels, and you see the difference on larger screens provided you don' sit too far away from the TV.

sambot · 28 Nov 2009 at 14:15

generally your gunna get what you pay for,

if you want a cheap tv im sure you could pick up a 50 inch "hd ready tv" for £700 or so, and on the box it would probably have nice looking features like something saying up to 1080p input and stuff like that when in reality it has a crappy 1366x768 display and will just downscale any 1080 inputs down to this res.

if on the other hand you double your spending figure you could get the same size tv with a full 1080p display and have a much better picture.

anyone with a 360/ps3/blueray player should go for a progressive scan tv (720p/1080p) as they display best this way

masterluke · 29 Nov 2009 at 09:44

short answer - yes you will notice a difference between full 1080p and a lower quality input (be it 1080i or 720p) on a fullhd 50" plasma.

I guess you have to ask yourself if the difference in quality is worth the extra money to you.. Personally i think its hard to justify £500+ on the difference 720p > 1080p on the same size screen but then it depends on how much cash you have lying around and how much you value the best quality available.

Andr3w · 29 Nov 2009 at 09:48

If you get a TV that size that cant do 1080p, everytime you are watching a blu-ray etc you will be kicking yourself!

Stag · 29 Nov 2009 at 09:53

Depends if you're going to buy lots of bluray, if not, then get the lower res screen.

Corasik · 29 Nov 2009 at 11:41

Technically with most sources there is no difference between 1080i and 1080p, both are 1920x1080 resolution, but with 1080i the frame is split in two and tranmitted over the air (or cables) as 2 frames.

However most plasma TV's re'assemble the 1080i 60hz signal into a 1080p 30hz and then frame double back to 1080p 60hz.

The biggest thing that a full 1920x1080 1080i TV generally cant do is correct timing for a 24hz source, they are more likely to judder than a good 1080p TV with 72hz or above capabilities.

The actual pixel resolution of the panel is more important than the recievers input capabilities. (IE is it a 1024x768, or a 1920x1080 or something inbetween).

For broadcast TV, (Freesat HD or Sky HD, or when it comes Freeview HD) then over the air broadcasting of anything better than 1080i is unlikely, it offers very little advantage and has a very large bandwidth overhead.

If BluRay or gaming is your thing, just bite the bullet and get 1080p. Unless you are sitting farther than 5 meters from the TV in which case you need more than 50inch to really "realise" the benifits of 1080i or 1080p.

PESolution · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:17

TALON1973 said:
1080i is the same as 720p

lol

sswats · 30 Nov 2009 at 16:12

I think something like the Panasonic X series in 50" looks great, and you wont notice too much that its only at 720p. sure if you look for ti you'll notice it, but you're going to be engrossed in a movie or game it shouldn't bother you too much.

And you won't notice it at all when gaming where majority of games don't play at full HD anyway, and some run even less than 720p (COD, HALO).
And then the 720p TV's generally have better pictures for SD viewing.

Overall I would favour getting a full HD TV, but I'd rather get a 720p Panasonic than a full HD LG or samsung.

If you can afford the full HD Panasonic, its about £200 more and it'll stay with you for at least 3-5 years so you're payuing about £4 a month extra for a better TV.
If its too much, getting a 720p panasonic TV for cheap is hardly a mistake.