Why 1920x1080p 'Full HD'?

WingZero30 · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:11

Hi guys

As the title say, I am curious to know why 1920x1080p is considered 'Full HD'? Why not some other resolution and how was it decided that 1080p would be called 'Full HD'?

Also similar thing can be said about 1280x720p. Why is it considered 'HD ready'?

kylew · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:27

1920x1080 was decided on as a tradeoff between image quality, and available bandwith for broadcast television. 1080p is called "Full HD" because it's the maximum resolution as part of the "HDTV" specification. 720p isn't considered "Full HD" because it's not 1920x1080, but it's still a lot higher resolution than SD so is basically a "half way HD".

Though broadcast television is 1080i because of bandwith limitations, it only made sense for blurays to also be 1920x1080, but for it to be progressive rather than interlaced because bluray disks had the capacity to support it.

kristmace · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:55

^ Good knowledge Kylew

Also, the HD resolution had to be 16:9 ratio to match TV/Film spec rather than the 16:10 ratio that used to be standard widescreen for PC monitors.

I'd be gutted if my 1920x1200 monitor died and I had to downgrade to 1080p!

Redmint · 8 Sep 2011 at 18:02

Nah, you could just upgrade to 2560x1440.