On my 32" Sharp Aquos HDTV LC-32d62u 1080p HDTV, should I use 720p or 1080i for viewing sports?
My cable provider is Comcast & I have TIVO HD DVR cable reciever. When I watch sports like ESPNHD on 1080i, I noticed that the picture is not smooth as it should especially on fast motion. I tried to watch again on 720p, the picture runs smoothly but the picture quality is not as good as 1080i especially on still life image. There are less details on the players unlike 1080i which has full detail. 1080p on my Blu-ray is the best, not only it produces same detail as 1080i but also runs smooth on fast action movies. I’m using HDMI cables. My friend said I should use 1080i because it makes better picture. I love picture quality but i don’t want to downgrade the picture quality for smoother movements. You decide which better format should I use for viewing sports and explain why is it better.
The thing you have to keep in mind here is that there is a difference between what the channel’s encoded resolution is, and what your HD box outputs, and what your TV’s native resolution is.
These two are set in stone:
ESPNHD is encoded in 720p
Your TV’s native resolution is 1080p
The variable is the output from your cable box, which can be either 720p or 1080i
So, you can see that some conversion has to happen for the 720p image to show up on the 1080p screen. Generally, every time the resolution is converted, it loses some small amount of quality. Quality losses are higher for conversions between progressive and interlaced formats. So, if you set your box to output 1080i, the image has to be converted two times – once from 720p to 1080i in the box, and then from 1080i to 1080p in the TV. Those are two bad conversions.
If you set your box to output 720p, only one conversion takes place, in the TV, and it is from p to p, so that is a higher quality conversion.
NBCHD and CBSHD are encoded in 1080i, so for those stations, you probably want to set the box to output 1080i to minimize the number of conversions.
ABCHD and FOXHD are both 720p.
There should be an option for the box to output in "Native" format, which is good because it doesn’t alter the image at all, and allows the TV to do the only conversion so it maintains the highest quality.
hmm, a little long winded was it.
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