1080p

You’ve probably see the term 1080p thrown
around a lot when shopping for HDTVs, along with terms like 1080i and
720p. These refer to the different high defintion
signal formats that the display can work with. The quick and easy
explanation is that 1080p provides the best quality, so if you’re going
to get an HDTV and you want the best picture quality, you’ll want one
that supports 1080p. All 1080p displays also support the 1080i and 720p
formats. Most HDTVs of both Plasma and LCD types on sale now are 1080p models, but many rear projection TVs only support 720p or 1080i.

To get a bit more technical 1080p refers to a format for television
signals that contains 1080 lines from top to bottom. The “p” indicates
that the lines are being dispayed in a progressive manner, meaning that
all the lines are being displayed at the same time, 60 times a second.
This is in contrast to 1080i displays where there are actually two sets
of 540 lines that are alternated very quickly, one set being shown
every thirtieth of a second. The result is that 1080i signals look more
jittery; in between the two sets of frames, the image will have
changed, and this produces the odd jagged look of some interlaced TV
signals.

720p displays also use progressive scanning, so all the lines are
displayed at once, but there are fewer lines to display. Despite the
reduced resolution, however, the progressive display can often produce
better picture quality than 1080i. For example many sporting events are
broadcast in 720p as they contain a lot of motion, and this looks
better in 720p.

So once you have a 1080p television you’re golden, right? Not
necessarily. The simple truth is that there just isn’t very much 1080p
content out there at the moment. Almost all broadcast television is
1080i, and even high definition consumer camcorders only record at
1080i. But there’s still a benefit; a good television will have built
in technology to convert a 1080i signal into 1080p by deinterlacing the
two sets of lines. You should make sure that your 1080p television is
capable of this. Material that is deinterlaced will generally look
better than the original 1080i content, but still won’t look as good as
a true 1080p signal. In fact about the only place you can get true
1080p content is via a Blu-Ray disc and the now defunct HD-DVD format.
Despite the limited availability of content manufacturers are now
offering 1080p displays across their entire product range and any
potential savings you might have gotten in previous years by going with
a 720p or 1080i television are disappearing. We recommend that you do
purchase a 1080p television as this will ensure that you get the best
picture quality as more and more sources of 1080p content become
available.