Is 1080p Really Worth It?

Reader Chris writes:  I'm in the market for an LCD TV. Is it worthwhile to purchase a 1080p set over a 720p TV? HD broadcasts are only 1080i and I only have a progressive scan dvd player (waiting to see which high-definition DVD format wins).

This is a confusing issue that is stymieing many current TV buyers: Future content will be heavily delivered in 1080p format, but virtually nothing you have today is, especially if you don't have a high-definition DVD player. Should you "future-proof" by buying a 1080p set now or will you be fine with a 720p/1080i set?

The first question you should ask is how soon you expect to make the jump to 1080p content. In a year? In three years? The longer you wait, the more appropriate a 720p set will be today and the less sense it makes to buy a 1080p set. Rest assured, without a 1080p signal going into it, you'll see no difference in quality on a 720p vs. a 1080p set. If you think you'll go high-def in the next 12 months, though, it makes more sense to consider 1080p now.

Another issue is overall quality, even if you do go with 1080p. Very few TV viewers can tell the difference between a 720p, a 1080i, and a 1080p signal. While you'll see more differences between 720p and 1080p on a paused picture, virtually all TV watching is done with moving images, where ultrafine detail often goes unnoticed. You might try this for yourself at a TV showroom. See if you can tell the difference between a 720p and 1080p image side by side when standing 12 feet away from the set. If you're getting a smaller TV, you may never be able to notice any difference at all if you sit at a standard viewing distance. Your eyes simply won't be able to see the detail. (Use this calculator to help determine whether going to 1080 will make any difference depending on how big a set you're buying.)

Last but not least, there's price. As you know, TV prices are all over the map, but going from a 720p to a 1080p set will add substantially to the cost of your set. I did some spot-checking on 720p vs. 1080p sets from the same manufacturer, of the same size, and from the same retailer, and found that 1080p adds about 50 percent to the cost of the TV. Deals and features, of course, vary widely, but that was pretty consistent in my examinations. For a 45-inch TV, that could mean a $1000 price difference... all for something you might not be able to notice at all. That's worth thinking about.

Finally, there's the issue that 1080p is probably not the end of the line for video resolution. Already people are talking about 2160p, "super high-definition," "ultra HD," and other next-gen formats. It's really an inevitability that one or more of them will someday come to pass. 1080p could eventually look like junk in comparison to them... provided, of course, you're sitting 3 inches from the screen.

I know there's a lot of conflicting advice here, so I want to leave you with a bottom line: Choose the size set that will work in your home and has the connectors you need, then buy the best TV (the one that looks best to you) you can afford now, whether it's 1080p or not. Being happy with the picture you see is a lot more important than whether it has some mysterious specs under the hood which don't really mean anything in the end.