HDTV Secrets Part 2: The 1080p Debate

Recently, there's been a great deal of marketing hype surrounding the new 1080p HDTVs. These are the highest-resolution screens on the market today and are priced higher than the traditional 720p/1080i screens we've seen on the market for the last few years.

Sensing an opportunity for some HDTV insight, I asked my TV guru, PC Magazine's Robert Heron, what's most important when you get ready to buy a TV; is 1080p resolution as important as manufacturers would have you think?

To my great surprise, Robert says no. "Resolution isn't even in my top three buying considerations: price is the real factor for consumers, but in terms of quality, I place the most importance on contrast, color saturation, and color accuracy. They count more than resolution." If that's the case, what's the big deal with resolution?

First: What Is Resolution?
Resolution is the measure of how much data is being displayed in the monitor. It impacts the crispness and detail of the image. It's measured by how many lines of video are projected on to the screen: the more lines, the higher the resolution.

Traditional TVs top out at 480 lines. True HDTVs (not enhanced TVs, or EDTVs) start at 720 lines, but most these days ship at 1080 lines. There's a catch; it's interlaced (i) lines, not progressive (p) scan lines.

Interlaced (1080i)
Interlaced means that all the even lines are drawn first and the odd lines are drawn immediately afterward (so fast the eye could never discern the drawing). To create a mental picture of what I'm talking about, hold out your left hand and "interlace" the fingers from you right hand: you get two sets of interlaced lines.

Progressive (1080p)
Progressive means that all the lines are sequentially drawn in one fell swoop, top to bottom. The mental picture: put your hands together side by side so that the pointer fingers of the left and right hands are next to each other and touching. That's progressive scan.

Progressive Versus Interlaced
The first significant wave of HDTVs shipped at 720p/1080i. Now manufacturers are touting HDTVs that scan at 1080p as a visual breakthrough. When you are investing a few thousand dollars in a TV, spending a bit more for good measure seems like a good idea, but does the higher resolution of a 1080p TV merit the higher cost?

Buying a 1080p set may be a small way to futureproof your set, but according to home video organizations like the Imaging Science Foundation and this great article detailing a real-world comparison between 1080p and its lower-resolution cousins 720p and 1080i, the actual screen images are so similar that the naked eye can barely notice a difference.

The other issue is that only a handful of sources can feed you 1080p right now: HD-DVDs, the PS3, and the Xbox 360 are the primary sources. TV broadcasts still top out at 720p, and that won't change anytime soon.

Here's what Robert says on the 1080p issue: "With proper video processing, 1080i delivers identical image quality to 1080p. 1080i is the most common broadcast HD format and it is the highest resolution of current broadcast content...Screen size, viewing distance (in your living room), and the performance of the display all factor into how much of a 'benefit' 1080p content can provide over 720p or lower-resolution video."

Bottom line, if you have the extra cash and want the latest HDTV with top-of-the-line specs, get a 1080p HDTV. If you are weighing budget into your HDTV equation, 1080p may not be the most important factor to consider.