1080i/720p vs. 1080p?
I'm currently in the market for a new television and have my heart set on either a 40 inch 1080i LCD that has a built in DVD player and HD tuner for $1,300 or a 42 inch 1080p LCD that has neither a built in DVD player or HD tuner for $1,700. I've checked the specs and the 42 inch LCD actually has the same size screen dimensions as the 40 incher so is 1080p really that much of an improvement over 1080i/720p?
Yup.1080i, the former king of the HDTV hill, actually boasts an identical 1,920x1,080 resolution but conveys the images in an interlaced format (the i in 1080i). In a tube-based television, otherwise known as a CRT, 1080i sources get "painted" on the screen sequentially: the odd-numbered lines of resolution appear on your screen first, followed by the even-numbered lines--all within 1/30 of a second. Progressive-scan formats such as 480p, 720p, and 1080p convey all of the lines of resolution sequentially in a single pass, which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content. As opposed to tubes, microdisplays (DLP, LCoS, and LCD rear-projection) and other fixed-pixel TVs, including plasma and LCD flat-panel, are inherently progressive in nature, so when the incoming source is interlaced, as 1080i is, they convert it to progressive scan for display.
HD 1080p VS 1080i
