What is the actual Broadcast Resolution? 768tvs obsolete?

[rokybird]

What is the actual broadcast resolution from the satellites (DishNetwork) or cable? Are they broadcasting a resolution of 1200 by 2,000. or much less. Will a new 1080 by 1900 tv give you a better picture than the 768 tvs. I have a 32"philips 4;3tv and its picture with Dishnetwork Hd is much, much better than the standard programming.

Are the 768 tvs obsolete allready?

[evil__betty]

Most HD tvs out there are fixed pixel displays - this means that they have a fixed resolution of usually something like 1368 x 720 (CRT televisions are the exception to this). When a cable company or satillite company broadcasts HD they will use (and even give you the option of choosing) either a 720p signal or a 1080i signal (you can choose this when you go into your set top box's set up options).

For almost anyone with a fixed pixel display, the native resolution should be the signal that you feed it. For example, if you have resolution of 768, then you should choose the 720p signal, where as if you have a CRT HD TV of any kind, you should choose 1080i as your signal (that is a CRT native resolution). If you choose the opposite of your sets native rez, your TV will have to scale the image to fit and fill the screen properly - resulting in PQ (picture quality) loss. All sets will be able to accept either the 720p or 1080i signal, but going with native rez is the best.

A scaler in a TV is one of the most important things (next to a video processor), and a higher quality scaler will give you a better picture - regardless of resoultion (thats how you can explain why 2 different tvs - with identical resolution - can look so different).

Will a 1080p TV look better than a 720p TV on the same signal??? Theoretically, yes. Realalistically? Not really, unless you are sitting closer than 8 feet from the set. If you are 12 feet away, you won't notice much, if any difference. 1080p will become the standard............ eventually. But for now, broadcast companies are still scrambling, trying to upgrade things to 720p. In my opinion, it will be quite a while before we see anything in true 1080p. So buy with confidence, your TV won't be outdated to the point of extinction just yet.

[rokybird]

I saw a 2 million pixel dlp tv at circuit city at it had a very sharp picture;but it was being fed from a computer download with a $400 video card that the sales guy said was outputting 1080p. I went into compusa and their tvs were being fed by a dvd player, they sell a million dollars worth of tvs and they cant be bothered to feed them a HD signal. I went to Costco and the guy selling the cameras there didn't want to bother to charge the batteries in them.

The image quality you see is a function of both distance from the set and the size of the set and the number of pixels. Two few pixels and you will get a fuzzy image, too many and you will exceed what your eye can resolve.. However I think the optimum number is about 2 million for a 40 inch set.. Its about one million for the typical PC monitor. But you have to get the data from the broadcaster,

[rokybird]

The only reason the 768 tvs look the same as the newer 1080 two million pixel tvs in the showroom is because they are being fed the 720p signal from the cable box (since most of the tvs are 768). This information comes from a poster on another board. He had the salesguy switch the box to 1080i and he said there was a very noticeable improvement. There are some channels (Fox) that are only broadcasting in 720p but most are in 1080i.

[evil__betty]

The only reason the 768 tvs look the same as the newer 1080 two million pixel tvs in the showroom is because they are being fed the 720p signal from the cable box (since most of the tvs are 768). This information comes from a poster on another board. He had the salesguy switch the box to 1080i and he said there was a very noticeable improvement. There are some channels (Fox) that are only broadcasting in 720p but most are in 1080i.
Quoted from HomeTheatre Magazine January 2006, page 18:

Resolution is only one aspect of a display's performance. You can easily have a 1080p set that looks worse than a 720p set. All the 1080p displays on the market today will upconvert 480 and 720p signals to 1080p. It's worth noting that, when you feed one of these sets a 1080i signal, it deinterlaces this signal into a 1080p image. This is different than scaling. If it does this deinterlacing well, it's doubtful you'll see much of a difference between a native 1080p and a deinterlaced 1080i image on most sources (games being an exception). Also if you are sitting more than 10 feet away from a set smaller than 65 inches, it is unlikely you'll see a difference between 1080p and 720p, anyway.

I would take this information over 'a poster on another board' any day of the week. but if you really want to see a difference, then by all means, allow yourself to see a difference. Like I said before, 720p sets are going to be around for quite a while before they get pushed out by whatever else might come down the pipe even if the guy at Costco won't change batteries in digital cameras.