An Alternative View of Full HD

An industry-leading sound and vision reviewer (Harvey Norman) has contacted SmartHouse to shed some light on a question raising much chatter in the electrical retail industry - what constitutes full HD?

Norman explains full HD, true HD, 1080p, 1080i, and the differences - if there is any.

[RadientFlux]

While I don't agree with everything the writer says I do think that "Full HD" is just a marketing term to help sell new 1080p tvs.

[mistertwoturbo]

yes full HD really is just a marketing term.

i've had stupid best buy salesmen tell me that 480p is 1/3 HD...

...!?!##$@%$ idiot

[SquallSK]

And where is the Harvey Norman guy speaking ??

[TruthbeTold]

"Nuh uh! 1080i is teh suckzorz. Itz not teh tru HD! I can see the difference on thursdays at 9:42 a.m. when I've smoked some weed and I look out of my left eye!"

[season007]

Will there be a time that TV makers no longer make 720p TV unless it is limited by the size? say 24inches or below

We all know that 24inches or above LCD screen can produce a resolution of 1920x1080(1200) with no problem, so as a matter of fact, if tv makers are only going to make 1080p TVs after sat 1-2 years, of course it is going to be the standard for FullHD TV like 480i dominated for so many years

and btw i wonder what will HD DVD camp say if 1080p TV does dominate the market a couple years after

[The_Engineer]

I've never seen one issue draw out so much ignorance from fanboys.

here's a clue for you: Interlaced was called a bad idea back when it was first proposed 50 somewhat years ago. interlaced is why you have "jitter" or better known as "flicker" in your images. HIGH RESOLUTION devices like PC's have used ALWAYS used progressive signals.

[SDFm3rc]

Full HD was just another miserable attempt from SONY to lure sheep into buying SONY products. Don't get caught "hook line and sinker", only FISH do that.

[Biphter]

Interlaced images FLICKER! can you not see that? On My Samsung HDTV even 720p looks better than 1080i, its more solid. In 1080i Horizontal movement is noticably blurrier too. It really does depend on the TV as to how much of a difference there is, but your a fool to say interlaced is no different to Progressive Scan, if that where the case then why bother even making TV's Scan progressively?

With Progressive Scan you get a sharper more solid image.

Edit: This is meant for William below..

[WilliamRLBaker]

let alone that the human eye cannot tell the difference between P and I (the interlaced signal draws the odd and even images way to fast, if your able to see this then your using a source that is puting a crap signal out or your tv is crap)

""But according to SmartHouse's own findings, the picture quality delivered by a 1080p signal is noticeably superior to that delivered by a TV outputting a 1080i signal.""

WRONG, an 1080p signal is not noticably superior to 1080i even at above 50 inches because all p and i mean are interlaced and progressive progressive naturally has a better time at showing fast moving images and interlace is actually better then p at showing static images most tv shows you watch aren't gonna have the fast scenes needed to make P shine.

And I love the if in doubt part, Um no...Because 1080p being only 1 and a half to 2 years on the market, 1080i is gonna be your best bet, 720p and 1080i are the older standards more companies support them, all the bugs have been worked out when using them, and tvs have been designed around them, HELL shows and boardcasts we're designed around them for that fact.

It wont be any time soon that we see broadcasts catered to 1080p users (of which only account for about 10% of new hdtv purchasers)

[anh_duong]

"And I love the if in doubt part, Um no...Because 1080p being only 1 and a half to 2 years on the market, 1080i is gonna be your best bet, 720p and 1080i are the older standards more companies support them, all the bugs have been worked out when using them, and tvs have been designed around them, HELL shows and boardcasts we're designed around them for that fact. "

you are mad right? 1080p is just a resolution specification - there isn't anything hi-tech about it. it's not like a computer chip where you need years of work before you reach optimum performance. silly comment. i thought you were smarter than this. i am sadly mistaken.

[InMyOpinion]

720p is already pretty much standard for HD. If Sony had kept their promise and made all PS3 gams run in 1080p it would be different. All 360 and PS3 owners have the option to enjoy gaming in 720p.
1080p has become a feature that only very few games incorporate and a fraction of all gamers can utilize.

Also the amount of money you have to pay in order to get a TV that outputs 1080p just ain't worth it. LCD TV's are expensive enough as is(if you have a regular salary/allowance).

[Bonsai1214]

you can definitely tell the difference between p and i when you're watching a fast moving movie. it'll flicker and have other visual deficiencies you'll notice.

and once again, you don't think that people will end up buying 1080p tv's now and days? especially with this holiday season coming up? almost every tv coming out, regardless of size (which i think is stupid) has a 1080p output.

and you know why there won't be any 1080p broadcasts? because all the current broadcasting systems won't allow for the amount of bandwidth required. plus it simply costs too much to stream information at 9mb/s

[DrDreadlox]

I could understand 2 even 1 year ago when there wasnt much options in terms of 1080p tv. But in this age, your choice should be simple, 720p or 1080p for screens larger than 46in. 1080i was just a stepping stone and should just be scrapped.

[Armyless]

http://www.carltonbale.com/...

[blackmagic]

The Smarthouse summation is total crap. Go to Stephen Dawson's site for an excellent read! Only thing extra I would have added is a discussion on cabling which he flew past. Great read though!
http://www.hifi-writer.com/...

Edit: The issue in cabling is that the minimum required standard for HDMI can result in lost data transmitted especially in long cable runs at the full bandwidth required for 1080 progressive transmission. This issue will get worse as the cable ages. In this case, especially as the cable ages, a 1080 interlaced transmission could actually start to exceed the picture quality of a 1080p transmission.
Many reputable manufacturers exceed the minimum standard but you won't find them online for $9.97. Other manufacturers don't even run their cables through the certification process and potentially don't even meet minimum standards. You will find these online for $9.97

Testing overview so the manufacturer can use the 'HDMI' logo:
http://www.hdmi.org/pdf/200...

[Pain]

Anything else Fails.

Go Blu go right

p.s For the kids 1080i is below 720p in detail so stop saying other wise.

[Arutha]

So how many of you have done 1080I and 1080P comparisons? On my 55" Sony A2000 I can not tell a difference between 1080i or 1080P movies on my PS3 or HD-A1. The biggest issue I see is feeds from Direct TV when shows or sports run in 1080i. I get some macroblocking there from the action, but that is more of a bandwidth limitation then anything else. All my action movies on HD DVD look just fine with it outputting on 1080I.

I personally do not buy into the whole 1080I or 1080P debate on sets smaller then 70" I think if you start doing projecting screens with sizes in the 100" or more then you can tell a difference.

Does anyone remember a time where it didn't matter what codec you were using when watching a movie and all you cared about was if you liked it or not?