Watching 1080i programing on a 720p HDTV

[sidedk]

Hi.

I'm curious what difference if any there is when watching 1080i cable programing on a 720p hdtv. I noticed all my cable HD channels are broadcast in 1080i. How does this work?

Thanks.

[BJ_M]

it is downconverted of course .... as to how it looks , it depends on the panel in question ... if you are on cable , you might want to put your box in auto mode and set it up for all resolutions (you can do this for example on SA boxs) -- it all really depends how good your panel is ....

[edDV]

The Comcast boxes seem to require all 1080i or all 720p (1080i to 720p conversion done in cable box). That SA programmable mode is much better.

For a 720p TV,
720p out of the cable box forces the cable box to convert 1080i to 720p.

1080i out of the cable box causes your HDTV to do the conversion to 720p. Unfortunately it also converts 720p channels to 1080i and then forces your HDTV to convert them back to 720p.

Unless you have a high end deinterlacer in the TV, the 720p setting is probably better for a 720p display. This would also follow for a 1366x768 progressive panel.

[dwisniski]

I watch HD cable from my SA 8300HD box at 1080i, with all channels set at 1080i resolution on my Panny AE900u 720p projector. To my eyes, everything looks better at 1080i, whether that is the channels native broadcast resoultion or if the channel is being upconverted to 1080i. I've tried watching every channel at its native resolution, whether it is 720p, 480 i/p, and I find the picture to be much more pleasing for all channels at 1080i. I also have my HD-DVD player and Blu-ray player set at 1080i, and am extremely happy with the PQ.