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  1. Member
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    Hi,

    I am looking to buy a medai player 1080p and I found a good deal but it is 1080i, so I would like to know if it is a big difference and is it worth to pay double and buy the 1080p?

    Thanks in advance,
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    The Seagate media player originally came as a 1080i player and some are still for sale an drastically reduced prices.
    I would think the answer for you would be how you intend to use the device and what kink of TV you intend to use with it. Also, important is if the device has an HDMI output. I thought the earlier Seagate didn't have those. So if you have less than a 1080p TV and your TV accepts 1080i or 720p without HDMI and the price is right , why not?

    The 1080p media players run about $100 to $130.
    Walmart had the Seagate 1080i player with a removable hard disk for $ 60 recently.

    Tony
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    Thanks Toy for your reply and I have 1080P TV and the player I intend to buy has hdmi output, so still didn't get the answer if the difference is noticable and worth to spend more money.
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  4. There is no single answer.

    When 1080p material is sent to your TV as 1080i the TV will have to convert it back to 1080p. Quality varies from TV to TV. If you don't mind watching 1080i broadcast or cable stations you should be ok.

    When 1080i material is played it has to be deinterlaced for the 1080p TV. Either the TV will do it or the 1080p player. Which looks better will depend on which has the better deinterlacer. 1080p players usually let you specify 1080i output so at least you have that option if the player doesn't deinterlace well.

    Also, check to make sure your 1080p TV accepts 1080p input. Many do not.
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  5. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Also, what is your 1080p source?

    The only sources for 1080p/24 (23.976) are Blu-Ray and some camcorders. Of the "Full 1080p" HDTV sets, most accept only 24p (23.976p) over HDMI.

    There isn't a normal source for 1080p/59.94. Most likely it is converted.

    If the WDTV is converting 720p or 1080i to 1080p/59.94, and the HDTV accepts 1080p/59.94 and has a "just scan mode", you are bypassing the TV scaler. If the HDTV doesn't have a "just scan" mode, it will overscan scale 1920x1080p up 3-10% and crop back to 1920x1080. That will degrade the picture quality twice (i.e. first the WDTV deinterlaces or upscales to 1080p and then the HDTV upscales again and crops).

    If your HDTV is crap, maybe the WDTV does a better processing job. If your HDTV has a quality processor (above Walmart no-names) then the HDTV will do better with 1080i or 720p source.
    Last edited by edDV; 28th Mar 2010 at 23:58.
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    I am not a tech expert, so my question is if I have a movie file ripped from blue ray dvd 1080p and I am using the same tv 1080p (mine is Sony kdl40v5400) and I used 2 player one with out put max resolution 1080i and the other is 1080p do I see the difference in quality?
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  7. With that TV and Blu-ray rips you probably won't notice much difference between 1080i and 1080p transmission.
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  8. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by mishtag View Post
    I am not a tech expert, so my question is if I have a movie file ripped from blue ray dvd 1080p and I am using the same tv 1080p (mine is Sony kdl40v5400) and I used 2 player one with out put max resolution 1080i and the other is 1080p do I see the difference in quality?
    It would depend on how that rip was re-encoded, how the software player (or media player) is set, the type of connection, whether the TV overscans, etc.

    You should play it both ways and see which plays with better quality. Done correctly, a telecined 1920x1080i/29.97 playback should display identical to a 1920x1080p/23.976 playback.

    You are in Canada. Your TV appears to be a European model. Is that true? In that case other issues come into play.
    http://www.plasma-lcd-crt.com/tvs/manufacturers/pos/sony_kdl-40v4500
    Last edited by edDV; 29th Mar 2010 at 22:58.
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    First, thanks to all sharing their thoughts, second, I had a typo my tv is kdl40v5100 and it is a noth america system, third I was so close to decide buying the 1080i player thinking that most of the movies in the internet are 720p but when I called Sony Tech to ask about my tv and how it react toward 1080i vs 1080p they told me the difference is noticable and they recommand to go with 1080p, now I am in the firs square and thinking again.
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  10. You will not see much difference between 1080i and 1080p transmission from the player to that TV. But why not be safe and get the 1080p player. Then you can try both modes and see for yourself.
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  11. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by mishtag View Post
    First, thanks to all sharing their thoughts, second, I had a typo my tv is kdl40v5100 and it is a noth america system, third I was so close to decide buying the 1080i player thinking that most of the movies in the internet are 720p but when I called Sony Tech to ask about my tv and how it react toward 1080i vs 1080p they told me the difference is noticable and they recommand to go with 1080p, now I am in the firs square and thinking again.
    Basically I agree with Jagabo. Get the one that can do 1080p or 1080i.

    The kdl40v5100 is a budget Sony model so will have a mid range interlace processor. But it is a 120Hz model. If you feed it 23.976p it will frame repeat 5x or or interpolate intermediate frames based on settings. If you feed it telecined 1080i it will first inverse telecine, then frame repeat ot interpolate for 120Hz. In theory, both will get the same result. In the real world, you need to try 1080p vs. 1080i and frame repeat vs. interpolate and make your judgement.

    For live source (e.g. TV sports) 1080i should be best by far unless you like the artsy NFL films 24p. Even so NFL films source will be inverse telecined anyway.
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    Thanks to all participate in my thread, finally I made my mind and ordered a 1080p media player, when I was thinking about the 1080i it was because the following:
    1. 1080i price is lower than the 1080p (maybe half) and even might have more features like recording.
    2. most of the movies I find in the internet are 720p and few are 1080p and when I find the 1080p it is very big file and need so much time to download.
    But at the end I chose to buy the 1080p just in case if one day I have a 1080p movie file and want to take the advantage of having a 1080 tv and enjoy the best pictures, and I will continue to read the new posts maybe I will learn more or I hope it would be useful for others.

    Best regards to all,
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  13. What players are you looking at? That may be more important than whether they output 1080i or 1080p.
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    Jagabo, I am not sure that I understood your question, but maybe the answer is that I was looking for a media player which plays movie files from a storage device like HDD drives or USB sticks and they also play musice files like mp3 and pictures files, and some of them have more options, like connecting to a network where you can play a shared files, other features are connecting to internet and some of them have recording options, so the importance of 1080i and1080p is when you have file that was ripped from a blue ray DVD you may want to get to best picture possible with the media player and of course the 1080p is better than 1080i.
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  15. Originally Posted by mishtag View Post
    the importance of 1080i and 1080p is when you have file that was ripped from a blue ray DVD you may want to get to best picture possible with the media player and of course the 1080p is better than 1080i.
    Not necessarily. A good HDTV will recognize that the 1080i stream is simply 1080p images and reassemble them into 1080p for display.

    I asked which particular players you were looking at because a good player that only outputs 1080i could be a better player than a poor player that outputs 1080p. In that case the picture quality you see on the HDTV may be better from the 1080i player.
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    Thanks for your advice jagabo, but it is now too late I already ordered mine and at the bigging I was watching WD tv live and I found it is expensive in Canada and when I was searching on the net I foud a lot of choices from China and although some people saying it might not be a goo quality I beleive that even the WD tv live is from china and only because it have WD on it it makes the difference and mine is Measy E8HD, I found that this player has nice options and the company Measy has a good site so looks like they are trustable, I hope I am not wrong.
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  17. The Measy E8HD looks good on paper! Please post your observations after you get it.
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  18. It looks like a typical low-cost player to me. There are a lot of such players based on the Realtek 1073 chip out there; they shouldn't cost you more than US$90-120 for the versions without hard drives (they're basically clones, although their interfaces might differ).
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    No problem Jagabo, I will post my observations when I recieve it and test it.
    creamyhorro, the same player has different prices with different sellers and you might even find it more expensive in ebay, and it cost me $92+$34shipping, it is not cheap yet it is not expensive, WD tv live is almost $140+tax in Canada but I find it from time to time in price grabber with $108 and free shipping but in US, so is it expensive or cheap?
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  20. $92 is fine as a basic price, I guess it was the shipping from China/HK that made the price high for you. I would have thought the WD TV Live would be about the same price shipped to Canada as compared to the US...
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  21. What makes or breaks these media players is the quality of the firmware. How good the navigation is, how well they handle different codecs and containers, features, and quirks...

    For example, the WDTV Live doesn't support DVD/BD menus (it just plays the longest title in an ISO file or VOB set). It has problems with some MP4 files (it plays the video 2x or 3x too fast, these same files play properly on the earlier WDTV). It has very limited playlist support (files must be one folder down from the playlist and the titles in the list are always played in alphabetical order). Sometimes the video decoder chip locks up but the CPU doesn't realize it (navigation still works but you just get a black screen when you play a video). Under some mysterious conditions some network share names don't show up. It's very hard to access shares on a 64 bit Windows 7 computer. It always displays a message about the audio type for a few seconds at the start of playback. It has a very small remote control with few buttons. Subtitles are sometimes too high on the screen. Etc.
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  22. Be careful, a 1080i player most likely cannot decode and play 1080p video. Currently, the cheapest and most reliable 1080p capable players all use the Realtek 1073 or Sigma Design chipsets. These are not cheap and certainly not for $60. If you see a player that claims it can do 1080i, it most likely is referring to its video connection output capability. It is probably still limited to only SD resolution videos, but will upscale to 1080i for output.
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    OK, let me summarize my thought:
    1. I know by buying unknown brand I am taking a chance but due to experience I had from unknown brand it was OK with me.
    2. I wanted to buy WD TV live but it was expensive and it doesn’t have option live playing rmvb files unlike Measy player.
    3. One of the negatives of buying Measy player is that I wasn’t able to find reviews from people who bought it either because it is new products or it was only sold in China / HK and I had to search in Chinese language, while the reviews for WD TV live is very very good.
    4. I am not sure if I will have a good support for either the Measy company or the seller, I tried to send few emails to Measy asking for the guide to have an idea and when I received an answer it was a link for their download option in their site with guide in Chinese and it was posted in the day I asked for it, so looks like they are new with this product, then I sent another email asking for the English version and I got the answer saying that they will update their site soon with the English guide, so one way they are not prepared and another way it was good that they answered me and complied with my requests.
    5. I am not sure if this player is clone because the clone means there is an original so which is my player original, is it possible they all coming from the same manufacture (I don’t mean Measy) and they apply the brand name on it as per the buyers.
    6. I know some people might say based on the above why then you bought it and the answer is in this story, my first DVD player was Samsung and it was a good quality player but with limited options and when I got a DVD from Asia with different region I was asking which player would play multi regions and the answer from one of my friends to look for an unknown DVD player and it was true I bought player called Kaco and it wasn’t only playing multi region but also had other options that my Samsung doesn’t like fast forward and rewind, it had also 5.1 output and component while my Samsung didn’t, so I still have this player and every time I have problem to play a DVD with my Samsung I use Kaco and it has no problem and that gave me an impression that buying unknown brand some times is not a bad idea.

    Sorry for the long post but I hope it would be useful,
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    Sorry it took me too long to get back, and here are my feedback:
    The goods:
    1. The player working very well, the picture is nice and I don't know if other player would have better picture quality.
    2. Most file format worked with it excep asf files.
    3. The player looks good and built very strong.
    4. The remote has a lot of short cut functions.
    The bads:
    1. The device is clone, no model no or serial no on the player.
    2. The support is very bad, and the communication is very slow, it takes days to get an answer if they replied.
    3. The manual is very small and summerized, a lot of function are not explained.
    4. Don't expect to have an update SW to solve problem if any.

    Conclusion: I don't recommend it unless if you want to save money and don't mind to take a chance, and mine is still working fine but I prefer next time if I want to buy another one I would go to a known brand like WD or Oplay Asus.
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  25. Thanks for that report mishtag.
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    You are welcome Jagabo
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