Why does 720p/1080i/1080p look so different than 480p/480i meaning...

[un4gettable47]

Why does 720p/1080i/1080p look so different than 480p/480i meaning...

What I mean by this is the following. On my Xbox 360 when I set the it to play 720p and above, the picture is not simply better looking. The character and well, generally everything is BIGGER. This makes the game feel clumpy and just off. The game does not flow as well and you cannot do things as fast feeling like a "snail". On 480p component or simply 480i composite, the quality is obviously not as good, but everything seems to be the correct "size". The character is smaller, you can see more of the screen and the game flow feels spot on. What's going on. Because of this, I cannot play on the higher HD formats. This has happened on all of the three HDTV's I've tested this on. Can some1 tell me if it is possible to fix this and why it is happening. Baisically, everything is blown up on the highest HD formats. I have been testing this on a game called "Gears of War 2" and honestly, if alot of people are playing under these conditions, the game goes from being one of the best games to the worst? Maybe now I can understand why people complained about the game in the past... When I play in these higher HD formats I easily go from being one of the best Gears players to the worst (not really, but definitely not as good). Things are just slower and bigger? So, is it possible to shrink everthing back to the proper size and still play in highest HD formats. Thanks.

Edit: More Info for you: For 480p there is a widescreen and normal screen setting in Xbox 360 settings. When I set it to widescreen, I get the same enlarging/sluggish effects as higher HD formats. When I set it to Normal, it's the proper size just like composite 480i when I change my change my tv to widescreen zoom or 4:3.

When the 480p "widescreen" xbox 360 setting is enabled, I change my tv to 4:3 and widescreen zoom to see if it looks okay or not and it looks awful, everything is really really huge, even moreso than 720p and higher. A wide pathways turns into something you feel as if your character needs to squeeze through.

The thing is, that 720p and above do not have the widescreen/normalscreen options in the Xbox 360 settings? And I also cannot change my tv's display settings to 4:3 or anything else when 720p or higher is playing. I feel like even if they did have these options it would end up looking so bad just like "480p widescreen". So I assume that all the HD formats are set to widescreen by default. Any way to set the Higher HD signals to NORMAL.

These "HD widescreen formats" are going to ruin gaming... I assume many people are playing using these HD settings thinking that it's great. But if they played on a good quality CRT 4:3 SD TV they would not be able to go back to HD Gaming. TRUST ME. Not only is there no delay in gameplay, but everthing is the correct size and flows.

And the only reason I bought and HD 1080i CRT instead of just using my SD CRT like always is because I bought a Hauppauge HD PVR and really want to record for youtube in good quality. If I was not trying to do this I would have no problems because I would just be gaming on a regular 27 inch Flat CRT Tube with instant gameplay response time and graphics that in my opinion are better (not more detailed) than the newer flatscreens/proper game sizes. But unfortunately the HD formats are unplayable unless there is a way around this problem. I hope some1 can give me some ideas.

[jagabo]

4x3 vs 16:9 issues? They usually render the same width but the 16:9 frame is cropped from the same 4:3 (or even 1:1) frustrum. The parts of the picture that will be cropped may not be eliminated early in the rendering pipeline. Meaning they still take time to process even though they won't be visible on the screen. Then there's the obvious fact that more pixels require more rendering power.