Difference between 1080p, 1080i and 720p
1080p and 1080i is how the The multimedia world today is so different from what people experienced some twenty to thirty years ago. In that time frame, the jump technology has taken is fairly remarkable. When the television sets first step foot into the homes of millions, they had these really bulky antennas used to receive signal and huge knobs to change the channel. And on top of that, the pictures were in black in white and had no sound capabilities. The strange thing is people were still entertained by these antique T.V sets back then. After a few years, televisions were manufactured with the ability to produce sound and soon after that, colored televisions were invented. Today, a feature is starting to dominate televisions and monitors called "high definition", or most commonly called "HD"
Basic Requirements for HD
With HD, you can now watch movies or play games with cutting edge graphics that will just leave you breathless. But getting HD does have some strings attached to it. For example, you can’t experience high definition graphics on any normal television. Your TV must have HD capabilities as the wire that needs to be used to receive the HD signal is very different from your traditional 3 way cable. And even with an HD capable system, you have to know if the source from which you are receiving signal is actually giving HD quality pictures. In gaming for example, Playstation and Xbox do not have HD capabilities, therefore you will not get HD quality graphics.
Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 however do support HD so they will be feeding you television set high end quality graphics. Same goes with cable or satellite TV. Now if you want to experience HD channels, you usually have to pay an additional fee for it as normal subscriptions don't give out HD. If you meet all these requirements, you are ready to experience crispier quality pictures never seen before.
HD Resolutions
HD resolutions start at 480i, but we'll skip that and head on directly to 720p. The reason we're skipping 480i is because 720p is the standard resolutions that come along many PC monitors and plasma TVs. So if the video source was transmitting a picture in 480i or even 480p quality, it will be converted immediately to 720i by the monitor or plasma TV technology. Which now brings us to the question of “which HDTV is right for you?” There are two types of HD capable TVs to choose from, the 720p HDTV or the 1080p HDTV? To help you decide which you will best suit you, let me discuss a basic fact that I'm sure will enlighten you. Let's take cable TV for example. Some broadcast 720p HD quality picture and some broadcast 1080i HD quality pictures. If you decide to own a 720p HDTV, then your TV will display optimum pictures from networks that give out 720p HD pictures, but will then have to downgrade pictures received in 1080i networks to 720p quality. Same thing with 1080p HDTV, but the interesting difference here is networks that give out 720p pictures will be upgraded to 1080p quality, meaning you never suffer a downgrade in quality. 1080p HDTV does seem to be the obvious winner here, but truth be told, the difference between the two resolutions are not that big of a deal. So if you're not a person really into the whole HD ordeal, then settle for the 720p HDTV as it still gives great quality HD pictures, but if you're into DVDs and want to experience high end gaming, go for the 1080p HDTV.
The Fuss About 1080i and 1080p
There really isn't a major difference between the 1080i and 1080p as both displays a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixel, however what separates the two is how they display pictures. They are both composed of 540 rows of pixels. In 1080i the odd rows get displayed first and the even rows second. In 1080p, they all get displayed at the same time. That’s all there is to it.
Summary
- HD can only be experienced only if both the sender and receiver have HD ready devices
- HD can be experienced in 720p , 1080p and 1080i quality
- Anything below 720p is automatically converted to 720p format
- Only difference is between picture displays
