I have read several places that an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray image looks better on the HD1000U when the player is outputing a 1080i image, instead of a 720p.

This doesn't make any sense to me, can someone explain it to me?

The way I see it, a 1080i image is only 540 lines at any given time, instead of 720 at a time...so the HD1000U would be upscalling, instead of accepting an image at it's native resolution...right?

:confused:

Part of the reason why might be because the player's deinterlacer isn't so great.

1080i in its native format is two half frames (540 lines) displayed so quickly that your brain sees it as full frames (1080 lines). In reality the difference between native 1080i and native 1080p is very small most of the time.

Heck, if you get past 1.5x the width of the screen there is barely a difference between 720p and 1080p most of the time. People sometimes make far too big of a deal over resolution when they should be worrying about things that really matter like black level and on/off contrast.

I think it also may come down to how the projector processes 1080i before it turns into 720p. One way is inferior, I believe. It takes 1080i and turns it into 540p and then upconverts to 720p. I'm not exactly sure how the other way works, but I believe it's supposed to be better. Maybe someone else will chime in, because I'm not sure how the HD1000U processes 1080i.

Hmm....

Well, I always read the method of 1080i being downconverted to 540, then up to 720...but is there anyone out there that could explain the other, better method?

The best way to downconvert 1080i to 720p would be to first de-interlace the 1080i to 1080p by combining the 60 fields into the 30 1080p frames (with the "best" algorithm), then rescaling this up to 720p.

As said earlier in this thread, if 1080i looks "better" than 720p coming from the HD players, it suggests that the projector is doing a better job of the de-interlacing/scaling than the player can.

It has taken me a long time to fully grasp the fact that each pairing of source and projector resolution may have slightly different outcomes, and to complicate matters even more, the nature of the source material (video or film-based) and degree of motion will also play a role in judging which looks "better".

I did a lot of comparisons by playing a 1080i test pattern recorded on my DVR from HDNet, and finally concluded that 720p output yielded the highest resolution....but there again all that says is that the Sony DVR I have is doing a better de-interlace/scaling job on 1080i than the projector. And even then, the static resolution test pattern is not really the best test...so moving video or film content would be a better test...just a bit more subjective.

I have come to the conclusion that the HD1000u image is gorgeous so I am not going to obsess over the various setting changes possible.

Finally, as others have pointed out throughout this form, for film based content (24 fps) the resultant 1080i or 1080p will have virtually no difference in appearance given the way the fields are split...but that's a whole 'nother topic.

i am very curious about this as well. does anyone know how the hd1000u processes 1080i material? i hope it doesn't bob and weave. also does anyone know if 1080p would just be a direct downconvert to 720p, thus making it a better input resolution over 1080i (because of the potential bob n weave to 540p to 720p). it make sense if it were the better solution. and yes the hd1000u does accept 1080p60 from my PS3.

fyi: i like to have the ps3 set to 1080i, then if i want to use the ps3 on my tv, i just switch the plug without having to change settings within the ps3. that is why i am concerned about how the Mits HD1000u is handling 1080i.

thanks for any info

EDIT: i think i found the answer in the OWNERS thread. However, no one could give concrete evidence, just anecdotal evidence that the mits is not bobbing and weaving 1080i material, because 1080i material tended (in most people's eyes)to be sharper than feeding it native 720p material (which would require no processing)

It has taken me a long time to fully grasp the fact that each pairing of source and projector resolution may have slightly different outcomes, and to complicate matters even more, the nature of the source material (video or film-based) and degree of motion will also play a role in judging which looks "better".

...

Finally, as others have pointed out throughout this form, for film based content (24 fps) the resultant 1080i or 1080p will have virtually no difference in appearance given the way the fields are split...but that's a whole 'nother topic.

I plan on pairing the HD1000U with my Xbox 360 + HD-DVD. So it sounds like (from other posts) the HD-DVD movies will look better at 1080i...but (as I suspect) the frame rates are higher for games, so it might be better to change settings to 720p for gaming...which is just going to be a pain in the ass to change it all the time.

Try both and use whichever looks best to you.

I have a 360 with an HC3000. In the dashboard if I set the 360 to output 720p or 1080i I get some weird wavy lines in the image. They move faster in 720.

If I set the 360 to output 1080p, it completely goes away. So I use 1080p.

I have only tested the pic outputted from my DISH VIP622 receiver / DVR and not my Panny DVD player or Toshiba A2 HD DVD player.

Like others I found that feeding the HD1000 a 1080i signal from the VIP622 resulted in a visibily sharper pic than the 720p signal that I thought would be best since the proj. is also 720p native.

When I have time I want to test the ouptput of my A2 HD DVD player with both and HD DVD and a regular DVD that is upconverted to see if the same is true with it.

I spent quite a bit of time playing around with this on my Optoma HD70 (actually, 1080p vs 720p) through my htpc.

My findings were as follows:

Using the ati hdtv wonder for ota high def tv, the image quality was pretty much identical whether the computer was set to 720p or 1080p with one exception. When set to 1080p, on fast cuts you could just barely see the interlaced lines due to the ota signal being 1080i, just a brief image of half the screen having lines over the whole thing. I'm not sure if this is due to the deinterlacer on the ATI hdtv not working as well at 1080p or what. But, I have a feeling it will heavily depend on the quality of the deinterlacer of your projector vs. the deinterlacer of your source. I did not try 1080i signal as I didn't see much of a point, though it could help to compare the deinterlacer of the ATI hdtv wonder to that of the HD70.

When playing games, 1080p looked better as the image gets natural super sample anti-aliasing when being downconverted to 720p by the HD70, so no jaggy lines or crawling textures. I even compared 720p with 2x and 4x multi-sample anti-aliasing enabled in the ATI settings vs 1080p with no AA and 1080p looked better.

But, I'd try both and see what looks better. As I said, absolutely no difference in image quality on 1080i signals except for the odd quick cut, and probably nothing to do with the projector but more ATI's deinterlacing hardware/software. If I wasn't staring at the screen looking for a difference, I don't think it'd be noticeable at all, and I could just be imagining it because it was so slight.