I would consider myself as an individual that is always waiting to hear on what the latest and greatest technology that is enveloping within the flat panel industry. I enjoy reading various posts about reviews, findings, and results. I find it intriguing that people on the forum love to debate between Samsung vs. Panasonic or Pioneer vs. Panasonic, etc. This is the passion that I like to see with people on this forum.

However, the debate on seeing a difference between 1080p vs. 720p leaves everyone asking is their a difference between the two. Websites, such as CNet, in which has reviewed various flat panels from Vizio to Pioneer find that the results of upgrading to a 1080p flat panel does not warrant the cost. This also justifies that consumers who spend the money on a 1080p flat panel want to see a difference.

What's funny is that everyone talks about viewing distance along with 1080p. What does this mean? If I sit 14' from my seating position will I see a difference between 1080p and 720p? How about if I sit under 8'? These are questions that are being asked on a daily basis. So is that the closer I can sit to my screen I believe the benefit is greatly increased because of the higher resolution.

My question to the A/V specialists is, what is the big deal about having higher resolution flat panel? The reason I can come up with is that if you use it as a computer monitor the advantage of having higher resolution flat panel makes sense. However, 1080p vs. 720p becomes a debate that is similar to Dolby Digital vs. DTS. Yes 1080p provides a much sharper image over 720p, but how close do I need sit? So this brings me to my next question. Why does it make sense for flat panels to have a resolution of 2160p, (which will be available around 2010), if we can not see a difference in picture quality on 1080p and 720p at our standard 12' - 14' viewing distances? Now whats interesting about 2160p is also called "Quad HDTV" since it displays four times the number of pixels of the highest HDTV standard resolution from 1080p. I can only see higher resolution being more relevant towards HTPC enthusiasts.

There is more to picture quality than just resolution. The biggest key factors, IMO of picture quality is color accuracy and video processing. As flat panels are produced each year, I would love to see the pixalization and banding become minimized or totally eliminated. Although HDMI 1.3 could be the answer, but we will see....

However, I want to hear what you guys have to say...

Chris
MountAVision.com

Ok, I'll try to answer the best I can. it depends on the size of your screen as well. Many of us have projectors with screens registering in at 100-200 inches diagonal. There is a huuuuuge difference playing a 1080p source like Blu-Ray or HD DVD on a screen of that size with a 720p vs. a 1080p projector. Also about 56 inches and beyond you will start to see the difference. However this is only done at optimum viewing distance. If you're going to sit at the enormous distance of 14 ft for a 60 incher the advantage of 1080p most likely won't seem worth the upgrade. For Hi Def sources the rule of thumb is never sit more than 1.5 times the diagonal of your screen back. For example I have a 42 inch Panny. I should be sitting no more than 5.25 feet back. I sit at 6 feet back from it though. if you are sitting 14 feet back the recommended screen size to fully take advantage of 1080p is 168 inches. So it all depends on your sitting arrangements and needs. I can definitely attest to 1080p being a decent advantage over 720p, but only at screens bigger than 50 inches and sitting with 8 feet on average of a 50-65 inch TV and a good 1080p source. If you're using DVD's as your source you won't really see the advantage due to the limitations of 480p.

I hate the 1080p nomenclature. It confuses everyone. We should call televisions and monitors by their native resolution.

A 1920x1080 resolution television becomes important in my opinion at over 60" in size, and when you sit relatively close to your TV. This all depends on your eyes.
The real benefit of a 1920x1080 television is not about accepting a 1080p input (at this time at least because there is very little 1080p stuff anyway).
However, what a good 1920x1080 television will do is correctly deinterlace a 1080i broadcast, and display it in 1080 lines of resolution. Thus it becomes even more important that when you buy a 1920x1080 television that it can both correctly deinterlace and do 3:2 pulldown. If it does this well it almost doesn't matter if it can't accept 1080p input, because 1080i will look almost identical.

I have a TH65PX600u, and I can definately see the benefit of 1920x1080.. 1080i cable broadcasts, and 1080i HD-DVD look breathtaking, as they are correctly deinterlaced and displayed in full 1080 lines of resolution. Even sitting 5 feet from this massive 65" plasma, you can barely see the pixels.

However, if you plan on sitting 15 feet away, the human eye really would not be able to tell the difference between a correctly deinterlaced 1080i image that is displayed in 1920x1080, and a 720p image (or a deinterlaced and scaled 1080i image ) displayed on a 1300x768 resolution monitor on any but the largest of plasmas TV's. For example, I am sure you would notice on a 103" panasonic.

Anyway, hope that helps. Big monitor, and sitting close == 1920x1080 if you can afford it.
MM

Great analogies and findings guys...keep them coming!

Chris
MountAVision.com

15 pages of resolution-talk fun! (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=768167&page=1&pp=30)

IMHO Bottom line:

We probably have more opinions than facts about at what distance will 1080 make a difference or at what screen size it matters, so I am not going to open that can of worms.

Everything else being equal more resolution is better.

Everything else is a gigantic "if", however, because man does not live by resolution alone.
Black levels, max white levels, color rendition, scaling, gray scale tracking and so on are just as important. There are some reports that the new 1080P sets have inferior black levels and contrast ratios than their preceding 780 sets. I have not confirmed this, but if true, there will be no 1080 for me till that gets resolved. And resolution will have to take a back seat for now.