I simply just want to know if a 720p native display has more detail than a 1080p display playing xbox360 games. I'm not talking about tv size, color accuracy or contrast ratios, just which looks more detailed, and how much so.

The reason is: I will be sometime soon looking for another hdtv, specifically for hd gaming on the 360. And was wondering which would be better specifically for the xbox360.

It depends, there will be no difference up to 50". Once your at 50" you will start to see more detail with 1080p IF you're sitting rather close to the screen.

It depends, there will be no difference up to 50". Once your at 50" you will start to see more detail with 1080p IF you're sitting rather close to the screen.

Lets say i had a 720p tv and 1080p tv, which would look better in games if the xbox 360 was set to their native resolution. Also lets say that both tvs are 37" and i sit the same distance from them, both calibrated and placed in the same area of the room.

I just want to know if the 1080p setting in the console shows the game better on 1080p tv, compared to a 720p setting on a 720p native tv.

Lets say i had a 720p tv and 1080p tv, which would look better in games if the xbox 360 was set to their native resolution. Also lets say that both tvs are 37" and i sit the same distance from them, both calibrated and placed in the same area of the room.

I just want to know if the 1080p setting in the console shows the game better on 1080p tv, compared to a 720p setting on a 720p native tv.

No. First off...most Xbox 360 games are 720p. Thus no advantage to a 1080p display.

Second...at 37" 1080p vs 1080i or 720p becomes almost impossible to detect unless you sit literally a foot or two from the screen.

It is a non-factor at this size.

Interesting question.
I gather you're talking *game* resolution, not display, right?
MS has insisted that while the hardware *can* do games that will render at 720p or 1080p, native, that the sweet spot is 720p because of the need to balance resource use. That going to native 1080p games requires trading off between textures, frame-rate, game complexity (physics, character realism, etc), and AA (which is cheap but not quite free on 360). For example, a certain other current gen box is getting notorious for rendering games *without* AA to maintain highly impressive levels of game complexity because they figure that with fast-moving objects at HD resolution, lack of AA won't hurt. They might be right. Or not. So far, the demos don't stand close scrutiny.

So, for your purposes, since most current-gen games are and will remain 720p-rendered, the question is really, how to best display them, correct?
The obvious answer is on a 720p-native display with zero-overscan.
Anything else involves scaling either by the display, the 360, or both.

Of course, Zero-overscan true 720p displays are not as common as you'd think; flat panels above 26-27" are really WXGA-native and most low-end rear-projectors that are 720p-native either lack zero overscan modes or have lag issues or both.

My own suggestion is that unless the display is to be used for gaming only, to go for video performance first. The gaming will be fine on most good quality displays; it really doesn't pay to go for that last 0.05% bit of quality. And that 360 on non-overscanned 1080p looks very, very, good even at 37". Its what I have. The value of 1080p isn't in whether the eye can see detail or not but rather its about the *accuracy* of rendering the received image with a minimum of added image processing/rescaling. For today's 360 games, pure unadulterated 720p is best *if* you can find it. For everything else, 1080 displays with zero overscan mangle video less.

Of course, there is more to HD displays than just resolution (color depth, deinterlacing and other "sundries" also matter. ;-) ) But all else being equal, 1080 offers real value. Get what best fits the *overall* use; unless you churn hardware unusually fast, the display will be with you a long time.

Don't let perfection get in the way of affordably good. ;-)
G'luck!

Wow. Thanks you two for the good info. I understand now.

This is a little off topic but does anyone know of a site that has a guide for the sony service menu. I already tried the Sony Service Code thread and i failed to understand what i was doing, so i stopped ASAP so i wouldn't mess up my set even more. My XBR970 has some problem that i was hopeing to improve myself.

Interesting question.



Of course, Zero-overscan true 720p displays are not as common as you'd think; flat panels above 26-27" are really WXGA-native and most low-end rear-projectors that are 720p-native either lack zero overscan modes or have lag issues or both.


G'luck!

The Mits 1000u allows for zero overscan with no disernable lag on any 360 or PS3 game that I have played.

It depends, there will be no difference up to 50". Once your at 50" you will start to see more detail with 1080p IF you're sitting rather close to the screen.
On a 50" 720p display, anything closer than 10' will show more detail, and closer will show on lower resolution displays as well. A display being less than 50" doesn't just make that difference dissapear.

As for 360 games, they tend to be rendered at 720p anyway; but just like DVDs or anything else, they can look better upscaled to a higher resolution display. Also, there are a few 360 games that are rendered at resolutions higher than 720p as well, so having a display of greater resolution allows the image quality gained from that to be better preserved than when downscaled to 720p. But display resolution is rarely the most important factor in image quality, and even if you are sitting close enough to see the difference there are many other factors like contrast and color accuracy that can make a lower resolution display look better than another with a higher display resolution.

Yes, i have that set. BTW ive noticed that on the left side of my screen about the width of 3-5 inches all the the way from the side its a tad blurry than the rest of the picture. Looking at a still image closely i notice that the blurry image from what i see is the Red of the RGB being more pronounced then the blue or green. What is this and how can i fix it?

Its hard to explain, it seem to cover like i said about 3- 5 inches from the left side and is present all the way up and down the screen. It eventually disappears as you look futhur to the center of the screen. This is very annoying especially with my xbox360 since it seems to blurr the image.

Dance Dance Revolution is capable to 1080p and I think there is one more game for the Xbox that is 1080p. DDR is not graphically intense. I am playing 720p on a 125-130" screen and it looks spectacular. If truely a game like GoW could be made 1080p that would be even more impressive (maybe next generation Xbox?)

All games on the 360 are capable of 1080p becuase the 360's scaler can scale the games to whatever resolution you select.

All games on the 360 are capable of 1080p becuase the 360's scaler can scale the games to whatever resolution you select.

Well, okay...but then all 1080p TVs will upscale everything to 1080p. What people care about is games that are actually rendered at 1080p.

Is DDRU rendered at 1080p? I was just pointing out that all games can be scaled to 1080p because I doubt the game is acutally rendered at that resolution.

A 720p game doesnt look as sharp scaled to 1080p though, right?

DDR is rendered in 1080p (it says on the back of the box). I know there is one other game, but I cannot remember which one.

A 720p game doesnt look as sharp scaled to 1080p though, right?

Lets just say the textures and objects weren't meant for 1080 so a scaled 720 game won't look quite as good as the same one designed for 1080 from the ground up.

DDR is rendered in 1080p (it says on the back of the box). I know there is one other game, but I cannot remember which one.

the back of the box doesnt mean anything. and there is more than one other game RENDERED in 1080p, in addition to DDR, if in fact DDR is rendered in 1080p, though i dont see why it wouldnt be, it's not graphically intensive at all.

virtua tennis 3
nba homecourt
sonic
pirates of the carribean (supposed to be?)
DDR
Guitar hero 2 (not positive, but i dont see why it wouldnt be... same as DDR)