Hi guys I'm new to this forum. I'm sorry if this has been covered before but if no one minds just spitting a little bit of knowledge my way w/out flamming, it'd be much appreciated.

I'm also new to the HD scene so my question was, I have an Olevia 537h that is natively at 720p but can support 1080i. I never quite understood what that meant exactly. Does it mean it just down scales any signals that come in at 1080i to 720p??? Anyway, I just got a PS3 and was wondering what I should set it to get the best PQ possible. Should I check both 720p and 1080i? Would I ever need to touch it again after that? And is the PS3 smart enough to know what games/movies need to be played at in order to get the best PQ?

I'd check both in the PS3 setup, and let the game determine the output.

Cool thanks. So it techincally it doesn't matter anyway because either way my TV displays 720p right? In the exception of Blu-ray because I alraedy know I have to set it to 1080i to watch BD. For example I've read some people say some games look better if you uncheck the 720p and play the game at 1080i. This makes no sense to me because like I said before, doesn't it just down scale to 720p? And if that's the case, how does it "look better"???

Cool thanks. So it techincally it doesn't matter anyway because either way my TV displays 720p right? In the exception of Blu-ray because I alraedy know I have to set it to 1080i to watch BD. For example I've read some people say some games look better if you uncheck the 720p and play the game at 1080i. This makes no sense to me because like I said before, doesn't it just down scale to 720p? And if that's the case, how does it "look better"???

Well, a game may look better in 720p if it was made in 720p

Well, a game may look better in 720p if it was made in 720p

Yep... Rainbow 6 was that way... you had to uncheck 1080i in XMB for that game

so what you guys are saying is, for example if i play rainbow 6 or resistance i'd have to uncheck the 1080i in the XMB?

and if i dont, then the ps3 will try to play the game at 1080i??? which is bad? but why should that matter doesnt the tv just downscale to 720p??? so shouldnt the PQ look the same? sorry i'm newb at this.

I have all supported resolutions that my display supports (up to 1080i) checked, 720p and 1080i included. When playing CoD4, the resolution is set to 720p and looks fantastic. When watching Blu-ray movies, it's at 1080i. I have a Pioneer PDP-5050HD 50" plasma display, which is native at 768p.

still doesn't really answer my other question. i understand if games are made in 720p then its best to play it at 720p. thats understood. but if for example if i unchecked the 720p and played a 720p game at 1080i, shouldn't it "technically" look the same as if i checked 720p in the XMB since my tv will downscale to 720p??? Or does it actually make a difference?

so what you guys are saying is, for example if i play rainbow 6 or resistance i'd have to uncheck the 1080i in the XMB?

and if i dont, then the ps3 will try to play the game at 1080i??? which is bad? but why should that matter doesnt the tv just downscale to 720p??? so shouldnt the PQ look the same? sorry i'm newb at this.

Can't explain it but when I played Rainbow 6 with 1080i check it looked like crap. When running 720P looked better. This was confirmed on multiple boards. It has something to do with the game and how the developer configured it. I think this is the exception and that setting suggested above should work fine except for these oddball releases

ohhh ok... gotcha. i'll just check them all i guess. it can't hurt. for the most part, from what i understand, i should be ok. if games are supposed to be played in 720p it'll play 720p and BD will play 1080i except for this instance with rainbow 6 where i'd physically have to go back to the XMB and uncheck 1080i. that's so weird...

if for example if i unchecked the 720p and played a 720p game at 1080i, shouldn't it "technically" look the same as if i checked 720p in the XMB since my tv will downscale to 720p??? Or does it actually make a difference?
This would actually be display dependent. Since I don't have yours, I can't say which would be better. Again, I have all supported resolutions checked on mine, and also have the PS3 set to Auto output. This setup has worked fine for my display, and both movies and games look excellent. :)

I have a 768p native set.

As a general rule, if a game accepts 1080i, I force 1080i. My display does a much cleaner job downscaling/deinterlacing 1080i to 768p than it does upscaling 720p to 768p. Otherwise, I keep all resolutions checked. Check for yourself and see which you prefer.

I do likewise for my 360, except there I can force everything to output at 1080i.