Shouldn't 720p look better than 1080i on Panny?  

The px50 series panasonics have a problem with 720p signals.

I have a 45" Sharp Aquos 720p and I thought the exact same thing. 1080i looks better than 720p . I dont know why but it just does...of course this lcd has 6ms refresh rate so lag is not an issue in either setting.

My Sharp 45" displays 1080i much better than 720P with dot-to-dot it can be amazing when viewing CSI Miami as close to 1080P I think you'll get IMO. Of course the Sharp panel is native 1080 so it makes sense I guess. :)

I have a TH42XP60U with a Motorola HD cable box set to output 1080i. Assuming that the Panny's scaler is better than that of the cable box, doesn't it make sense to send more picture information (1080 lines>720 lines) to the PDP and let it downconvert the signal to its native resolution? I've tried both and also think 1080i gives the best picture.

I have a TH50PX60 with a SA8300HD STB passing component video through a Yamaha RXV559B a/v receiver. I have the STB set to pass through whatever signals it receives. I have flipped between Discovery HD in 1080i, the world cup on ABCHD in 720p, and the Canadian feed for the world cup in 1080i, and the Senior US Open golf in 1080i, and frankly they all look great.
I think the US gov't did a great disservice to everyone in the TV industry, from the production side to the local broadcast side when they allowed the change over to slide from the end of 06 to the end of 09.
We need more stuff in HD, whether it is 720p or 1080i, now!

All the HD channels on my 42PX50U looks much sharper and more detailed with my 8300HD set to 1080i with 720p disabled.

There won't be any more HD after the big changeover than there is already on the digital OTA channels. They're simply switching the analog transmitters off, and most of the stuff they broadcast will still be 4:3 SD just like it is right now.

At least for Comcast here in Seattle - I am not sure but I think they send all of their HD signals to the STB in 1080i. If you change the box to 720p, then you are asking the DVR to do the conversion and then send it to your screen. Speaking as a 42x60u owner, I think the Panny does a better job with that raw 1080i signal coming to it than the STB can do in trying to convert it.

Comparing 720p OTA to 720p coming out of the box would be a good test though.

Patrick

I have an 854 X 480 Plasma, and 1080i is its favorite feed. It does not matter what source. Sometimes I think the scaler in the panel does the best job of any, and the more data, the better.

Being 'nearer' to a panels native resolution isn't necessarily better. In fact, it can add more round-off errors.

It doesn't help that your scenario also adds in extrapolation (going from a lower resolution to a higher one) versus interpolation (higher to lower).

My Olevia 42" 720P LCD looks better with 1080i feed. It just looks sharper to me, regardless if the original is 1080i or 720P. In my opinion, down converting almost always looks good, whatever display you are using. This is one reason my lowly Infocus X1 with SVGA resolution, 800 X 600, looks so good with HD.

Comcast is usually feed directly from the local stations with the encoded stream and just sends it through the QAM formatter and places it on the cable network. So if a local station is broadcasting at 720p, that usually is what the cable system will also transmit.

pio 4360.
moto 6412 lll hdmi set to 1080i.

Analog, sd digital, hd all looks better to my eyeballs
than 720p. It could be that the set top box can handle
1080i better than 720p. Maybe a real tech genius will
jump in and explain it all.

jl

Except that your Olevia 42" isn't 720p, it's 1366 x 768 and therefore must also deal with the issues I mentioned.

This is the salient point. At least a couple of different reviewers independently observed that 50u series only displays about half of a 720p signal, which is effectively worse than SD. Stick to 1080i and you'll be fine.