How much am I missing?

Resolution is pretty far down on the most important things to effect PQ. Many 1080p projetcors have also made strides to improve the other more important factors on PQ as well as the increased resolution.


The general rule is that if your happy with your projector just stay put, there certainly will be some trade offs going with anything else.

Very hard to say. Teh best (and possibly worst thing you can do for your wallet) is to go to a specialty video store and see what they have and compare it to your pq.

You are missing 2.6 times the maximum possible resolution.

1024x768 = 786432
1920x1080 = 2073600

2073600/786432 = 2.6

1024x768 isn't even full resolution for 720p. It should be 1280x720 or 1366x768! And while resolution isn't the be all and end all, if you have two similar sets and one is 1080p and the other isn't I'm sure you'll see the difference.

Actually it's even worse. Remember, 1024 x 768 (XGA) is a 4:3 aspect ratio while 1920 x 1080 (1080i/p) is 16:9.

Assuming you're watching a letterboxed 16:9 presentation on that 4:3 XGA display, you're really only using the middle of that display: 1024 x 576 to be exact.

1024 x 576 = 589824
2073600 / 589824 = 3.52

In other words, moving up to a 1080p display will give you a picture with 3.52 times the resolution of an XGA display when watching HDTV or movies that have a 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio.

It's even MORE dramatic with 2.35:1 movies, which on an XGA display can only use 1024 x 436 pixels:

1024 x 436 = 446464
2073600 / 446464 = 4.64

In other words, moving up to a 1080p display will give you a picture with 4.64 times the resolution of an XGA display when watching 2.35:1 movies.

Absolutely.

But all other things (contrast, brightness, color accuracy, etc.) being equal, more pixels = better picture, generally speaking.