Which refresh rates to go with Sony VPH-1272 and 1080i ?

I've heard that running 1080i @ 72Hz has benefits for 24fps film sources as it eliminates judder. I have a stand-alone HD DVD player so I'm stuck with 1080i @ 60Hz or 720p @ 60Hz and I prefer 720p as there's no interlacing artifacts. What's your HD DVD/BR source? HTPC? Stand-alone player? I don't know of any stand-alone players that output 72Hz. As for HDTV (30fps), I use a MyHD card and have it deinterlace and scale to my projector's progressive resolution sweetspot at 60Hz. With DVDs I have my HTPC scale to my projector's progressive resolution sweetspot at 72Hz.

Well, my first question is "Do you have a video processor in the video chain?" because without one, I don't understand how you're going to change the refresh rate.

And my second question would be, "Which one's have you tried?" Different viewers are more and less sensitive to flicker at the different refresh rates, so you must decide for yourself. There is no "best" except the one that is best for you.

My 2 cents

I'd start by trying 72 for all movies. Set it up at that refresh.

Then, just for fun, try 60 to see if the picture gets better. I bet it does not and you stay with 72.

Dave

Sorry, I now see that you mentioned the HTPC in your original post.

Movies are shot at 24fps, so the best viewing for most people is in even multiples of 24. So for most, 72 is preferable over 60. But the next step, up to 96 is a stretch for a Sony 1272.

HDTV broadcasts are 30fps here in the states, so multiples of 30 work best for that content.

When I had a 1272, I was able to feed it 1080p @ 72hz from my DVDO video processor and it would display an image - not as sharp as lower resolutions, but still the PJ could handle it. So I wouldn't get too hung up on published scan rates as these PJ's can often do more than advertized. If you search the archives, you will find a lot of references to 666p being the sweet spot for the 1272, I usually watched mine at higher resolutions than that.

You may also want to do some searching here on AVS for porch settings for different resolutions. I'm not an HTPC guy, but there seems to be a lot of discussion amongst the HTPC'ers on this subject.

Enjoy your 1272, they can be set up to display a very nice image.

I'd say try several resolutions (interlaced and progressive) and refresh rates and see what you like the most. Often times the best settings for a projector are subjective. Take 48Hz vs. 72Hz. Some like the extra sharpness that 48Hz provides and others are bothered by the flicker of 48Hz and go with 72Hz even though they'll likely be getting a softer image at the same resolution comapred with 48Hz. You can also throw test images up to test whether you're losing detail. The Nokia Test program can be handy for testing that. You can grab it from...

http://freepctech.com/rode/004.shtml

It should have that easy. That is why I said to set up for that and try it, then set up another block for 1080i/60 (which as was pointed out you'll need for non-film broadcast HD anyway). Now, do the same content at both rates and see if 72 has any less detail. I bet you a few beers that 72 is as good as 60.

Dave

No way does it have enough bandwidth to really show 1080i 72hz properly - my XG could do with more bandwidth at that res. Nor will the spot size be small enough.

These are the reasons for the 9"er's.

But it will still look damn good, and 1080i 72hz is the res I would use on a 1272.

Mark

Mark, I think your first sentence was supposed to say 1080p not 1080i.

Dave

No Dave. 1080i 72hz. Bandwidth required is 110-115mhz. Theoretically XG has enough, but it aint perfect (or the spot size is too big).

You can never have too much bandwidth.