720p 1080i And 1080p 60

In theory 1080p resolution offers better picture quality than 1080i (read on to find out why), but in practice, it is virtually impossible for an average customer to tell the difference.

1080i represents 1,080 lines of resolution scanned in alternate fields consisting of 540 lines each. 1080i is the most commonly used HDTV format, and has been adopted by most television broadcast, cable, and satellite outlets as their HDTV broadcast standard.

720p 1080i and 1080p 60

Download Zip

However, since 1080p is not officially part of the FCC's approved HDTV broadcast standards, it is displayed either as a result of video upscaling through a specially modified DVD player, video scaler, or a Blu-ray Disc Player, in combination with a 1080p input capable video display device (such as a Television or Video Projector) OR by on-board video processing within the Display device itself than can upscale all input sources to 1080p.

1080p represents 1,080 lines of resolution scanned sequentially. In other words, all lines are scanned in progressively, providing the most detailed high definition video image that is currently available to consumers.

The 1080p standard has all but replaced 1080i. You can still find TVs with 1080i screens, but these are less common. Likewise, 4K resolution and UHD have started to replace HD, though you can still find plenty of HDTVs on the market.

The 1080 and 720 in 1080p and 720p stand for vertical screen resolution, or height, in pixels. The more pixels there are in an image, the clearer it will be. As such, a screen resolution of 1920x1080 (two million pixels when multiplied) should appear twice as sharp as a resolution of 1280x720 (fewer than one million pixels). Meanwhile, the p in 1080p and 720p stands for progressive scanning, which updates full frame images more quickly than traditionally interlaced content.

HD DVDs contain 720p content and sometimes 1080p, while all Blu-ray discs contain 1080p content. Regular DVD quality can vary considerably, with some displaying content at a resolution lower than 720p, such as 480p. Moreover, there are still DVD players around that only carry support for up to 480p or 480i, meaning a viewer cannot get the full experience of any high-definition DVD they insert into the player.

Netflix typically streams at 720p, but with the release and expansion of what it calls "Super HD," users are able to stream more and more content at 1080p quality with a high-speed internet connection. Apple TV allows users to choose between 720p and 1080p streaming. DirecTV displays a "1080pHD" logo on 1080p pay-per-view content, and all their latest DirecTV Cinema content is in 1080p. On YouTube and Vimeo, high quality videos often allow for 720p or even 1080p streaming.

Modern smartphones, like the iPhone 5c/5s, the Samsung Galaxy S5, and the HTC One, tend to film at 1080p quality and at 30 frames per second, if not better. Again, resolution is not all there is to picture quality, but for the average user, modern smartphones' video recording capabilities have the potential to be just as good for casual video-making as cheap camcorders.

Screen resolution can be especially important in video gaming. Because there are more pixels in 1080p, less anti-aliasing is required for a smooth visual experience. This means that 1080p will not only likely look better than 720p, but will lead to a better gaming experience overall, as anti-aliasing can slow down a console or computer.

1080i and 720p Because our TV world is based around 60Hz, and because there's a limit to how much resolution could be transmitted over the air (because of bandwidth and MPEG compression), the two main HDTV resolutions are 1080i and 720p. Let's start with 720p, as it's the easier to understand.

OK, 720p is 1,280x720 pixels, running at 60 frames per second (fps). This is the format used by ABC, Fox, and their various sister channels (like ESPN). I've seen some reader comments in response to other articles I've written ridiculing ABC/Fox for this "lower" resolution, but that's unfair in two big ways. The first, in the late '90s when all this was happening, there were no 1080p TVs. Sure, we all knew they were coming, but it was years before they started shipping (now, almost all TVs are 1080p). The other big way was the sports. Both ABC and Fox have big sports divisions, which played a big role in their decision to go with 720p. This is because when it comes down to it, fast motion looks better at 60fps (more on this later).

The 1080i designation is 1,920x1,080 pixels, running at 30 frames per second. This is what CBS, NBC, and just about every other broadcaster uses. The math is actually pretty simple: 1080 at 30fps is the same amount of data as 720 at 60 (or at least, close enough for what we're talking about).

What about 1080p? Yes, what about it? Your 1080p TV accepts many different resolutions, and converts them all to 1,920x1,080 pixels. For most sources, this is from a process known as upconversion. Check out my article, appropriately called "What is upconversion?" for more info on that process.

When your TV is sent a 1080i signal, however, a different process occurs: deinterlacing. This is when the TV combines the two fields into frames. If it's done right, the TV repeats each full frame to create 60 "fps" from the original 30.

If it's done wrong, the TV instead takes each field, and just doubles the information. So you're actually getting 1,920x540p. Many early 1080p HDTVs did this, but pretty much no modern one does. In a TV review, this is the main thing we're checking when we test deinterlacing prowess.

If only it were that easy (if that is even easy) However, there's a problem. Let's take the example of the sports from earlier. ABC and Fox very consciously made the choice to go with 720p over 1080i. As we said earlier, this largely wasn't based on some limitation of the technology or being cheap. It's that 1080i is worse with fast motion than 720p.

At 60 frames per second (720p), the camera is getting a full snapshot of what it sees every 60th of a second. With 1080i, on the other hand, it's getting half a snapshot every 60th of a second (1,920x540 every 60th). With most things, this isn't a big deal. Your TV combines the two fields. You see frames. Everything is happy in TV land.

Now this is where an argument about 1080p -- real 1080p -- becomes worthwhile. A full 60-frame-per-second 1080p video would be awesome. Not because it's a higher resolution than 1080i, but because it's a higher frame rate (and not interlaced), so motion will be more detailed. However, it's highly unlikely most people would ever see a difference. Compression artifacts in the source or edge enhancement in the display are far more detrimental to the image than deinterlacing. Reducing either of those two factors would have a bigger effect on the image. Check out "When HD isn't HD" for more info on that. So with full 1080p, the subtle increase in motion detail isn't likely to be noticed.

Nearly every Blu-ray on the market is 1080p/24, or 1,920x1,080 pixels at 24 frames per second. As we've discussed, this is actually less than 1080i. Of course, the average Blu-ray is much better-looking than your average 1080i signal (from cable/satellite, etc.). This is most often due to other factors, like compression. Once again, check out When HD isn't HD.

For that matter, Blu-ray isn't even capable of 1080p/60. At least, not yet. It maxes out at (wait for it) 1080i! Funny how that works. There are a few ways to get real 1080p/60 video, namely from a PC or by shooting it with a newer camcorder or digital still camera's video function, but even in those cases you can't burn the video to a Blu-ray for playback at 1080p/60.

But what about games? As I discussed in my "4K for the PS4? Who cares?" article, most video games aren't actually the resolution they claim to be on the box (or that's shown on your TV). Most are rendered (i.e., created) at a lower resolution, and then upconverted to whatever resolution you like. So I guess an argument could be made that these are 1080p, as that's technically the number of pixels sent by the Xbox/PS3, but I'd argue that the actual resolution is whatever the game is rendered at. Case in point: Gran Turismo 5 is rendered at 1,280x1080 pixels. This is about 50 percent more pixels than 720p, but an equal amount less than "true" 1080p. Upconversion is not true resolution, neither with regular video content, nor with game content.

If you're a PC gamer, however, you can get 1080p/60. For the most part, PC games render at the same resolution the video card outputs. For more info on using your PC with your TV, check out "How to use your TV as a computer monitor for gaming, videos, and more."

Bottom line While 1080i and 1080p have the same number of pixels, they do have different frame rates (and one is interlaced). The reality is, other than PC games, there isn't any commercially available "real" 1080p content. It's either 1080i content deinterlaced by your TV, 1080p/24 content from Blu-ray, or upconverted content from console games.

That's not to say it wouldn't be great if we did have more 1080p/60 sources, but the slightly better motion detail would not be a huge, noticeable difference. In other words, you're not really missing out on anything with 1080i.

One of the first things you see when shopping for a TV is its resolution. You'll often see the resolution slapped right on the box or even in the model name. 4k TVs started to dominate the TV market in the middle of the 2010s, and they soon took over from 1080p as the most common resolution found on TVs. Almost every TV from big manufacturers has a 4k resolution, and it's actually hard to find 1080p TVs now, but what exactly are the differences between each?

4k and 1080p refer to the resolution of the display. A 1080p TV has 1920 horizontal pixels and 1080 vertical pixels, while a 4k TV has 3840 horizontal pixels and 2160 vertical. It can get confusing because 1080p refers to the number of vertical pixels (1080), but 4k refers to the number of horizontal pixels (3840). So while the name makes it sound like a 4k display has four times the amount of vertical pixels, in actuality, the amount of vertical and horizontal pixels on a 4k display are each double that of a 1080p display. However, this means that overall, a 4k TV also has four times the total amount of pixels as a 1080p TV, which you can see in the table below. 2ff7e9595c