I recently got an HDTV and connected my DVD with component cables. My TV says its 480p. My standard tv channels are all 480i, which btw, looks bad on a 57" tv. Does the resolution get better with a better dvd player? My TV is capable of 1080i, but it won't go above 480p. I hear that the ps3 with HDMI cable and a blu-ray disc can play at 1080i, what is the max resolution of regular dvd movies? Would hdmi get better resolution from regular dvds?
2006-12-26 16:00:30 · 5 answers · asked by EYPY 2 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Home Theater
Oh boy... one of the FUN questions... LOL!
HDTV resolution BEGINS at 720p (720 horizontal lines of Progressive resolution) and goes up to 1080p (1080 lines of horizontal resolution.
The middle ground is 1080i (1080 horizontal lines of Interlaced resolution)
What is the difference between your 480i and 480p resolution you might ask?
FAR more than the difference between 1080i and 1080p I assure you!
480i (standard broadcast resolution for cable/ota/satellite broadcast) is 480 lines of horizontal resolution, split in half... For broadcast TV, there are 30 frames per second, but reasons which get FAR beyond the scope of this discussion forced early engineers to split that 30 frames in half... Those 60 half frames were called "fields". Those 60 fields were "interlaced (or the "i" in 480i) in other words, 1/2 of each 1/30th of a second of video was displayed every 1/60th of a second. Yeah... it seems complicated, but it isn't as bad as it sounds... Take your favorite picture for example... if you were to cut it into 480 VERY skinny horizontal strips, and pulled the odd numbered strips (1,3,5,7,9 etc) to the left side of a table, and the even numbered strips (2,4,6,8, etc) to the right side of a table, and flashed each of those groups of strips in front of your eyes fast enough, first odd, then even, then odd, then even, then odd (do this 60 times per second.... you would creat an INTERLACED version of your original picture!)
On the other hand, if you took the same picture, and copied it 30 times and stacked all the copies together, and flipped through them like a school project flipbook... you would have a PROGRESSIVE image. The difference? Odd Half+Even Half+Odd Half+Even Half is still HALF of an image at a time, whereas Whole Image+Whole Image+Whole Image is still a WHOLE image.... So progressive is MORE image on screen at the same time.
So where does this leave you???
TV (unless you sign up for HD service from your cable or satellite provider) will continue to be 480i (until the digital switch later in 2007) but standard DVD's are mastered in 480p which is (as far as the human eye is concerned) twice as many lines of detail on screen at any 1 time. If you want better than 480p from your DVD player, you will need to invest in a next generation disc format (either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray) which offer resolutions as high as 1080p if your HDCP compliant display can support it! The max resolution of a standard DVD is 480p, but the VERY highly rated Oppo dvd player (DV-981HD, http://www.oppodigital.com/) as well as others, can UPCONVERT 480p to 1080p, although this IS NOT True HD resolution....
If you would like a FAR more detailed and less rambling answer to all the dozens of questions your original question poses, give me the best answer and then message me privately, and I will try to make sense of all the CRAZY stuff I just wrote above.
My belief is that the more educated the populace, and the more populace educated... the better!
2006-12-26 16:27:30 · answer #1 · answered by Jawa 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Did you try adjusting the tv or dvd player settings or the cables? If none of those work perhaps as the others have said you do need a better more upgraded model of a dvd player. Try a blue ray player too. The 1080p is better picture to me then the 1080i progressive or moving scan looks better then the interlaced or not moving as much or non scanning picture. Just a thought there.
2006-12-26 20:53:04 · answer #2 · answered by dave_83501 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yep... looks like your DVD player is older than your 1080i HDTV. 720p will look better than the 480p but 1080i is the best. The higher the number, the better the picture. If you get a new DVD player get one with the HDMI interface as well...
2006-12-26 16:05:10 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lots of questions, but the facts are simple.
The best possible resolution from a standard-definition DVD player is 480 lines. The DVD can scale up, an HDTV will definitely scale up, but the source is 480 lines max.
A High-definition DVD player (HD-DVD or Blu-Ray) can go as high as 1080 lines.
HDMI is an interface. It does not scale.
2006-12-26 16:25:36 · answer #4 · answered by TV guy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the best solution is to get a dvd player with upconversion, they can up the resolution to 1080i and cost only slightly more than a regular dvd player, everyone is selling them now. bestbuy, circuitcity and even walmart.....makes a big difference. and best of all it does it with a regular dvd.
2006-12-26 16:46:12 · answer #5 · answered by wiley c 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋