1366X768 resolution is not 1080i or 1080p, is it? Are the manufacturers lying to us?

Question

I keep seeing ads for HDTVs where their max resolution is 1366X768, but yet the manufacturers tout these as 1080i capable TVs. 1080i or 1080p by definition is 1920X1080 so are these manufacturers just flat out lying to consumers? If the highest resolution a TV can show is 1366X768, then it's not showing you a picture in full 1080. A lie by the HDTV makers, or a half-truth?

Neither of those answers were sufficient. I guess I know the anser. If it's not being displayed on a screen capable of 1920X1080 resolution, it's not truly 1080. There's no way around that physical requirement. The manufacturers are lying through their teeth with a smile on their face.

But still no one has addressed the fact that in order to be considered 1080i signal you HAVE to have a TV whose resolution runs at 1920X1080 (<-- 1080...thus why it's called 1080i/p. I'm not talking about taking a 1080i signal and making it work on a 720P TV. I'm talking straight up number of pixels. A 1336X766 screen cannot display a 1080i signal. And sorry, those of you who think 1080i is the same as 540P are being misled, that's not true. I think folks that advertise HDTVs as 1080i capable that have screen resolutions that are not 1920x1080 are lying to consumers. I do agree with an earlier poster though. 1080i does look much better than 720P, especially on old-school rear projections HDTV, which still have the best picture quality by the way.

Answer 1

In digital electronics there is a thing called "sample rate conversion". You can think of TV pixels as "samples" of the picture. It is possible to convert from any sample rate to another, both higher and lower than the original. In TV land this is termed "scaling", but it means the same thing. All broadcast TV is either 720p or 1080i. The TV set can display whatever by proper scaling, which is done in the TV set itself. The resolution of the screen is called the "native resolution" of the TV. Anything coming in, no matter what (480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i) must be scaled to the native resolution of the set. However, the information content (resolution) in the result cannot exceed that of the original source. If the native resolution has more samples than the source, the picture will have equal resolution as the source; if it is less, then the display will have less resolution than the source. Since 1366x768 has more samples than 1280x720, that format can be displayed without loss. However, it is not as many samples as 1920x1080, so the set cannot display a 1080i picture at full resolution, When the manufacturer claims 1080i capable, it means the set can ACCEPT 1080i signals, it doesn't mean that they can be displayed at full resolution. Until recently, most sets did not exceed 1280x720 pixels, and some plasmas were as low as 1024x768. None of these could display 1080i without loss of resolution. Even older CRT sets which would scan 1080i on their picture tubes would not actually resolve all the pixels; they weren't as good as the 720p sets that succeeded them. The situation is very confusing and marketing people are taking advantage of this.

Answer 2

As a trainer for Hitachi I can tackle this question head on.

There are no lies from Manufacturers regarding resolution. If a TV has a display that is 1366 x 768, then that TV will display 720p or in this case a 768p (typically this is something that the manufacturer chooses to do so that the scaling with horizontal and vertical lines match better for the screen size). A TV with a resolution of 1366 x 768 is 1080i compliant because the interlaced resolution of the set is 1366. The TV will accept signals of 480i/p and will more than likely upconvert that to 720p. It will accept 720p no problem and will bring in 1080i/p resolutions but will down convert them to 720p. Now to get 1080p you do have to have a set that has 1920 x 1080 resolution, however this is just starting to come about. The only signals out there that achieve 1080p at this point are from HD DVD and Blu-Ray so many TV manufacturers haven't been in a big hurry to push 1080p.

Some sets out there now say virtual 1080p - what this means is that the TV will "scan" the resolution to simulate 1080p, but the TV is not 1080p compliant. This is something that the TV has built into the set so that your image is its absolute best without being 1080p. So what the set does is that it brings in a signal and reads it as 1080p, then displays it at whatever the TVs native resolution is, which in many cases is 720p or 1080i. This is typically called virtual 1080p on many sets. The reason that manufacturers are doing this is because 1080p is the new buzz word for HD, and because broadcasts are not, and will not be for a long time 1080p they have to meet the consumers somewhere in the middle.

Keep in mind that when it comes to resolution most of it has to do with the broadcast. Most broadcasts are in 720p or 1080i currently because it is extremely costly to add the scalers (upconverters) and other equipment for 1080p broadcasting.

The highest resolution plasma panel on the market is the Hitachi 42" and its only a 1080i set. LCD flat panel and DLP projection sets are offering 1080p currently.

Feel free to email me through my profile or check out my blog below if you have more questions.

Answer 3

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RE:
1366X768 resolution is not 1080i or 1080p, is it? Are the manufacturers lying to us?
I keep seeing ads for HDTVs where their max resolution is 1366X768, but yet the manufacturers tout these as 1080i capable TVs. 1080i or 1080p by definition is 1920X1080 so are these manufacturers just flat out lying to consumers? If the highest resolution a TV can show is 1366X768, then it's...

Answer 4

I dont understand why these people cant give you a straight answer. 1366x768 can put out true 720p with out any conversion. However TV mfgt's tell you can play 1080i on that set because the TV is capable of taking a 1080i resolution picture (from digital tv or from xbox360) and downconverting the signal from 1080 to 720.
On the other hand, if you have a TV like the Samsung LN-S4695 like I do. My native resolution is 1920x1080. However my TV can upconvert a 720 signal to 1080p. It is a simple conversion game the Mfgt's like to play so that you buy their TV.

Answer 5

a very good question in deed. i used to know that answer but it seems to have left my memory for some reason. where is reggieman. he has all these answers. _i think it has to do with image commpression or some thing , damn i cant remember-but it does display 1080i, you can only display 1080p on 1920x1080
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either way the 1366x768or720 ,1080i looks excellent better that 720p in my personl opinion
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oh i think they break it down to 540p then do it twice for interlace.damnit i cant grasp it im pretty sure its called "wobulation" will some technician please answer
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the rest of these clowns dont know what they are talking about
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---THANK YOU Larry m. and plasmas will come out with 1080p resolution later this year.

Answer 6

Well I suppose you could call it a half truth. I will not get into all the technical aspects, because I think you have a full handle on it. However if you read the descriptions on the TVs carefully, you will notice they usually say that the TV will accept a 1080i signal, but don't really explicitly say it will display a 1080i picture. So they are technically being truthful in what they say, however it could be considered a bit misleading.

Answer 7

1080i means that you transmit a frame of 1080 lines every 1/30 of a sec. However, since the signal is INTERLACED, you actually transmit a FIELD of 540 lines every 1/60 of a second.

A TV with 768 lines is fully capable of taking a FIELD of 540 lines and scale it up to 720. So nobody is lying.

There are TVs that will simply drop a field when they go from 1080i to 720p and there are TVs that will actually interpolate between the two fields for a better picture. Home Theater Magazine (I think) had a test of about 50 TVs and only about 15% of them actually interpolate.

Answer 8

those are 720p hdtv's the highest is 1080p but very few tv's are full hd displaying 1080p

most are 720 or 1080i

Answer 9

Yes, exactly: they are lying.

Their claim is "you can take a 1080i/p input and the TV will rescale it to 720p" which is true, but a 1080i/p display of the same size would still have more dots.

Answer 10

A display of that resolution likely will scale inputs to 720p (which is 1080i).