is there a big difference between 1080i and 1080p?

Question

i have a 27in sanyo vision tv and i am wanting to know is there going to be that big of a difference when i play my xbox 360

it also has intergrated hdtv and it supports up to

1080i

Answer 1

Although a few independent testing facilities have already told us that there's no (discernable) difference between 1080i and 1080p, it's quite understandable to still be skeptical when television manufacturers are screaming otherwise and touting 1080p as the new "must have" feature. In the latest battle between the two outputs, eagle-eyed testers compared the 1080p output from the Blu-ray version of the hot-selling M:I III film on five different displays. With monitors sporting resolutions ranging from 1,024 x 768 to 1,366 x 768 to 1,920 x 1,080, the conclusions were unsurprisingly similar to various other studies. Essentially, reviewers stated that in a vast majority of the scenes, the "level of detail was virtually identical" across the higher resolution sets, and that even the (relatively) low resolution Philips 42PF9631D plasma showed imagery "difficult to discern" from more elite monitors. Overall, testers felt that native 1080p rendered "slightly more detail in near background images in scenes with long depths of field," but was otherwise not really "necessary," and recommended that prospective buyers save their cash for the time being rather than buying in (literally) to the 1080p hype right now.

More technical info;

1. 1080p defined
1080p resolution--which equates to 1,920x1,080 pixels--is the latest HD Holy Grail. That's because 1080p monitors are theoretically capable of displaying every pixel of the highest-resolution HD broadcasts. On paper, they should offer more than twice the resolution of today's 1,280x720, or 720p, HDTVs, such as Samsung's HL-P5085W. Some companies, such as LG, refer to these super-high-resolution of sets as ultra-HD, while others prefer to substitute true or full for ultra.

2. Why 1080p is theoretically better than 1080i
1080i, the former king of the HDTV hill, actually boasts an identical 1,920x1,080 resolution but conveys the images in an interlaced format (the i in 1080i). In a tube-based television, otherwise known as a CRT, 1080i sources get "painted" on the screen sequentially: the odd-numbered lines of resolution appear on your screen first, followed by the even-numbered lines--all within 1/30 of a second. Progressive-scan formats such as 480p, 720p, and 1080p convey all of the lines of resolution sequentially in a single pass, which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content. As opposed to tubes, micro displays (DLP, LCoS, and LCD rear-projection) and other fixed-pixel TVs, including plasma and LCD flat-panel, are inherently progressive in nature, so when the incoming source is interlaced, as 1080i is, they convert it to progressive scan for display.

3. What content is available in 1080p?
Really, nothing at this point. Today's high-def broadcasts are done in either 1080i or 720p, and there's little or no chance they'll jump to 1080p any time soon because of bandwidth issues. Meanwhile, some newly announced DVD players from Denon and NeuNeo (who?) are claiming to up convert standard DVD movies to 1080p resolution, but that's a far cry from native high-def content. More promising is the post-DVD future. There's been a lot of chatter over whether the new breed of high-def movie players, Blu-ray or HD-DVD, as well as the Sony PlayStation 3, will output in 1080p. Allegedly, they will, but those players and recorders will be very expensive at first (more than $1,000), and they probably won't hit more modest price levels until 2007 or even 2008. The PS3, on the other hand, is designed to be more of a mainstream product; we hope that means a price tag in the neighborhood of $500. It's unclear, however, exactly what it will output in 1080p--games, Blu-ray movies, or both--or neither.

4. How much extra does a 1080p TV cost
Not surprisingly, you'll initially have to pay a premium to get the latest and greatest technology. If you take a look at the product lines of Sony, Samsung, and Mitsubishi, you can see that, on average, you can expect to pay about $1,000 extra for the bump in resolution. For instance, take the Samsung HL-R6167 (720p resolution) vs. the step-up HL-R6168 (1080p). At buy.com, the 6167 is currently going for $3,500 while the 6168 is $4,500. Eventually, of course, the gap will narrow, but it'll take a couple of more years for 1080p displays to become the standard.

(Sports, entertainment and convention audio/video engineer)

Answer 2

In most case you won't be able to see the difference. To see the difference you'll need at least a 42" tv or larger. On your sanyo tv, you definitely won't see the difference. In any case, try running the game on 720p and 1080i and decide what you want. I played all my xbox 360 games at 720p becuase it looks better than 1080i, IMHO.

Answer 3

Look here.