A 480p Samsung ps 42d5s TV is displaying 720p!? Why?

Question

Hello everyone

I have an enhanced definition television set and have recently discovered that for some reason, setting my Playstation 3 onto the 720p setting actually works with the TV.

Could anyone who is tech saavy or has knowledge on televisions let me know why this is so?

There is clearly an increase in image quality when using 720p (over 480p, which is what I was using). So the television is clearly doing something, but the problem is, the TV isn't supposed to be capable of outputing 720p.

This Samsung TV is not a very high quality set, and using 720p, makes any white text on the screen seem very... dotty.

My question is, does it harm the television or the Playstation 3 by setting it to that output. The reason for this concern, as mentioned above, is that the TV isn't 720p compatible.

The second question is, why is it displaying 720p? Is it some kind of pseudo 720p?

Thank you.

Answer 1

A TV can only display at its native resolution. Since this an ED HDTV it can actually (by definition) receive 1080i or 720p signals, however, it SCALES the input signal back to 480p.
In general, it is easier to scale down than up. In other words, the TV is not outputing 720p. It looks though that the TV down-scales better than the PS3. Feel free to use it in this mode if you think the quality is better.

Answer 2

Depends upon how it is connected and the actual specifications of the TV.

Let us suppose you are using the composite video output of the Playstation 3 which is the yellow RCA connector which works with the left and right audio outputs which are the white and red connectors. That kind of connection is only capable of 480 line output. So what you are feeding it is still 480 lines but you are changing the text size with the 720p setting.