720p vs 1080i. Which is better?

[pugsley1218]

I have been wanting to know this for both my games, (xbox, xbox360) as well as other things, such as TV.

 

[Domingo]

This is one of those things that's been discussed to death, but there aren't too many full-on consolidated threads about it. It tends to just creep up a lot in the midst of other discussions.
There's no full-on right answer. 720p is technically better, but 1080i is higher resolution...but because it's interlaced, it's on a technicality.
It depends on what your TV's native resolution is as to which is better for you. Most people will say 720p, though. In some cases, I think different games look better in different resolutions. 720p looks a little more pixelated for me, but it's typically a little smoother moving, too.
Reading some threads, 1080i is supposed to be capped at 30 half-frames per second so it can kind-of "cheat" to get to higher framerates that 720p can do.
On my TV, I just played around and tried different games. IMO it just seems to depend.

 

[sirholio]

It really is up to you as to what you prefer. What is your tv's resolution? Just try out the different settings, and decide which one looks best to you.

 

[erwos]

It is often highly dependent on your particular HDTV model. 720p looks terrible on my LCD (I actually lose a bit of the picture!), whereas 1080i is quite nice. Blanket generalizations don't really work.

-Erwos

 

[Creepingdeath1977]

I have a Hitachi Ultravision 57" HD ws and 1080 looks a little cleaner than 720.

 

[Martyr]

1080p

 

[rcf1987]

1080p

Ya but were not talkin about 1080p now are we.

 

[Martyr]

Ya but were not talkin about 1080p now are we.

then ya shouldnt be talkin at all.

 

[Domingo]

then ya shouldnt be talkin at all.

Yay - because there are so many things that properly use 1080p right now!
Might as well brag about playing PC games at 3000X2000 with 24xAA or a hybrid car with 400 horsepower.

 

[Mabrito]

then ya shouldnt be talkin at all.

Wow talk about retarded. The guy wante to know what would be better to set his XBOX 360, 1080i or 720P. Bring in 1080P is retarded and asking for a flame fest. Is that what you want? Honestly, that wasnt what he wanted to know.

Anyway, I would go with 1080i, as im a fan of higher resolutions. But if you tend to get framerate problems, lower it. Basically you just have to experiment and see what is better. TV's also have a factor on picture quality. 720P on my tv looks like shit while 1080i, is nice.

 

[IanG]

I think it depends on the source as well, sports and fast motion tend to look worse at 1080i because of the interlacing, but a slow-moving video will look better. As has also been said, it depends on the native resolution of the screen as well. If you have a 1080 screen, 720 just won't look right.

 

[lesman]

Martyr, knock it off, you're no help at all.

It usually varies monitor to monitor, and person to person. You can't just state which "is" better, because 720p may look good to you, but bad to another person. General rule 1 is to use whichever resolution is native to your monitor. If you use a CRT monitor, chances are you'll be using 1080i, simply because that's the resolution the TV will support and display.

If you are using an LCD monitor, the native resolution will likely be 1280x720 or 1366x768, so it would be "best" to use 720p (which is 1280x720 or 768). Sometimes, especially with 1366x768 monitors, it is better to use the Xbox 360 at 1080i due to the TV stretching out the 720p image. Some have found that it's better to let the LCD monitor scale down a 1920x1080 image rather than blow up a 1280x720 image.

 

[peacetilence]

I prefer 1080i upscaled to 1080p using the program TheaterTek (for HD transport streams) because it looks more sharp to me than 720p. I think 720p might look better on conventional displays though.

 

[CodeX]

Whatever your TV's native resolution is...