HDTV 1080p - resolution-What does it mean?

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Sneak

Limp Gawd
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I realized that I have no idea in televisions what exactly the 720 and 1080 numbers denote. What really does it mean? Do all 1080p's of any size for example have the same exact resolution or can they vary?

Seems to me that the resolution on pure monitors in wide screen is much higher than that for HDTV. Do I have that right? Curious about all that because I think technically I can hook an HDTV tuner up to my 2405 Dell and get broadcast HD widescreen TV here. Not all chanels but the ones that have HDTV shows.

So why would I not want to buy, say, a Dell 30 inch monitor and a set top HDTV tuner instead of a TV whether plasma or LCD? Or does the TV package give me something I can not get with components?
 
720p = 1280x720 Progressive.
1080i = 1920x1080 Interlaced.
1080p = 1920x1080 Progressive.
 
Taking this one step further, I think each of those resolutions can have different frame rates as well.

ie. 1920x1080 progressive @ 24FPS, 30FPS or 60FPS

I think 60FPS is kind of a soft cap since most pure digital monitors have a 60Hz cap at native resolution.

Obviously I may be wrong, so please correct me if so ;)
 
monitors have always had higher resolutions than the standard TV. Why dont you check out the new 30 inch lcd's comming out as well as apple's 30 incher... they make 1080p look like crap! 2560 x 1600 resolution! heh, guess that would that be 1600p To bad no video broadcasts or future HD media can display at greater than 1080p
 
mike_j_johnson said:
ie. 1920x1080 progressive @ 24FPS, 30FPS or 60FPS
Obviously I may be wrong, so please correct me if so ;)
Click to expand...

Okay, since you asked, I'll make a slight correction.

1080p is 1080 vertical lines on your screen (thus the 1080 notation). The 'p' does stand for progressive which means the entire image is scanned 60 times per second.

1080i is also 1080 vertical lines on your screen but is interlaced. This means that there are 30 vertical and 30 horizontal scans done per second which saves bandwidth but also cuts down on visual clarity.
 
frisbfreek said:
Don't you mean 1080 horizontal lines? It's 1920 pixels across by 1080 pixels down. wiki
Click to expand...

Vertical means up and down, Horizontal means left and right.
Therefore 1080p is 1080 vertical lines.

Edit:
Look at the first line of that wiki link even you put up.
The number 1080 stands for 1080 lines of vertical resolution
Click to expand...
 
1080 vertical resolution is not the same thing as saying 1080 vertical lines. The term vertical is used in two different ways here.

1080 vertical resolution = 1080 horizontal lines.

The resolution is MEASURED vertically but the lines are horizontal.

I know its confusing, but if you cut through the crap it's just common sense.
 
Thanks docmal.

Let's draw this out:

----------
---------- = 3 horizontal lines
----------

| | | | |
| | | | | = 5 vertical lines
| | | | |

So, 1920x1080, being widescreen not tallscreen, has more vertical lines (1920) going across than horizontal lines (1080) going up and down.
 
Thanks guys,
This is great info. I guess the reason I thought comp monitors had far higher resolutions than tv's is because I first didn't know the resolution of 1080 and also I just really don't see many out there yet. The posted resolutions I have seen for most tv's have been way lower than 1920 x 1080.

Still one thing I am curious about and I will repost the line from above.

So why would I not want to buy, say, a Dell 30 inch monitor and a set top HDTV tuner instead of a TV whether plasma or LCD? Or does the TV package give me something I can not get with components?


By the way, the verticle resolution horizontal line thing above was a fun ride. ;)
 
The only real difference is size and price. The Dell 30inch monitor is around $2000 whereas a super nice 1080p 37" TV can be had for ~$1700 (look for westinghouse 37")

Also the 30" Dell has a standard res that is higher than HDTV res so you will have some upconverting or zooming which may look strange (although its minimal if the aspect ratio is the same.) The Dell is a great monitor for computer use but as a TV I think it is overkill. You can get much bigger units with built in tuners, better connections, remotes etc.if you just want a TV. If you want to do both then go for the 30inch. I can't stand watching TV or HDTV on anything less than my mitsubishi 65" 1080i widescreen rear projection TV. It may be getting a little old but it still looks great. If you want the latest and greatest big screen TVs though I have to admit the toshiba 1080p DLPs have cought my eye recently.
 
docmal said:
The only real difference is size and price. The Dell 30inch monitor is around $2000 whereas a super nice 1080p 37" TV can be had for ~$1700 (look for westinghouse 37")

Also the 30" Dell has a standard res that is higher than HDTV res so you will have some upconverting or zooming which may look strange (although its minimal if the aspect ratio is the same.) The Dell is a great monitor for computer use but as a TV I think it is overkill. You can get much bigger units with built in tuners, better connections, remotes etc.if you just want a TV. If you want to do both then go for the 30inch. I can't stand watching TV or HDTV on anything less than my mitsubishi 65" 1080i widescreen rear projection TV. It may be getting a little old but it still looks great. If you want the latest and greatest big screen TVs though I have to admit the toshiba 1080p DLPs have cought my eye recently.
Click to expand...

OK I will have a look at the Westy 37 inch. Never thought upconverting being a problem. On the DLP, a friend of mine has a Samsung DLP TV and it is pretty nice. Do not believe it has the 1080 resolution though. Will cruise Toshiba as well.
 
I cannot stand scaling, compression, etc., so the only way I would go would be a 1080p capable monitor (ie 1920x1200) and then use it with a HTPC setup via DVI-D or HDMI to DVI-D. Then use something like WMP 10 & the nVidia DVD Decoder (if you have a nVidia card).

This way, you can watch 1080p or 720p content with a 1:1 pixel ratio and aspect ratio (assuming you have a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive in the future with everything HDCP compliant).

I would never buy a set-top player and plug it into a consumer HDTV because you will probably always experience some sort of scaling, compression, bad aspect ratios, etc. ...yuck!
 
Okay, I think Sharp is trying to evade the answer. On their web site:

http://sharpusa.com/products/ModelLanding/0,1058,1572,00.html

Full HDTV Spec (1920 x 1080)
displays HDTV program images in 1080p and is compatible with off-air (terrestrial), cable and satellite HDTV broadcasts
Click to expand...

It says 1080p

but in the manual the word 1080p was never mentioned. Under spec.

it simply say: 1920x1080x3 dots

so is that 1080p or 1080i?

The only other place in the manual that mention 1080 is on page46 of their manual, in which it says:

"All boardcast will be converted & displayed in 1080i format"

Does that mean it doesn't do 1080p? Anyone?
 
That manual sucks.

1080p is not broadcast over the air to begin with so I have no idea why they would even mention that as being converted to 1080i.
 
Just to clarify here, the terms are a bit different than has been implied.

Because aspect ratios differ for most DVD's. the real number that matters is the number of horizontal pixels, not vertical. So when you say a video is 1080p, you are actually only saying that it is 1920p, and any amount of vertical pixels.

This makes it so that hollywood can choose to make a say 2.35:1 ratio HDDVD, and it will run at say 1280x530(approx.), and it will run 1to1 pixels.

Hopefully I have construed this clearly, but in the end, what matters most is horizontal pixels; the 720 and 1080 are just upper limits, in other words they will not make a movie with a more square ratio than 16:9.

To verify this, just download the HD clips from Apple.com and you will see what I mean.
 
but 1080i is interlaced, if the Sharp can only do interlace mode, then its monitor is really 540. Am I right?
 
The TV upscales a 1080i or 720p ATSC broadcast to 1080p much like a progressive can DVD player takes a 480i movie and scales to 480p.
 
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