Sony V Series vs W Series

[huwdm]

I recently read the excellent "Does 1080p matter?" thread and thought this real life example might make for some interesting comments.
I had convinced myself to buy a 46" Sony W series LCD and went to the Sony Centre to check it out.
The sales guy suggested I look at the V series and compare as he thought I may be disappointed when watching standard TV on the W series.
Now the W series supports 1080p and the V series has a res of 1366 x 768.
I viewed both TV's together with a standard TV feed and the V looked better.
I then viewed Sky HD through both (not sure what HD format) and they were very very similar but I would say the V was very slightly better. For info, both had exactly the same setup with regard colour, brightness etc etc.
So here is the problem.
The W series appears worse for standard TV and possibly for the Sky HD feed I watched. However, I would expect (but have no evidence) that a 1080i feed would be better on the W. And clearly only the W will support 1080p.
I have an XBOX 360 (720p i believe) and will have Sky HD.
At some point I will get a PS3 (1080p perhaps).
My main concern is that the W appears to not be so good for anything below 1080 as the V and most stuff is below 1080. But if I get a V series I wont be able to watch any 1080p in the future (whenever that may be).
Hmm - any thoughts appreciated.

[MAW]

You need to be clear in your mind the difference between native res and signals accepted. They have absolutely no relation to each other. A Panasonic PWD8 plasma with 852x480 res supports 1080p/50 and 60Hz from an x-box 360, but neither of the Sonys do. How's that for screwy? The new x-box update supports 1080p, few screens do. Just cos it's got the dots it doesn't mean didly squat in the real world. I'd say, compare the V series against say, a Fujitsu 50 plasma, with the same res. That might be an eye opener. The Sonys accept 1080p on digital, not analogue, so PS3 will be ok (surely!!!). The Sonys are also incapable of correctly deinterlacing 1080i, which is why the difference in the skyHD was marginal.

[huwdm]

Interesting and more confusing. That appears to be the world of HD.
Both the Sony's have been scored very highly in magazines, hence my interest.
So the problem still stands.
Is it a W with 1080p (not withstanding the comments made) or a V which looks better on standard but doesnt support 1080p of any kind.
The quest goes one!!!

[Chelski69]

Originally Posted by huwdm

Interesting and more confusing. That appears to be the world of HD.
Both the Sony's have been scored very highly in magazines, hence my interest.
So the problem still stands.
Is it a W with 1080p (not withstanding the comments made) or a V which looks better on standard but doesnt support 1080p of any kind.
The quest goes one!!!

The W is the one to go for in regards to future proofing.

I have the W and also have an Xbox running at 1080i, I also have an upsclaling DVD player running at 1080P and Sky HD on the way !

If you are going down the HD route then you shouldnt even be considering a V !!

[ianh64]

If I was going to go for a larger format than the 32" I have now I would be looking for 1920x1080 native. However, whether accepting 1080p was important depended on the display that I purchased. If it had a poor deinterlacer, such as has been shown to be the case with a number of the Sony displays, then 1080p would be important, but if the display had a decent deinterlacer, then 1080i input would do just as good a job...

...Unless I wanted to use the display for PC use, in which case 1080i would be preferable but IMHO, sitting infront of a 40"+ display with only 1920x1080 resolution would be silly and I would be far happier sitting closer to a a smaller display and higher resolution - large display TV's do not make good primary PC monitors. Fine for secondary or presentation use though.

[huwdm]

Thanks to all who have responded to this.
The comment about the Sony TV's not being able to display an Xbox360 1080p output as 1080p is very interesting. I dont understand how a device claiming to support 1080p input (Sony TV) and a device claiming to output 1080p (360) do not necessarily function together. Any comments?

Also, I am begining to think there will be no definitive answer to my problem.
To simplify - V series or W series?
I have a friend who worked on the design of Sony HD TV so will be interesting to see his response.

In the mean time any comments over the V or W issue are appreciated.
Thought this might be useful to add. My viewing habits would be...
55% Standard Sky TV
20% HD Sky TV (hopefully)
10% DVD
10% Xbox 360
5% PC

Next year - add PS3 and BluRay (hopefully) and HDDVD via Xbox360 (again hopefully)

[MAW]

The V series still 'supports' 1080p/24 on digital AFAIK. TBH though, none of this means anything. You need to see some more screens in the size and price brackets. You may come to realise that magazines occasionally reach bizarre conclusions.