[underscore]

Hi guys,
I recently just got my first plasma (panny 42X10). I hooked up my Dreambox 800HD receiver to it and set the output to 720p. However I noticed that there is an option to output at 1080i. Would this be better? I'm new to the HD world so I could use a few pointers. I read somewhere on these forums that the Panny's, the HD ready ones, upscale everything up to 1080p then downscale them again.... something to do with producing one video chip for all their models.
So again, which output would yield better results. 720p or 1080i? Most of the channels are SD with a few HD channels like Discovery and National Geographic.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by underscore

Hi guys,
I recently just got my first plasma (panny 42X10). I hooked up my Dreambox 800HD receiver to it and set the output to 720p. However I noticed that there is an option to output at 1080i. Would this be better? I'm new to the HD world so I could use a few pointers. I read somewhere on these forums that the Panny's, the HD ready ones, upscale everything up to 1080p then downscale them again.... something to do with producing one video chip for all their models.
So again, which output would yield better results. 720p or 1080i? Most of the channels are SD with a few HD channels like Discovery and National Geographic.

For broadcast HD normally the original 1080i will give the best results certainly with a 1920 x 1080 display. For SD material it largely depends on the quality of the 800HD's scaler as against the TV's. Why not try all the available starting with 576i and don't forget to try 576I from RGB scart for SD material you might be surprised to find a better picture from scart than hdmi for SD source material

[underscore]

Thanks Graham, unfortunately I have the Asian model of the X10 and there are no scart inputs. But I'll fiddle around with the dreambox and see what seems to be the best picture over HDMI.
I'd heard that 1080i might cause a problem in fast moving scenes and the likes, such as pans.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by underscore

Thanks Graham, unfortunately I have the Asian model of the X10 and there are no scart inputs. But I'll fiddle around with the dreambox and see what seems to be the best picture over HDMI.
I'd heard that 1080i might cause a problem in fast moving scenes and the likes, such as pans.

That's the achilles heel of any interlaced transmission be it 576i or 1080i. For broadcast reception of HD they always use 1080i in varying horizontal resolutions, eg BBC HD is 1440 x 1080 and Sky HD channels are usually the full wack of 1920 x 1080. Film based content though won't have motion interlacing artefacts as each of the two 1/50 sec fields is scanned from the same frame of film in this event the 1080i50 signal is equivalent to a 1080p25 signal. For other live transmitted material how well the material is deinterlaced by any processor will be the deciding factor. ie less pixel resolution but a progressive picture against more pixels but interlaced source content. A HD TV always generates a progressive picture because thats how it works it's just the source off the odd and even lines that's different. In practice at normal viewing distances it's doubtfull you will see much if any difference

[underscore]

Great! Thanks for the info! Sorry took so late to reply, but my 3 year old wanted to go swimming! I'm going to try them one by one and just see which one gives me the best "all-round" picture.