Why is my 1080p plasma showing 720p?

I just bought a LG 50PV450 Television - 50" Class 1080P Plasma TV
When I turn on my HD channels on, it says "720p" at the top of the screen? What does this mean? I thought my TV was 1080p as it says "FULL HD 1080p". I'm new to all this TV lingo so forgive me if I'm asking something that has already been answered.

One more thing...What are the best setting for my TV? There are so many options that I have no clue what my TV settings should be on?

Thanks for all the help!
-Brett

 

What source is this on ie Sky, Freeview, Virgin Media? Also what channel.

Aaron

 

According to peoples comments on other threads there are no channels that transmit at 1080p as far as i am aware most HD is 720p apart from upscaled SD. If you have Virgin you can set up the Vbox to send 1080i to your tv. But the only true 1080p would be blu ray.

 

Broadcasters only send 720p signal as not all hd tvs are full 1080p

 

Ok I was scared for a minute as I was wondering why every channel was 720 and and most non HD channels are 480.

You said not all 1080p TVs are "FULL" 1080, how do I know if I mine is or is not?

Does anyone know what I need to change my picture settings too, to get this possible quality out of my Plasma?

 

I have Verizon FiOS HD, I live in the US. I've tried ESPN, ABC, NBC, some of the big channels.

 

Yours is a FULL 1080p. Early on before HD got mainstream there where lots of so called "HD Ready" sets and these where 720p

 

Welcome to the forums

Hard2bear is correct in asking what sources you're using and the others are close in saying that no-one in the UK transmits 1080P.
It's 1080i at best.
Not that you'll notice much difference, if any at all, anyway, imo


The most likely answer is that you've set the TV up to default to 720P, somehow.
In which case you need to drag the manual out

As for settings, I can't help there as a search on here shows nothing
No doubt someone will give you a link

But for now, turn any dynamic xxx, Noise xxx and xxx smoothing off, because they're mostly useless.

 

The manual is on the CD the TV came with. I took the PDF off and here is the link. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4598810/eng.pdf

If you go to page 46 aka the "WATCHING TV" section on the PDF you will see information bar I'm talking about. When I hit info while I'm watching ESPN or NBC in HD, it'll say "16:9 720p". And on some none HD channels like Nickeloden its says "16:9 480p" when I hit info. Is this just what the channel is broadcasting? Because in the manual diagram it shows "16:9 1080i". I'm so confused on this?

EDIT: My TV is connected to my Verizon Fios cable set top box by a HDMI cord. That is only one wire, am I missing important wires? Component connections or something or does my TV only require one cable, an HDMI, for everything to work?

 

Anyone? Don't mean to be a pest or anything but I've searched everywhere, I can't find any info on my problem. Just some diagrams which I posted above, in the manual.

 

the 720 and 480 you see displayed is the resolution of the signal being sent to your TV from the cable/tv station, not what is being outputed by the TV, , if as someone stated earlier in this thread your TV is 1080p then the TV will upscale the signal and output 1080, the 720 and 480 are normal. Some channals such as Freeview HD here in the UK broadcast at 1080i so the TV displys it with no upscaling, what you see in the manual is probably just an example.

Curly

 

please remember this is a UK based forums and at this time of the day many who could reply will be in bed.

Curly

 

Ok I think I figured it out. For some reason my VERIZON FIOS set top box was set to 720p? I changed it to you 1080i, I don't think I notice a difference?

One last thing, is there anywhere I can go to find out what setting would best fit for my TV. There are a lot of settings to change.

And I'm sorry about the posts, I didn't even think about the forums being in the UK, completely forgot, my apologies.

 

pictureetting which is best is normally the one that requires the least scaling by your television. Is there a default or Auto output on your Verizon box?

As people have said the broadcasts in the UK are generally 1080i, so that is the best option here. In the US I believe a lot of broadcasts are natively 720p, especially for Sport(s), so that may be your best setting.

For picture settings, I would take a look at the LG forum, on this site, or maybe look at AVS forums, which I suppose would be the US analog of this site:-

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=167

As a rule though the best base setting is Movie Mode, Or THX if available.

 

Can someone please explain to me what I need to do to my TV? I'm so confused with all these terms and how to properly set up my new plasma. I was reading somewhere that there are two important steps when using your new plasma.

1. Break the TV in. I have a PS3 and I heard that If I leave it on playing music that the ambient background screensaver will break my TV in properly if I leave it on for 50-80 hours. Is this what I should do?
2. I keep reading that after you break in your TV like above you then calibrate your TV. What does this mean?

EDIT: When I get right up to my TV, basically with my nose touching it, I can see these tiny dots all over the screen, there fuzzy and almost in like a wave format. It almost changes with the colors of my TV. For example when a dark black comes up I can see it. Sometimes the edge of the wave looks green, like green dots. Anyone know what this is, I can't really explain it good. You can only notice it when your right up looking at extremely closely.

 

I'll try and help though my morning coffee has yet to kick in
1. Breaking in the TV, or running in the TV. In short its to age the cells of the tv to reduce the risk of getting image retention (a ghost effect of a static logo for example, but these fade) and to prime the tv for calibration. Easy to do, sit back and enjoy the tv (watch some tv), run full screen slides, or even run some music on the PS3 on loop with no icons on screen.
Breaking in takes around 200hrs.
2. Calibration. Its to set the tv up to so it as accurately as it can display an image to how the director of a movie/tv show saw it. There is standards for colour targets, gamma levels etc which are met for film and tv production and calibrating a TV gets you as close to these settings as the TV can. Then you will be watching films how they were ment to be shown.
For your edit, if your seeing green dots in your blacks go knock your brightness back a click or 2. Should clear them up. If your talking about each pixel moving slightly when upclose this is a process called dithering which is the way plasma tvs mix there colours. Nothing to worry about.

 

Ok, I'm going to leave HBO(HD) on. Is this OK to use for breaking in. Their is no channel logo because all the play are movies so it's not like CNN or ESPN with a constant logo and everything is in HD, no black side bars, just a full solid picture. If I leave HBO on while I sleep for breaking my TV in, will it be ok to have my TV on normally during the day? I have a 2 year old son, I cant break my TV in non stop. I might leave Nickelodeon on or some station for him, he loves these education shows.

One more thing and I'm calling it a night. I have an X-Men DVD with that THX calibration thingy on it. Is that good "program" to use for my TV. I want to get the closest to a professional I can without shelling out a lot of cash. I'm willing to buy a better DVD for calibrating, if you know know any, but I just wanted to see if the THX thing would be sufficient enough?

EDIT: I also have contrast and brightness below 50, around 45. Should I change any other setting while I break in my TV? Brightness was 100 just a second ago which is a no-no I recently found out.

 

to add to above...

i was watching the steelers game tonight, and i notice that my tv would get pixelated or fuzzy in certain areas whenever something high speed happens, is this normal. it didn't happen all the time, but for example when a bunch of players went up to grab the football several times it would pixelated around them. also when ever the HUD with the scores, team info, etc. whenever it would transition in and out, it would get pixelated too right where the HUD would pop up.

 

Personally I wouldnt leave a TV channel on, just incase it happens that the channel goes down and a test card/sorry message is left on the screen for hours.
The X Men THX option, I assume it shows patterens and you adjust the contrast and brightness to set the image right? If so thats good, better than nothing.

The fuzzy pixels is this something you see when upclose to the screen? It could well be dithering. The process to mix colours for plasma tvs.

 

I saw it while sitting down. My living room isnt huge so my TV is probably 4-5 feet from the couch. It looks like a bunch of squares when it pixelates.

Instead of leaving the HD channel on over night do you recommend I just leave my ps3 on playing music? will that hurt my ps3?

Also, here is the THX I have, is the a good one? Or should I buy an actual Calibration DVD?