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General discussion

Resolutions: What Am I Seeing?

by rbush101 Jul 19, 2009 3:47PM PDT

Hello, I have a question about TV resolutions. More specifically, it's about TVs that have 1080p. Not many sources output 1080p besides BluRay (right?), and TV stations only broadcast 1080i or 720p. So what I'm asking is when I'm at a TV that has 1080p while I'm watching an HD channel that is broadcasted in 720p, is the video just enlarged to fit the screen? And if I'm watching something that is broadcasted in 1080i, am I seeing it in "true" 1080p?

Thanks for any help and go ahead and point out any errors. (I'm not exactly a TV expert)

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by givemeaname Jul 19, 2009 5:04PM PDT

The only true 1080p is bluray.
Part will depends on the type of tv you have, does it always display 'native' and then what the native is for that tv, 480i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p. A CRT will be all ways be 'i', LCDs it depend on the model, plasma will be 'p', RPtv very. Most new tv's can 'upscale' a 1080i to 1080p native (if it is a 1080p tv). This sometimes can add noise to the picture. Mostly the tv is doing more work then if you had a true 1080p synal go to the tv. Some tv's are better then others at the prossesing, some tv's if you send a 720p to a 1080p 'native' it will look better then if you sent 1080i to the same tv, this is common when gaming.

So mostly depends on your tv model number.

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