1080i vs. 720p

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Adlershof

Any opinions about the pros and cons of these two formats?

I watch a lot of USA football, and the games are on both 720P and 1080I channels, so I can compare motion performance and other issues easily between the two formats. Most of my watching is with a Windows Media Center digital recorder (DVR), so I also can easily compare slow-motion or freeze-frame images as well.

The result I have found, using flat-panel displays or an LCD front-projection display, is that 720P may have slightly sharper images if viewed in freeze-frame mode, but in actual normal-speed viewing, I never notice any "lag" or "smearing" or other possible problems in games shown in 1080I mode. Nor do I see any "clearer" motion or other improvement in the 720P games. What I truly DO notice, every time in every game, is the mediocre sharpness/clarity of the 720P games versus the nice "pop", "wow, yes, this is high definition" of the 1080I games. Every time. Unfortunately, my favorite team's games (San Francisco 49ers) are mostly shown on the 720P Fox network.