Since the first High Definition TV appeared in 1998, HDTVs have been on the mind of every TV buyer. But with so many choices in the market place, how do you know what TV set you should buy? There are loads of factors that will influence your decision: price, size, resolution, type of TV (Samsung Plasma TV , Sony LCD Tv ), connectivity, etc… and we want to make it a bit easier for you. We are sure you have heard the terms 1080i and 1080p, but what do they actually mean?
1080i
1080i is considered to be an HDTV video mode. 1080 stands for 1080 lines of vertical resolution. The term implies a horizontal definition of 1920 pixels, so we can say that 1080i TVs have a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, or about 2.07 million pixels. The programming broadcasted today by most of TV broadcasters has a maximum of 480 visible lines of detail so you can get an idea of the image quality produced by 1080i sources with more than double the visible lines (up to 1080).
The letter at the end of 1080i describes the type of scan the television uses to display the picture. “i” stands for interlaced. That means the picture is scanned in two passes, or “fields,” each lasting 1/60th of a second. The first pass fills in the odd numbered lines, leaving the even numbered lines blank, which are filled in by the second pass. Because each field takes 1/60th of a second, and there are two of them, 1080i actually needs 1/30th of a second to convey a full frame. Because human vision works by retaining images for a brief period of time on the eye’s retina, the interlace scan process makes two separate scans of an image appear as one frame.
1080p
1080p (or True HD) is the next step up on the scale of TV resolutions and it’s certainly the best resolution you can get on a TV (at this moment in time).
1080p also provides a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, but that’s where the similarities with 1080i stop. The letter “p” at the end of 1080p stands for “progressive”. This means that the picture is scanned in a single pass (rather than in two passes with interlaced formats), which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content.
So if you are still not sure what resolution you should choose (1080i or 1080p), our advice is to go for 1080p as it will be the format of the future and it offers the best image quality you can get. It’s worth having a look at the Sony KDL37W5500 LCD TV and the Sony KDL32V5500 LCD TV.
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