1024 x 768 resolution (plasma) ***update***

[fuentefan]

I have an opportunity to buy a Philips 42" plasma at my work (Fred Meyer) brand new for 675 otd....I'm not an HDTV noob but that seems like an odd resolution. Anyone have any experience with a plasma at this resolution?

 

[JackBurton]

That's why I never looked at 42" plasmas. Just a fvcked up resolution. 1280x720 is the standard 720p res.

 

[Shawn]

Are you planing on hooking it up to a PC? If not, I'd I'd get it for $675.

 

[Muadib]

It's not an HD resolution, and that's why they want to sell it to you at that price. That's not even that great a price. Best Buy has their 720p model for $900. I know I could get it for $700-800, if I could find a store that had it in stock. Since you work at Fred Meyer, you should be able to do the same.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Muadib
It's not an HD resolution, and that's why they want to sell it to you at that price. That's not even that great a price. Best Buy has their 720p model for $900. I know I could get it for $700-800, if I could find a store that had it in stock. Since you work at Fred Meyer, you should be able to do the same.

That one is 1024 x 768 as well

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Muadib
It's not an HD resolution, and that's why they want to sell it to you at that price. That's not even that great a price. Best Buy has their 720p model for $900. I know I could get it for $700-800, if I could find a store that had it in stock. Since you work at Fred Meyer, you should be able to do the same.

That one is 1024 x 768 as well

What the heck was I looking at?!? Let me try again...
EDIT: Ahh, that was an LCD by Philips.

 

[fuentefan]

what to do, what to do

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: fuentefan
what to do, what to do

Do you already have an HDTV? How are you planing on using it? How far away will you sit? As long as you aren't planing on sitting closer than 6 ft from the TV, it should look pretty damn good with HD content, even though it's not true HD. Are there any one display that you can look at before you buy?

I have an Canon HD camcorder that films at 1440x1080 and stretches the picture to 1920x1080 when you play it back. It looks really good as far as I'm concerned.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: fuentefan
what to do, what to do

that's not really a good price on that. If you just want another TV you'll be fine. But at that price it shouldn't even be considered other than a bedroom TV.

 

[fuentefan]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: fuentefan
what to do, what to do

Do you already have an HDTV? How are you planing on using it? How far away will you sit? As long as you aren't planing on sitting closer than 6 ft from the TV, it should look pretty damn good with HD content, even though it's not true HD. Are there any one display that you can look at before you buy?

I have an Canon HD camcorder that films at 1440x1080 and stretches the picture to 1920x1080 when you play it back. It looks really good as far as I'm concerned.

no current HDTV. I will be sitting about 12 feet from the display. I am going to bring a upconverting dvd player and check it out.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: fuentefan

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: fuentefan
what to do, what to do

Do you already have an HDTV? How are you planing on using it? How far away will you sit? As long as you aren't planing on sitting closer than 6 ft from the TV, it should look pretty damn good with HD content, even though it's not true HD. Are there any one display that you can look at before you buy?

I have an Canon HD camcorder that films at 1440x1080 and stretches the picture to 1920x1080 when you play it back. It looks really good as far as I'm concerned.

no current HDTV. I will be sitting about 12 feet from the display. I am going to bring a upconverting dvd player and check it out.

Then I would definitely consider it. Are you planning on upgrading to an HD service? If not I'd check out it's SD picture too. SD usually looks pretty bad on HDTVs.

 

[Arkaign]

12 feet! Holy crap.

Do yourself and your eyes a huge favor. Go find a lightly used DLP model, 720p big screens are available cheap. Lots of times on Craigslist you can find them still under warranty (get receipt/packaging/etc), less than a year old, for $700 or even less. 50-60" in size, and with outstanding picture quality.

 

[theslug]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb...?p=9017337#post9017337

 

[SearchMaster]

I have a Pioneer Elite plasma with that resolution. It's an excellent TV, the resolution (or lack thereof) doesn't bother me at all because some of its other positive attributes overshadow it. I would say if you like its picture relative to other higher resolution sets in the store, with price as a consideration, then go for it. If you just want the absolute best, then wait.

 

[Throckmorton]

Find a 1280x720 image on the web, resize it to 1024x768, then stretch back out to 16x9. The results are about what you get from one of those interpolationextravaganza oddball resolution TVs. They have to REDUCE resolution in one dimension, and INCREASE it in the other, and then stretch that result out over rectangular pixels.

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Find a 1280x720 image on the web, resize it to 1024x768, then stretch back out to 16x9. The results are about what you get from one of those interpolationextravaganza oddball resolution TVs. They have to REDUCE resolution in one dimension, and INCREASE it in the other, and then stretch that result out over rectangular pixels.

FUD much? Yes the pixels are rectangular but if you're trying to insinuate that the picture appears stretched, I assure you it does not. It's not the best available option but at the price the OP describes, it seems like a reasonable choice (though I know nothing about that particular set).

 

[efors]

So I've been told by two different sales clerks at two different electronics stores (Frys and Best Buy) that if you are sitting more that 5 feet away from your 46" HDTV, whether you have 1080p or 720p, it doesn't matter. Is this a completely true statement? Since we will be at least 5 feet from the set, why would I spend the extra money on a 1080p, when 720p apparently would look just as good? It 720p really a HDTV? What other considerations are there between the two resolutions.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: efors
So I've been told by two different sales clerks at two different electronics stores (Frys and Best Buy) that if you are sitting more that 5 feet away from your 46" HDTV, whether you have 1080p or 720p, it doesn't matter. Is this a completely true statement? Since we will be at least 5 feet from the set, why would I spend the extra money on a 1080p, when 720p apparently would look just as good? It 720p really a HDTV? What other considerations are there between the two resolutions.

I would put it at closer to 10 ft on a 46" set or so

maybe on a 42" I would put it closer to your 5 figure.

 

[CMC79]

Originally posted by: efors
So I've been told by two different sales clerks at two different electronics stores (Frys and Best Buy) that if you are sitting more that 5 feet away from your 46" HDTV, whether you have 1080p or 720p, it doesn't matter. Is this a completely true statement? Since we will be at least 5 feet from the set, why would I spend the extra money on a 1080p, when 720p apparently would look just as good? It 720p really a HDTV? What other considerations are there between the two resolutions.

CNET's explanation of resolutions and the distances needed to tell the difference.


In some types of televisions, the 720p sets are now either smaller (like LCD's) or budget models (rear projection), so even with a distance they may not look as good, as the higher end 1080p sets will usually receive the latest and most advanced circuitry internally. (The exception here would be plasmas, some of which are very well reviewed but "only" 720p.) So the 1080p set looking better than the 720p may not have anything to do with resolution, but with internal quality.

Another thing to consider: a well calibrated 720p set would look better than a poorly calibrated 1080p set, so don't just leave a TV at its default settings they have at the stores.

 

[Wuzup101]

I think 5' was the breaking point for 40" from that graph that someone made quite a while ago (which was fairly accurate but can vary from person to person). 46" was definitely under 10'... probably closer to 6-7'. In either case, the guys from the store had the right concept down (which is surprising). Note that this was the point where all the benifits of 1080p were visible (not necessairly where you couldn't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p as there was a grey area in between.

Just found the link http://www.carltonbale.com/wp-...s/resolution_chart.png (so just use that instead of the numbers I noted above lol...)

As far as 720p TVs are concerned, there were very few ever made that were true 720p (1280x720). Most LCDs that are marketed as 720p are actually slightly higher (something like 1368x768 IIRC) and the TV always is going to scale the image to fit its native resolution. Many many many plasmas used rectangular pixels and had resolutions like 1024x768. This IS very common, but it won't leave you with a stretched image on screen.

720p is being phased out due to marketing it seems (for larger TVs - not the 32" and below market). That is not to say that they are not available or bad purchases at all. However, most of the major companies have chosen to develop 1080p sets and these are the sets that seem to get the best new features (120hz, tech leading to better contrast, etc...). There still are some very nice 720p sets out there (the Kuro's are damn fine sets at 720p). However, top LCDs from Sony, Sharp, Samsung, etc... are almost exclusively 1080p. Even if you didn't need 1080p, you'd still be buying it if you wanted other great features from a top LCD (or you'd buy a 720p kuro). I'd say that in 2-3 years it will be VERY hard to find a new tech 720p TV if any are made at all (again, in the 40"+ market).

 

[efors]

Thanks everyone for the great information. It certainly will help me as I consider my purchase.

 

[rbV5]

Anyone have any experience with a plasma at this resolution?

Yes. It's not an uncommon resolution, it is the most common resolution for HD plasma displays

Resolution, while the most discussed spec of any particular HD display should truely be your 4th consideration with regards to spec. Contrast ratio being the truely most important spec followed by color saturation and then color accuracy and then native resolution.

1024 x 768 native resolution meets the criteria for HD TV (remember TV resolutions are refering to horizontal lines of resolution 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i)

Plasma Displays use rectangular pixels, so 720p scales nicely on a 1024 x 768 native plama display much the same way DVD's use rectangular pixels to scale properly on a SD TV display.

I decided recently after much consideration to spring for a 1024 x 768 Panasonic Plasma Display myself for my bedroom HD TV and I am extremely happy with it. My sources are HDTV cablebox, HTPC and PS3 Blu-Ray....all look fantastic

 

[TerryMathews]

2c: 720p LCDs and plasmas not only are good displays but if you think about what you are going to do with it, may be a better choice than 1080p displays.

For example, maybe you want to game on your TV. You, I, and every computer geek on the planet knows you need a lot less video card for 1280x720 than you do for 1920x1080. BTW, WoW in 720 on a 42" LCD looks awesome. I recommend the Logitech PS3 MediaBoard as a controller.

Same thing with game consoles. The 360 doesn't really display 1080p in almost all games, it uses an internal scaler to stretch 720p to fit the resolution. Upshot: A 720p game will look better on a 720p LCD than it will stretched to 1080p on a 1080p TV.

Personally, I think 480p (Wii, non-upscaling DVDs) looks better on 1080p than it does in 720p. Could just be that more expensive TVs have better scalers.

I guess my cliffs version would be: 720p is better for HTPC and 360.

 

[Odeen]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Anyone have any experience with a plasma at this resolution?

Yes. It's not an uncommon resolution, it is the most common resolution for HD plasma displays

<snip>

1024 x 768 native resolution meets the criteria for HD TV (remember TV resolutions are refering to horizontal lines of resolution 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i)

So, technically speaking, that 10-year-old 15" CRT monitor in the garage that ekes out 1024x768 is technically HD, just because it can resolve 720 lines in progressive scan? Neat.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Odeen

Originally posted by: rbV5

Anyone have any experience with a plasma at this resolution?

Yes. It's not an uncommon resolution, it is the most common resolution for HD plasma displays

<snip>

1024 x 768 native resolution meets the criteria for HD TV (remember TV resolutions are refering to horizontal lines of resolution 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i)

So, technically speaking, that 10-year-old 15" CRT monitor in the garage that ekes out 1024x768 is technically HD, just because it can resolve 720 lines in progressive scan? Neat.

I see what you're doing

The Consumer Electronics Association states that an HD TV is a 16 : 9 display with at least 720 progressively scanned lines. The CRT you describe is a 4:3 display, so no, it is not a HD TV according to to the CEA. Its a point that gets argued extensively, but it is what it is.

The reality is that while you can bastard the definition for the purpose of argument, in this specific case of a Plasma display with rectangular pixels and a native pixel resolution of 1024 x 768, it is a defacto 720p HD TV.

There is no argument that some of the finest HD displays in terms of PQ.....of any native resolution or display technology...even now, are 720p 1024x768 Plasma displays.