Apex
Diamond Member
Originally posted by: huesmann
I'm too lazy to search. Is there a place that explains the difference between 720i/720p/1080i/1080p etc.?
720i: does not exist
720p: 1280 x 720 in a progressive format, the minimum requirement to be called "HD"
1080i: 1920 x 1080 interlaced
1080p: not widely available
Unfortunately, most manufacturers fudge their numbers:
For manufacturers of digital sets, they only look at the vertical pixels. Take this 1024 x 768 set for example. They call it HD because 768 is bigger than 720p. However, it doesn't have enough horizontal pixels to fully resolve 1280 (at 1024, regardless of whether they're rectangle).
How do they get away with doing this? They assume that the consumer will be ignorant of the horizontal requirement.
Analog (CRT based displays) manufacturers are even worse. The vast majority of them cannot resolve HD resolutions. Those "super fine" dot pitch CRT's are actually .67mm to .90mm for the most part. Multiply it out, and you can see they physically cannot display 1280 or above. If they could, than take a look at their video amplifier bandwidth. Most are 20-40hz or so, far under what's necessary.