Re: Spurs Games in HiDef on KENS
Quote:
Originally Posted by YoMamaIsCallin
from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p
Obviously this is based on "all other things being equal". I would imagine something else somewhere in the broadcast stream is causing the effects you see.
Although 720p has a greater temporal resolution (more detail over time) it's a pretty technical and BS argument. Perceptually people will always chose the 1080i pictures specially since one of it's main shortcoming - the blur between fields (1/2 of a frame) - is perceived by the human eye/mind as more natural. While the "chopy" action of the 720p pictures looks to us as artificial.
I have seen as many charts/tests/experiment and engineering reports proving that 720p is better than I have seen of those proving the opposite. But in all honesty 720p is a small improvement in terms of resolution over the 480i broadcasts or 480p DVDs.
The main reason why certain broadcasters use(d) 720p over 1080i is as always purely commercial. When the US started its transition into HD, because of the FCC abolishing analogue transmissions in certain bands (VHF being the first I believe) there was only one manufacturer of 1080 capable production equipment: Sony (quite often the so hated Sony proprietary standards are the result of them being a pioneer in the technology), who had experience in equipping Japanese TV in HD for more than a decade (although Japan switched to digital HD only recently, they had partial analogue HD coverage for years).
While some corporation were happy about that fact since they had a long standing relationship with Sony (NBC), others had the same kind of deal with other manufacturer who were believers in the 720p format (or more to the point were incapable to deliver anything with a higher definition).
In those days the "HD" technologies were so far apart that you couldn't display them all on the same TV set. Now we slowly see a convergence into 1080 (yes some have to transcode into it) because of the public's perception as this being the "nicest" picture, also opposition to 1080i has subdued since everybody is now catching up technically to this standard - btw Direct TVs decision to offer a single HD format 1080i (and transcode everything into it) was a major victory for 1080i.
Of course the next step will be 1080p transmission, but it's not that close because of the bandwidth limitations and lack of agreement on the tech standards. Of course migrating to 1080p from 1080i is a very logical and easy step for the consumer - another reason for the newly found popularity of 1080i.
