Whats the difference between 720p and 1080i HD broadcasts?
The short answer is that they both look great, and most people have a hard time telling the difference. Here’s the medium-size answer: the numbers 720 and 1080 refer to horizontal pixel counts, while the letters p and i refer to the picture-scanning method–either progressive or interlaced. Proponents of 1080i HD will tell you that they offer the most lines of resolution, which is true. However, 1080i images are interlaced, meaning that a tube TV draws the picture in two passes: once for the odd-numbered lines, and again for the even-numbered lines. For 720p, or progressive, broadcasts, tube TVs draw each frame in a single pass, making for a smoother picture. It’s important to note that all non-tube TVs, including plasmas, LCDs, and DLP, LCD and LCoS rear-projection HDTVs, convert everything to progressive-scan, making it even harder to tell the difference between the two broadcast formats. Even higher-quality 1080p video is available from Blu-ray and HD DVD players, for example, but i
