What does 1080p mean?
High Definition Television, or HDTV, was first announced with two major standard high definition resolutions to choose from - 720p (Progressive) and 1080i (Interlaced). Progressive displays painted or scanned all of those 720 lines on the screen in sequence to present one complete picture in each scan. With Interlaced screens, only half of the picture displayed at one time, scanning every other line. Therefore it took two scans to paint a complete picture.
As it painted more complete pictures in the same amount of time, the 720p Progressive displays showed action scenes with less blurring than 1080i. 1080i showed more detail because it has more lines in each picture or frame. Therefore people were advised to choose 720p if they watched a lot of fast action such as sports or action movies or 1080i if they liked the super high resolution pictures which are standard fare on the nature and travel shows.
Vizio Tv Mounts
The networks needed to standardize their equipment so they broadcast according to their program bias. ABC and ESPN broadcast in 720p because they are heavy into sports programming while PBS and Discovery use 1080i due to their more detailed yet sedate programming.
With 1080p you get the best of both 1080i and 720p. When there isn't much motion on the screen, 1080p and 1080i will not look much different. When there is fast motion, you start to see blurring on the 1080i but not on the 1080p. Some of the newer 1080p HDTV's have much higher scan rates, up to 240 HZ from the old standard 60HZ, to display motion even better.
Is 1080p something should I be concerned about?
The television industry seems to have standardized on 1080p for the larger flat panels of 40 inches and up. If you do not already have one, your next large screen HDTV will probably be a 1080p model. Unlike the original 1080p sets which only upscaled 720p or 1080i resolution signals, the new ones accept 1080p inputs.
Just as Black and White gave way to Color and analog TVs are giving way to digital, so too are lower resolution televisions giving way to 1080p. And it is a good thing! Whether you get Plasma, LCD or DLP rear projection, the colors are vivid and the picture detail is impressive. In general, HDTV's are larger than what you had before. Even with the poor video feeds in some stores, they still look better than any other TV you have ever had.
Last but not least, 1080p appears to be the highest resolution we are going to see for quite some time. If you get a 1080p HDTV today it should be the standard for a fair number of years before the next inevitable change occurs.
Where do you get 1080p Programming?
Reality hits as soon as you get that big beautiful widescreen is in your home. The old Standard Definition TV programs simply do not look very good. It's almost like going back to black and white. To get your money's worth from the new HDTV you must receive High Definition programs. You have five broad choices for High Definition programming but limited 1080p programming at present:
OTA (also known as Over the Air using an antenna)
Some of us are old enough to remember when OTA was the only way to get a television signal. We also remember why the second option, Cable, became so enormously popular - Over the Air is unreliable in all kinds of weather and interference can be a problem. TV antennas are also directional and what is best for one channel may not be good for another. For HDTV you may even need to get a special new antenna. It all depends on the signal strength in your area. As if that were not bad enough, there are only a handful of channels to choose from in even the largest markets. This is just not a reasonable choice for most Americans.
Cable companies
Most of us have dealt with the cable company and don't like the pricing and service we have experienced. Older cable installations can also suffer from signal degradation leading to poor quality and interrupted pictures. Whoever said that digital signals mean no more bad picture quality has never had a digital cable box. Still, this may be the most viable solution in your area and, now that the phone companies have gotten involved, cable companies will compete for your business.
Telephone companies
An emerging technology is the service offered by the phone companies - IPTV. So far these services are offered in only a few areas and compete primarily with the cable companies. Both Verizon and AT&T originally offered only about 25 HD channels but that has all changed now with both offering far more HDTV channels.
Satellite companies
As with the other three choices, there are pros and cons to consider. For most Americans, satellite TV is a new choice and you may not be sure where to start. Both Dish Network and DIRECTV offer lots of HD programming. Some Dish Network Video on Demand (VOD) offerings are already broadcast in 1080p, a first for any broadcast medium!
DVD Players
Now that the high definition DVD wars are over with Blu-Ray being the winner, you can confidently invest in a Blu-Ray player. The new Blu-Ray HD DVD players show content in 1080p and will give you the very best picture available today.
What does the future hold?
In the next few years we should see more and more 1080p programming available coming from all of the major sources listed above. No one knows how rapidly this will happen but the genie is now out of the bottle and the future is bright for 1080p HDTV!