720p or 1080i?

TianXia7541

I recently got a 23" HDTV super-cheap. It's this one here. Not the best TV but for the price I paid for it...

Anyway, I'm trying to hook it up to my 360 to play Tales of Vesperia. I don't really know whether the game would look better on 1080i or 720p, though. I've heard that since it isn't 1080p compatible, running in 1080i would just result in downscaling anyway and that 720p would look better all across the board, although I'm not entirely sure.

Thoughts? I'm not very tech-savvy when it comes to TVs.

Shady3011

Yeah. Always go with progressive.

TyrantCow

720p is going to look better

But, try it out for yourself, see the difference!

RainbowDespair

Definitely go with 720p.

midgetspy

Technically 1080p will show more detail but will also show the interlacing during motion, whereas 720p will show less detail but smoother motion. Realistically you'd never be able to see the extra detail on a 23" TV anyway so go 720p for sure.

Darlan

Yeah, 720p will look better, but it's not like you won't be satisfied with a 1080i display either. At some point, TVs just look really, really good and the minute stuff will really only matter to videophiles.

slash000

720p is the way to go. Games and fast-moving imagery look better with progressive scan.

TianXia7541

Alright, I'll switch over to 720p and see if I can actually see a difference. Seriously, though, 1/30th of a second difference in frame speed? Does the human eye even work that fast?

PeregrineFalcon

Use 720p

I t r a i g b o s
 n e l c n _ l w .

PeregrineFalcon

TianXia7541 wrote: »

Alright, I'll switch over to 720p and see if I can actually see a difference. Seriously, though, 1/30th of a second difference in frame speed? Does the human eye even work that fast?

Yes, much faster in fact.

wasted pixels

PeregrineFalcon wrote: »

Use 720p

I t r a i g b o s
 n e l c n _ l w .

I lol'ed.

slash000

TianXia7541 wrote: »

Alright, I'll switch over to 720p and see if I can actually see a difference. Seriously, though, 1/30th of a second difference in frame speed? Does the human eye even work that fast?

Since it's interlaced, you see part of the previous frame, and this is most noticeable when objects are moving quickly, or a camera is panning quickly. So when you have fast moving objects moving across the screen, you kind of see a trail behind the thing.

RainbowDespair

Darlan wrote: »

Yeah, 720p will look better, but it's not like you won't be satisfied with a 1080i display either. At some point, TVs just look really, really good and the minute stuff will really only matter to videophiles.

That's true too. 1080i will still look plenty good, especially on a screen that small. It's just that 720p will handle fast moving objects better. It's not like videogames ever have fast moving objects in them, right? :winky:

PeregrineFalcon

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Darlan wrote: »

Yeah, 720p will look better, but it's not like you won't be satisfied with a 1080i display either. At some point, TVs just look really, really good and the minute stuff will really only matter to videophiles.

That's true too. 1080i will still look plenty good, especially on a screen that small. It's just that 720p will handle fast moving objects better. It's not like videogames ever have fast moving objects in them, right? :winky:

If the game is locked to 30fps max, he'll never see interlacing, because both fields of the 1080i will be drawn from the same game frame.

However, 720p is a closer match to the native resolution of his HD Monitor (lacking an ATSC tuner, it is not an "HDTV") and if he plays anything at >30fps he'll start to see interlacing at 1080i.

Arasen

You really only should go 1080 on larger screens, anything 40 or 50+ inches. On your screen you really won't notice to extra resolution so you should definitely go with the progressive scan.