Hi, I am new here and I just recently bought a Vizio L42 42" LCD HDTV.
I noticed that when I watch an HD show in 720p, it is absolutely perfect. But when I watch a show that broadcasts in 1080i, it is blurrier and overall not as sharp as the 720p broadcast. My television has a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768, and that is also its native resolution.
Since my TV is not capable of handling a 1080i picture, it was of my belief that the TV simply changed it to 768p format, which would be the best that it could handle. My question is this: If 768p is better than 720p, then why is the 720p broadcast coming in better than the one that is in 1080i? Maybe I am just missing the whole thing. Any help would be appreciated in this, and I apologize if this has been asked before. It just really bugs me.
Quote:...why is the 720p broadcast coming in better than the one that is in 1080i?
Because with digitalTV (DTV) everything depends on one thing, the quality of your video processing. What makes a DTV good or bad, especially an HDTV, is its abiltiy to properly scale different source material to fit its unique "Native Resolution."
In your case the native resolution is 1366x768p (768p). 768p is alot closer to 1280x720p (720p) than 1920x1080i (1080i). Also it is allot easier to up-scale than to down-scale. With all that in mind a TV with bad scalers will look better when the picture is closer to its target (less work) and it is adding info instead of subtracting info while trying to make it look the same (easier work).
I'm sure your set has "Bad" scaling chips. The scalers might even be guilty of turning 1080i into 540p then scaling (up-converting) to 768p which drops the quality of the 1080i signal well under the quality of a 720p signal.
