As Bob Dylan once sang, “The Times They Are A-Changin” and that means how most Americans spend the majority of their free time – watching hours and hours of TV. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially if you are viewing your favorite program in stunning HD. Because once you’ve witnessed the glory of HD, you’ll never want to go back. And on February 17, 2009, the way we watch TV will be altered forever as nobody will be subjected to watching a snowy, fuzzy analog picture anymore. On this upcoming historic winter day, all stations will be broadcasted with a digital signal and you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. That is as long as you have either satellite TV, cable TV , a converter box or a TV with a digital tuner which gives you a digital signal with an antenna. If don’t have one of those, you’ll be watching a blue screen.
The thing about digital, unlike analog, it comes in different formats and picture resolutions, from 480 to 1080, with the latter delivering the best picture quality available today. By the way, in 2015, the next generation in high-resolution makes its debut with what should be a jaw-dropping picture in 2160p. (Important note here, a digital converter box will give you a 480 resolution on your old CRT or non-integrated HDTV, in order to get a higher res picture, you’re going to need an HD-ready TV. Hope that clears things up.)
OK, now on with this 1080 thing.
You may have never noticed, or even known, that there is a 1080 ‘i’ as well as a ‘p.’ And yes, there is a difference. But no need to worry if you already purchased a HDTV; the good news is, whether your current TVs support 1080i or 1080p, either format is going to deliver the high quality video you want.
But, if we get down to technicalities, the “i” and the “p” versions are a bit different in terms of how they display video images. Technology definitions can often leave us mystified. So let’s break it down in the easiest way possible.
1080p stands for progressive scan video. Progressive video images are scanned from side to side, top to bottom, to the end of the frame when the picture is displayed. 1080i stands for interlaced video, which scans images the same way as progressive scan but plays back the images in two segments. What this means is every 60th of a second, every other line of the image is scanned. Then on the next 60th of a second, the lines in between those are then scanned in. But when the video is displayed, it appears in full resolution.
So which one is better?
Either version will deliver fantastic picture quality, but progressive does have a few advantages over interlaced. Progressive has a smoother, sharper image. TVs that utilize interlaced scanning are more prone to display slight motion artifacts, or flickers/blurs in the picture. But, because progressive picture lines are scanned at the same time, the occurrence of these motion artifacts is eliminated.
However, the real answer to this question depends on you. You get a more detailed picture with a 1080p-capable TV, but this technology does typically come at a bit of a higher cost. If you are more price-conscious, you may want to look at the 1080i options.
But, if you are focused more on top-of-the-line picture quality, you may want to look into 1080p. Or, maybe you need to look into both, depending on your applications.
The important thing in all this is to remember that whether you are an ‘i’ person or a ‘p’ person, all that matters is you are watching it in digital.