And the top 10 cable networks from the week of Dec. 8-14 according to Nielsen:
So why do some networks choose 720p while others 1080i? For ESPN, since it’s all sports all the time, 720p is a no-brainer. But what about CBS, which has the NFL and NCAA basketball? When you look at the Eye Network’s programming, you’ll see that it’s constantly in the top 10 with shows like CSI and Criminal Minds, all dramas shot at 24fps. So while it does have sports programming, its bread and butter is on the 24fps side.
And while you might think bandwidth comes into play, it actually doesn’t. 720p/60 shows 55.3 million pixels per second (1280x720=921,600x60=55,296,000) while 1080i results in 62.2 million pixels per second (1920x1080=2,073,600x30=62,208,000). Looking at the math, the pixel count per second is actually only about 12 percent higher for 1080i.
Seemingly it all comes down to preference. Each network has made its choice on the issue and no major changes are expected anytime soon. And while satellite networks are starting to roll out 1080p video on demand, there are no signs of any of the broadcast networks shifting to this in the near future.
I always sigh when I’m anticipating a sports broadcast, and I find out that ABC or FOX is covering it…since they do it in 720p. Whenever I see sports on NBC or CBS, the broadcasts always look so much clearer. Now, I’ll flat-out state that ABC/ESPN puts on the best sports broadcasts period in terms of graphics, announcers, and so on. However, regarding the quality of the image, ABC/ESPN cannot hold a candle to NBC and CBS. I really wish ABC and FOX would switch to 1080i for all of their broadcasts, sports or otherwise.
Doesn’t your display device’s native resolution come into play here?
My 720P projector has to scale down the 1080i stations while the 720P stations are displayed without being scaled.
I would expect 720P signals being stretched to display on a 1080i (or even 1080P) displays would also loose some quality.
Shouldn’t this be a discussion of:
720P signal on a 270P display vs. a 1080i signal on a 1080i display?
Regards,
Brian
PS - I’m waiting for native 1080P broadcast and a 1080P LED based front projector :)
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who thinks that football on Fox and ABC/ESPN looks like garbage. The video quality for the BCS games has been astonishingly bad!! 1080i looks so much cleaner. I’m really glad the Superbowl is on NBC this year - their broadcast quality is glorious!
You got your math wrong. In a 1/30th time slice, you see 1920x1080 unique pixels in 1080i, and 1280x720 pixels in 720p. You do not double the number of 720p pixels in your equation.
See, the 720p/60 (or 1080p/60) math does not apply to filmed material. All that happens is in two 1/60th of a second slices, it displays the SAME FRAME twice… So you see the same amount of unique pixels in 720p/30 and 720p/60.
In reality, you get about 27 million pixels per second in 720p vs. the 62.2 million in 1080i.
As another example, film is shot at 24fps. But when it’s shown in the theater, it’s actually displayed at 48fps to eliminate flicker. All they do is duplicate each frame. But it’s still referred to as “24p” and not “48p.”
-Pie
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The author of this article has zero understanding of how the tech works.
Only SOME video games run at 1080p at 60fps.
All filmed content runs at 30fps or 24fps, so 720p is just less resolution, at the same frame rate, as de-interlaced 1080i. Some TVs do not de-interlace properly, and so on these 720p might look better, but assuming a quality TV, 1080i is higher resolution than 720p as an incoming signal, and will look better.
www.robertruffo.com/HDTV.htm