Can you see the difference between 1080i and 1080p?

The Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), a group that consults for home-theater manufacturers and trains professional video calibrators, says that the most important aspect of picture quality is contrast ratio, the second-most important is color saturation, and the third is color accuracy.

So where does resolution come in? It comes in fourth on the ISF list, and according to David Carnoy’s CNET article, after you sit watching five TVs lined up side by side, you understand why. He says that a relatively pristine high-def source such as Mission: Impossible III looks sharp on just about any HDTV, and your eye, when looking for differences, is drawn first to things like depth of detail in shadowy material (black levels) and the color of the actors’ skin tone and how natural it looks.

He goes on to say a lot of things about resolutions and they even performed several tests to see the difference between 1080p and 1080i. However those tests mainly concerned movie outputs and native resolutions of HD displays. Here’s the short of their long tests:

On both of the TVs that they used that were capable of accepting a 1080p source, they noticed differences in the sets’ color and blacks, but the level of detail is virtually identical on both sets. The 1080i output had some problems though, as some TVs (Sharp) had problems with 1080i output. But when they switched back and fort between 1080p and 1080i they can’t discern any differences between the two outputs.

They used a movie as a point of comparison on that test. We’re concerned about games here, so we’ll skip to his pertinent observations about HD resolution and games. According to him he’s spent some time with the PS3 and this is what he has to say:

…the differences seem very subtle and are ultimately tied into how good graphically the game looks to begin with. For instance, I saw Activision‘s Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on a 1080p Sony display, and the game looked decent, but it’s not graphically stunning to begin with, so it wasn’t completely amazing. By comparison, Resistance: Fall of Man looked great–even though the resolution is “only” 720p native, the PS3 exclusive makes far better use of the system’s graphical horsepower than the Marvel game, which was simultaneously developed for all home consoles.

He says of course that ultimately it’s the game that dictates the graphical quality of what you see on the screen. It’s good to note that he was wowed with the “only” 720p native Resistance: Fall of Man. We all know that Sony’s box can go all the way up to 1080p. We’ll just have to wait for developers to get used to abusing that though.

If you want more info on their tests with the HD displays (just in case you’re looking forward to this service) feel free to click the read more link we have below.

The Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), a group that consults for home-theater manufacturers and trains professional video calibrators, says that the most important aspect of picture quality is contrast ratio, the second-most important is color saturation, and the third is color accuracy.

So where does resolution come in? It comes in fourth on the ISF list, and according to David Carnoy’s CNET article, after you sit watching five TVs lined up side by side, you understand why. He says that a relatively pristine high-def source such as Mission: Impossible III looks sharp on just about any HDTV, and your eye, when looking for differences, is drawn first to things like depth of detail in shadowy material (black levels) and the color of the actors’ skin tone and how natural it looks.

He goes on to say a lot of things about resolutions and they even performed several tests to see the difference between 1080p and 1080i. However those tests mainly concerned movie outputs and native resolutions of HD displays. Here’s the short of their long tests:

On both of the TVs that they used that were capable of accepting a 1080p source, they noticed differences in the sets’ color and blacks, but the level of detail is virtually identical on both sets. The 1080i output had some problems though, as some TVs (Sharp) had problems with 1080i output. But when they switched back and fort between 1080p and 1080i they can’t discern any differences between the two outputs.

They used a movie as a point of comparison on that test. We’re concerned about games here, so we’ll skip to his pertinent observations about HD resolution and games. According to him he’s spent some time with the PS3 and this is what he has to say:

…the differences seem very subtle and are ultimately tied into how good graphically the game looks to begin with. For instance, I saw Activision‘s Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on a 1080p Sony display, and the game looked decent, but it’s not graphically stunning to begin with, so it wasn’t completely amazing. By comparison, Resistance: Fall of Man looked great–even though the resolution is “only” 720p native, the PS3 exclusive makes far better use of the system’s graphical horsepower than the Marvel game, which was simultaneously developed for all home consoles.

He says of course that ultimately it’s the game that dictates the graphical quality of what you see on the screen. It’s good to note that he was wowed with the “only” 720p native Resistance: Fall of Man. We all know that Sony’s box can go all the way up to 1080p. We’ll just have to wait for developers to get used to abusing that though.

If you want more info on their tests with the HD displays (just in case you’re looking forward to this service) feel free to click the read more link we have below.