There have always been epic battles with people taking sides. There’s Good vs. Evil, Democrats vs. Republicans and it’s no different when it comes to HDTVs. The difference is that the controversy is surrounded around the decision of whether to pick a 720p or 1080p television. There answer is unfortunately, it all depends.
The 720 or 1080 speaks to the lines of resolution being rendered, and the p refers to the progressive nature of the video content being streamed. 1080p is the latest and greatest specification and is what you’ll find on any of the high end televisions in the market today. If your television service comes from a cable or satellite provider your picture is going to look great but not 1080p great since they don’t deliver video in 1080p. The most you’re going to get is 720p, or 1080i. This means that if you get your television signal from a cable provider, DirecTV or Dish – 1080p won’t do much for you if you’re a couch potato. Many televisions will up-convert and take the signal and scale the picture quality up to 1080p but it won’t look as good as the display you’d see running in an electronics store for 1080p HDTVs
1080p is primarily geared towards two sets of television owners. The first group of people are movie buffs. If you’re a movie aficionado and have a blu-ray player you will love the quality of the picture when you watch movies. While it won’t look as good when you watch regular television or even HD content Blu-ray disc movies will look phenomenal and depending on the DVD player you have even your regular movies will look sharper and crisper. The second set of people are early adopters who want to make sure they buy products they won’t have to worry about in the future. While it’s true that television stations don’t broadcast a signal in 1080p it won’t always be that way and the same way they improved the quality from 480i to 720p, 1080p is just around the corner.
If you don’t fit into either of these categories a 720p television would be a big improvement, especially if you’re upgrading from a CRT television. Not only would you not notice the difference in the picture quality but you’d be able to get a better value since 720p HDTVs
By knowing how you’ll be using your television, how much you want to spend, and how long you want to keep the television you can ensure you pickup an HDTV with the right specifications. Knowing this upfront will help prevent you from making a disappointing decision.
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