High Def TV questions?

Question

I have a 720p Aquos...if the station I am watching broadcasts in 1080i...is my picture going to be high def at all? will it be only 480p or will it be somewhere in between?

I have a 720p Aquos...my DVD player is just regular DVD player...does that mean all of my movies are just 480p? If I get a blu-ray player, are my movies in 720p?

Is there any reason to own a 1080p television, aside from playing a blu-ray movie...since cable stations don't broadcast in 1080p?

Answer 1

Just to amplify on the above answer:  If you get a 1080p set, the 1080i input will be converted to 1080p and you will get full 1920x1080 resolution from those sources.  This conversion can be quite good.  Your 720p set will never give you the full resolution available from 1080i source or blu-ray.  Your blu-ray movies will be 1280x720 on your set regardless of the output mode selected on your player.  However, unless your set is 40" or more, you probably won't notice the difference.

Answer 2

Your set will convert the video to the "native resolution" of your TV's display.  In your case, 720p.

So if you watch a broadcast in 1080i, your set will display it in 720p, because that's all the display can do.  If you are watching a movie that was shot in 480p, it will not look HD because it wasn't to begin with.  480 is a standard definition format, probably old analog video that was up converted.  The set can't fill in detail that was not there in the first place.

As for a 1080p capable set, you are correct, cable and broadcast are unable to transmit 1080p at this time due to bandwidth limitations.  However they can, and do,  transmit 1080i.  It's a small jump from 1080i to 1080p from a manufacturing standpoint, so many 1080 sets will do both p and i.

I hope this helps.