Is it worth paying 50% more for 1080p resolution on a plasma, and is a 1080p brand name worth the extra bucks?

Question

Is it worth paying 50% more for 1080p resolution on a plasma, and is a 1080p brand name worth the extra bucks?

Answer 1

Depends.

If it is a 42" plasma, no. If it is 50" or more, then

If you plan to buy a Blu-ray player in the future, then yes, if not, then don't bother. Buying a Panasonic or Pioneer plasma, yes, it is worth the extra bucks.

Answer 2

If you do not currently own a flat screen, why don't you save a few bucks and not buy 1080p?  It will still be better that your used to watching and be in high definition, provided you have some sort of high definition source available like HD cable or Blueray.

Answer 3

YES, 1080p is not a brand is the resolution of the TV.

I have a 1080i and a 1080p plasma and they made a huge difference. my samsung 1080p is amazing.

is better that you get a 1080p because is more future prof that if you get a lower resolution TV.

here is the difference in resolution

720p = 1280 x 720 x 50** = 46 million pixels of details

1080i = 1920 x 1080 x 25* = 52 million pixels of details

1080p = 1920 x 1080 x 50** = 104 million pixels of details

a 1080p TV have a resolution twice better than a 1080i.

Answer 4

When you do the research and look at the varieties in the stores, you will see for yourself. If you buy cheap then that is just what you get. It's the old addage: You get what you pay for.

  My wife and I bought a Polaroid brand. With a DVD player and all the bells and whistles to boot. I can use it as a monitor or even put a SD card into the proper slot and bring up all the pictures for viewing. We couldn't be happier. Best coach potato viewing ever and Sports, it's almost like bieng there. All we need now is smellivision.LOL

Answer 5

1080p isn't a brand name; it's a standard.  When a television advertises itself as being capable of 1080p, it means having a potential resolution of 1080 X 1980 PROGRESSIVE.  In techy terms, most older high-def sets can only display 1080i, or interlaced (which is what the "i" stands for).  An interlaced picture displays each frame in two seperate feilds, usually 1/60th of a second apart.  Let's say you have two hair combs.  You interlace the teeth to lock them together.  If you called one comb "feild A," and the other comb "feild B," you'd have a fair idea how interlacing on televisions works:  The image is displayed partialy as feild A, then 1/60th of a second later, the rest of the image is displayed as feild B.  The result is a smooth image.

Progressive images are shown with the entire video frame as one solid field.  This means that at any given second, the full availible frame is shown.  It results in more active pixels, and therefore more image detail, than 1080i.  So for many, progressive's the way to go.

NOW.  Having said all of that, if your plasma isn't capable of displaying 1080p, it's simply going to downconvert it into 1080i (or even 720p, depending on what your set can handle).  Which means you'll waste money for buying any playback device that outputs 1080p unless you plan on eventually buying a 1080p television.

Answer 6

There are no 1080i plasmas, all are either 720p or 1080p  So your alternative is either 1080p or 720p.  1080p has twice as many pixels and is therefore capable of more detail.  If you are getting a set larger than 37", you can see the difference, but it is not tremendous.  And, even if you have 1080p set, if you watch ABC, Fox, or ESPN, they only broadcast 720p so your 1080p set provides no advantage as far as visibility of detail is concerned.  However, because the pixels are smaller, you cannot see them on large-screen sets; pixel visibility is disturbing to some people (looks like you are looking at the picture through a "screen door").

Answer 7

First of all, 1080p is not a standard, it is a description of what resolution the set is playing.  1080i and 720p are standards in the new HiDef TV broadcast format which replaces the NTSC format we have had since the early 20th century.  This format did not include 1080p due to bandwidth limitations.  Consequently, if you have 1080p on your set, the set is doing an upconversion from either 1080i or 720p to get it.

Please note that every manufacturer has their own algorithim to achieve 1080p and some are much better than others.  To further complicate matters, DVD players such as Blu-Ray and DVD HD can do upconversion as well.  

There is no question that 1080p can be superior to 1080i or 720p but it is not as clear that 720p can sometimes outperform 1080i.  This really shows up on fast moving screen changes, such as in sports.  And if your particular set's algorithim is not as good as it should be, you will find that 720p will outperform 1080p in fast moving scenes.

If your plasma does 1080p really well, then stick with it.  If not, try 720p or 1080i.  Don't get caught up in the numbers game, resolution is not that simple and there is a LOT going on behind that screen in real time to present that resolution on the set.  If you watch 720p and like it, then stick with it and forget the numbers.  

Either way, you have about a 100x improvement over the old NTSC color standard that all of us grew up with.