TV networks only broadcast at a resolution of 720p or 1080i so having a 1080i tv is fine for HD-Dish Network?

Question

I know that blu-ray movies(and some video games) are remastered in 1080p and in order to get the "full experience" you would need a 1080p TV, but as far as television goes, namely Dish Network, aren't the HD channels mixed in 720p & 1080i? So as long as my TV supports one of those resolutions I am not losing out on any type of quality because I don't have a 1080p tv right? I'm eventually going to get a 1080p tv with next year's tax return!!!

Answer 1

You're mostly correct. Dish Network just announced a this "Turbo HD" thing, which is pretty much just marketing. But, if you have a recent HD DVR, you'll be able to rent some VOD films in 1080/24p. They didn't get into too many details, but they're claiming "Blu-Ray quality". We'll see. And this is questionable, anyway.. their hardware can do 1080/24p, but not 1080/60p. There are many TVs that support 1080/60p over HDMI but not 1080/24p.... something to check if you do go shopping for an upgrade.

In truth, you may not benefit much or at all from a 1080p input, depending on your TV. Most of your material will be 1080i or 720p, but if you have a modern technology display (DLP, Plasma, LCD, LCoS), you have a display that simply cannot really do interlaced video. So your TV's hardware is always up-converting to 1080p.

And in fact, it gets better, on some TVs. As you probably know, films shot on film or produced for film transfer (eg, most any movie) are shot at 24fps. When a DVD player or Blu-Ray player has a 24p video to display on a 60i screen, it does what they call a telecine, or 3:2 pulldown... it doubles up fields to do an on-the-fly conversion from 24fps to 30fps. And a smart enough TV can detect this (for films only, not for television content) and run a reverse telecine on it, to get back the full 24p video.

Now, sure, this isn't perfect, and starting out in progressive will always work without question, so the 1080p input isn't a waste. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. I was running an analog-only rear projector-based HDTV for years, and HD looked good. Looks better on my current 71" Samsung over HDMI, of course.  

Answer 2

Your channels should just get down sampled to fit the resolution that your TV will display.  You may lose a little quality, but I bet it will be really hard to tell since it will still be HDTV.

Answer 3

Correct. Channels are either broadcast in 1080i or 720p. Having a 1080p television will do you no good unless it is hooked up to a Blu-ray player. Even then at a distance of roughly 12 feet the difference is not noticeable.