1080i vs 1080p for text (from PC)

F

Frostex

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
Messages
2,143
I'm setting up a large 50" TV in our business to display call stats to the call centre. We've written our own little app to show these stats to the screen and we can control the text size, resolution etc.

I don't really know a lot about interlacing but if the scaling is anything like up/down scaling of PC monitors with non-native resolutions, I'm guessing the quality of text is going to suffer somewhat? Bearing in mind this is a 50" screen, that's a lot of real estate to have a verticle resolution that is only effectively 540 pixels.

At 50" the price difference on 1080i and 1080p is quite large, is it worth going for a 1080p monitor to make sure the quality stays high? The text size is going to be quite large to start with, since people need to see it at a distance, Im not sure if this makes the above point moot?

Another quick question as well, which types of panel are better for not getting screen burn? I dont want to destroy the TV by keeping a similar image on it all day.

Thank for any help!
 
LCD

1080i LCD TV is going to have a 1280x720p native resolution. I believe it takes a 1080i source and scales it down to 720p since LCD's don't do interlace, everything that goes into it becomes a progressive image when displayed.
 
I think if possible we need to stick to full HD resolution, 1280x720p over 50" seems like it's a bad idea for text, for a smaller screen it might be ok but 50" is quite large and TVs tend to blur PC images more than a monitor (my only real comparison)
 
Frostex said:
I'm setting up a large 50" TV in our business to display call stats to the call centre. We've written our own little app to show these stats to the screen and we can control the text size, resolution etc.

I don't really know a lot about interlacing but if the scaling is anything like up/down scaling of PC monitors with non-native resolutions, I'm guessing the quality of text is going to suffer somewhat? Bearing in mind this is a 50" screen, that's a lot of real estate to have a verticle resolution that is only effectively 540 pixels.

At 50" the price difference on 1080i and 1080p is quite large, is it worth going for a 1080p monitor to make sure the quality stays high? The text size is going to be quite large to start with, since people need to see it at a distance, Im not sure if this makes the above point moot?

Another quick question as well, which types of panel are better for not getting screen burn? I dont want to destroy the TV by keeping a similar image on it all day.

Thank for any help!
Click to expand...
Odds are you'll be buying an LCD. LCDs don't have burn-in.

What you should try doing though is setting up your machine to output at 720p as opposed to 1080i, if you choose to go for the cheaper screen. Your TV will take the 1080i signal and convert it to a 720p signal. Downscaling images absolutely kills text readability.

I'd recommend the screen that supports a maximum of 1080i, and just run it at 720p. Text will be a little blurry if you're very close, but from more than two feet out it should be readable.
 
1080i TVs have the same resolution as 1080p TVs, 1920x1080 pixels. The difference is that the picture is interlaced. The odd lines are scanned in one frame, the even lines in the next, effectively cutting bandwidth in half. Digital flat panels dont do interlaced scanning so they have processing on board to put the picture together and display it. The first 1080i HDTVs were named so because the max single they could accept was 1080i. Technology improved and now we have 1080p sets that can accept full 1080p bandwidth.
Anyway, as far as i know, there are no 1080i sets ever made that accepted a full 1920x1080 signal from a pc, they would all scale down even though they had 1920x1080 pixels available. Which set are you looking at?? I would suggest getting one of the newer 1080p models with hdmi so you can feed the set a digital signal and have it display a full 1920x1080, you'll get nice sharp text and can just scale the text up from within the pc OS.

Oh, and LCD would be better for static images but they can suffer from a form of "burn in" too if you abuse them.
Oh, and make sure its "Full 1080p", like Zepher mentioned, there are 720p sets out there that simply scale down 1080 stuff.
 
Most 720p LCDs are actually 1366×768 panels, so if you pick one of those make sure that it can accept that resolution over DVI/HDMI (this is known as 1:1 scaling although different manufactures have different names for it). As for picking a 1080i/720p set vs. a 1080p set it really depends on how far away people are going to be viewing it from. Since you are only going to be viewing it from a far the 1080i/720p set might be fine - you would be able to fit more onto the screen with a 1080p screen, but it depends on how much you need up at a time.
 
I have replaced a Pioneer 50" 5080HD (1080i) by the 5020FD (1080p) model and here are my observations
1) 1080p: text is sharper but can be very small and hard to read. I have 20/20 eyesight and I need to be seated at <=7.5' to be able to read the text on a web page (size font is maximized). Of course, this is not a problem if you can fully adjust the font size.
2) The difference may not be noticeable for movies depending on the seating distance. Please refer to the following chart:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/09/1080p-charted-viewing-distance-to-screen-size/
For HDTV purposes, 1080p is generally overrated for 50" and smaller TVs.
3) 1080p can interpolate a 720p signal. Unfortunately, small artifacts can be created in the process.

Plasma technology has greatly improved in the last few years and screen burns is less an issue but I would not recommend using a plasma for displaying a static image. IMO, a LCD seems to be more appropriate for your intended use.
 
some of you here are completely wrong, and it's not even funny

but I suppose most of you're into monitors, and not HDTVs.
 
Frostex said:
I'm setting up a large 50" TV in our business to display call stats to the call centre. We've written our own little app to show these stats to the screen and we can control the text size, resolution etc.

I don't really know a lot about interlacing but if the scaling is anything like up/down scaling of PC monitors with non-native resolutions, I'm guessing the quality of text is going to suffer somewhat? Bearing in mind this is a 50" screen, that's a lot of real estate to have a verticle resolution that is only effectively 540 pixels.

At 50" the price difference on 1080i and 1080p is quite large, is it worth going for a 1080p monitor to make sure the quality stays high? The text size is going to be quite large to start with, since people need to see it at a distance, Im not sure if this makes the above point moot?

Another quick question as well, which types of panel are better for not getting screen burn? I dont want to destroy the TV by keeping a similar image on it all day.

Thank for any help!
Click to expand...

Screen burn affects LCD and plasma, so you have input an algorithm to refresh the screen every hour or two. Alternatively, you could just buy a public display, but they do cost more.

For displaying static text, both formats will do just fine. It's only a problem when they move (and display's motion blur is also a factor here).

In the end, it all comes down to the panel res (720p or 1080p). If it's 720p, use 720p, if its 1080p, use 1080i/p. It's really that simple.



PS: Remember, AM-LCDs can only display one res in progressive. So non-native resolutions have to be scaled and interlaced contents have to de-interlaced to progressive, which is usually done by the displays video processor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top