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Blue Ray Quality with a 1080i / 720p HDTV?

As I understand it the new Blue Ray system is based on 1080p for its advancement in picture quality.

I have a few years old Sony 60" LCD that outputs 1080i or 720p ,but, NOT 1080p.
I should state that the picture quality with my present equipment with Hi Def sources is great.

I am sort of interested in a Blue Ray player. The Player cost seem reasonable, but I am still on the fence about the cost of the Blue Ray discs.

I have never received a straight answer as to the video improvement with my present equipment using a Blue Ray player and Blue Ray discs from the adolescences who work at the local Electronics stores.

So, here are the 2 questions...

1. Will there be any Video improvement with using a Blue Ray player and Blue Ray discs with equipment that cannot output 1080 P?

2. If there is an improvement is it 90% 50 % 25% or whatever?

Thanks,
ozzy
128x128ozzy

Showing 1 response by johnnyb53

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Just so you know, the only HDTVs that truly display 1080i in native mode are CRT-based. All the LCD, DLP, and plasma-based HDTVs that accept 480p, 720p, and 1080i input (but NOT 1080p) have a native mode of 720p to maybe 768p. That means that when these TVs receive 1080i input, they downconvert to 720p (or in some plasma displays, 768p).

That said, Blu-ray fed to a 720p native mode display looks VERY good. I have such a beast, a 2005 55" LCD-based RP Hitachi with 720p native mode. Ever since I bought an HD DVD player in early 2007 (and now have a PS3 to play Blu-ray), it looks so much better than HDTV or std-def DVD that I *will not* buy any more std-def DVDs and I added HD DVD and Blu-ray to my Netflix profile. I don't watch a std-def DVD anymore unless 1) It's available only in that format and 2) I REALLY REALLY want to watch that movie. Otherwise, Blu-ray fed to my 720p display has spoiled me for anything less.

The interesting thing I've found is that although my TV is definitely run by a 720p-based LCD, when I set the output of the Blu-ray or HD DVD to output 1080i via HDMI, it looks just a *little* sharper than when I output in 720p, the TV's native mode. So don't be afraid to experiment a bit, but *don't* try to feed it 1080p; it may freak out your TV.
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