Is it bad to choose 1080p for a BD player on a TV that's not 1080p? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Pick]

I have a 50" Panasonic plasma (TH-50PX75U with 1366x768 [720p] native resolution) and the Panny BD30 Blu-ray player. The setup allows me to choose 1080p on the BD30 player. Since my plasma is 768p, would selecting 1080p be a bad thing? Would it be a better or worse choice than choosing 1080i or 720p? Thanks.

 

[Allan Jayne]

Generally yes.

Do not feed the TV with a resolution higher than the TV accepts. You could cause damage as well as get no picture.

If the TV does accept 1080p, try both that and 720p and see what looks better. It is possible for film source disks to give a better picture one way (720p or 1080p out) and live video source disks to give a picture the other way (probably 1080i out).

Note that 1080p comes in at least two flavors, 1080p@60 and 1080p@24. The TV has to accept the specific flavor you have selected from the DVD player.

Video hints: Video Technicalia Made Easy

 

[Joe Pick]

Thanks Allan, that makes some sense. I do have the option of setting 24p on or off, but it's grayed out and I cannot change it. Is that because my plasma doesn't support it? I also have the option of setting the plasma's resolution to "Auto" instead of 1080p, 1080i or 720p. Maybe I'll just do that and let it be. I was curious of why I even got a picture at all when I chose 1080p when the TV doesn't support it. Looked good, too.

 

[JeremyErwin]

The Panasonic is 768p. Any 720p picture must be upscaled internally. And any 1080i/p picture must be downscaled internally. So the choice is between discarding extraneous detail, or synthesizing the illusion of more detail.

Since the Panasonic accepts 1080p, you should use that mode, as it avoids potential de-interlacing problems, while preserving as much of the bluray's detail as possible.

If you can get access to test patterns, you may be able to choose the one mode that looks best.

 

[Joe Pick]

Makes perfect sense - thanks Jeremy! What about what Allan said above about the setting, in that it "could cause damage". Is there any danger of setting it at 1080p? Thanks again.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Allan was probably refering to the case where you feed the TV a signal that it cannot accept/support -- you did not originally clarify that your TV could accept 1080p. From what you described later, it sounds like your TV does actually accept/support 1080p. The fact that it needs to downconvert to 768p internally is just another matter entirely. Accepting/supporting an input signal/format is *not* the same thing as displaying it natively w/out internal conversion. Your plasma apparently accepts/supports more than just its native 768p resolution (as one would normally expect) or it probably wouldn't let you choose the other input formats (and seem to display them correctly).

_Man_

 

[Allan Jayne]

I would think that auto mode should be the only mode for the TV. In other words the TV should auto-select the incoming video resolution (within its acceptance limits) and size it to fit the screen.

 

[Joe Pick]

Thanks for the advice, Allan. One question though. Since I'm passing the signal through my Onkyo 805 via HDMI, would the "Auto" setting still choose the best resolution for my plasma? I have no way of knowing what it's picked, and for all I know could be 1080i/p, 720p or 480p. I don't think my Onkyo does any video processing at all, just passes the signal through. Do you still think my best option would be "Auto"? A previous comment about selecting 1080p makes sense to me, letting the plasma do the conversion to 768p. I just want the best possible video signal.

 

[Sami Kallio]

Like said, try both and see which you like better. I would always output the players native resolution is possible though, if the TV is not of one of the players available resolutions. You don't want to scale more than necessary.

TV being 768, output to 720p results in this kind of event chain:

1080p -> downscale to 720p by the player -> TV -> 720p upscaled to 768p

Where in 1080p output it's much simpler:

1080p -> TV -> downscaled to 768p

 

[Joe Pick]

Makes sense, too - thanks. So it sounds like my TV can accept 1080i or 1080p, and I'll stick with the 1080p setting since there are less steps in converting the signal.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Joe on that plasma, if you hit the 'Recall' button on the TV remote it should display information that includes the source resolution.

 

[troy evans]

Joe I have a Samsung 42" plasma HP-S4253. Both my Sony BDP-S300 and my Toshiba HD-A20 are set at 1080p and it does look better to me than in the 720p or 1080i settings. I don't know why my tv accepts it since it's only 768p, but, it does. I think I get better resolution from this mode. Also, Sami makes a good point in that less scaling would be the way to go. It makes more sense that an image scaled down from a source would maximize your resolution than scaling up. If you lock in that 720p or 1080i setting why would the tv bother to scale any further. It seems like an override in a sense.

 

[Joe Pick]

Thanks Jeff, I totally forgot about the Recall button. When I set the BD player at 'Auto' for the resolution, then hit 'Recall' on the TV remote, turns out the player chose 1080p by default anyway, so there you go! Live Free or Die Hard looked awesome last night!

 

[Allan Jayne]

If you choose auto mode on something other than the TV (for example on the DVD player) you have to be sure the next piece of equipment accepts whatever video signal might possibly come out and the third piece of equipment accepts whatever the second piece of equipment does, and so on.

Since you said your TV accepts all of the common formats including 1080p, you were safe.

Some folks eavesdropping might have an older HDTV that accepts 1080i or 480p only. They would not be able to use auto mode that might deliver 720p for example.