How important is 720p? (1 Viewer)

[kumar]

Folks, considering buying 57"WV600 (Sony). It says no support for Native 720p (it converts to 1080i).

Whereas for 510 series it says format includes 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i.

Pros and Cons as what I have seen so far....
Pros for 600 series: People have rated it very good and some have even said better picture quality than the 510 or 550 too.
Cons for 600 series: No Native 720p support. Plus Sony has discontinued this series now - though they suport the warranty. (Should this be a concern? Why would they discontinue it?).

Pros for 510 series: Excellent rating and good picture quality etc...
Cons for 510 series: Some of their early models have/had flicker issue after a year or so. Is this an issue even in the newer model?

Help Much appreciated!

 

[John S]

720p, still isn't a big deal, unless perhaps you are using xbox.

But for the future, it may become more important than it is now, that is for sure.

Products get discontinued, and new models come out. Just the way it is.

I beleive they are fixing any flicker issues, but still could be a model/line to avoid, but if the deal was to good, and that is one that I way liked, I'd have to buy it myself despite.

 

[kumar]

Thanks John for your response. I sent you a PM too.

The difference between the two is 200 bucks!
I don't have a XBOX or PS2 right now! But even if I buy, it might not be more than say10-15 hours a month!).
Would I be noticing any visible differences between having a native 720p versus having it convert to 1080i?

Is there any technology difference between the two screens?
600 looks more sleak though!

 

[Norris]

Hey Kumar,

Are you also from the corvette forum? Kinda cool seeing another forum member around.

 

[Jason GT]

Pretty much no common CRT based RPTV these days does 720p natively. I have heard of higher end models that will do it, but am no expert in CRTRP.

Anyways, the main point is that I'm 99% sure that neither of these two sets will do 720p natively (both should convert to 1080i or somesuch). If you're worried, I guess the main thing to confirm would be that the sets will ACCEPT a 720p signal as not all RPTVs do. This, if memory serves, is not generally a problem with Sonys.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Both the WV-600 and the 510/550 series Sonys will accept a 720p signal, but neither will display it natively. They will both convert it to 1080i.

Since all currently available HD boxes can be set to output 1080i from 720p broadcasts, this is only an issue if you plan to use the set with an X-box, which will only output 720p. I've had 3 HD stbs that do this conversion and the result is indistiguishable from native 1080i. There's no reason to think that the Sony set's upconversion will be any worse than that of these stbs, so in my opinion the lack of native 720p display for X-box is probably a complete non-issue.

There were a very few crt based HD-ready sets a few years ago that would display 720p natively, notably Panasonic's first model which sold for $6,000 back in 1998. To the best of my knowledge there are currently no crt based sets that will do it.

Most of the HD Plasma, lcd, and dlp based sets do have a native scanrate of 720p.

 

[Dwight Amato]

This is true, but remember, they do not display 1080i natively.

I have a Panny PT47WX51, which does 480i, 480P, and 1080i. It will not upconvert 720P, which is a shame because I cannot take advantage of my Xbox games. I also have a Sony KV-34XBR910, which will upconvert 720P to 1080i. As long as a set can handle the signal I don't mind if it's not native, as no set will display all these resolutions natively...

 

[ChrisWiggles]

It's a native pixel resolution. Scanrate is the wrong term, I don't mean to nitpick, but CRT devices scan, not fixed-pixel displays. The horizontal scanrate for such devices is expressed in khz.

 

[kumar]

Thanks a lot guys for all your feedback...
I went to the local BB and bought the 57WS510. Also purchased their 4 yr service.

Now eagerly waiting for it to arrive