resolution question... (1 Viewer)

[harvey_mason]

I have a question regarding my motorola 5100 stb on my mits 65611. When i am watching high def hbo via comcast cable for example it should be 1080i.
When I switch to a standard def. channel like mtv or espn or anything that isn't high def BUT i do NOT switch the output on the motorola 5100 to 480i or 480p what resolution am i receiving?? And lastly by switching the output to 480p/i will that give me better pq and why??

regards,
Harvey

 

[Rich Chiavaroli]

When in 1080i mode, the STB will upconvert all non HD material to 1080i. That's why it puts the black bars in. 1080i is always in a 16:9 format.

As far as which is better.. which do you think looks better? In previous posts, you were talking about wanting to use stretch modes. If you're using stretch modes, you're making the picture much worse than a difference between the upconversion and a naitive resolution.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use stretch modes, but that the stretch modes are doing more to distort the picture than the resolution differences.

 

[harvey_mason]

Understood Rich,

But if my tv or stb upconverts everything to 1080i, shouldn't it look as good as high def which is 1080i???

I don't expect it to look as good but if the signal is being upconverted shouldn't it in theory look as good as 1080i resolution such as high def hbo??

regards,
HArvey

 

[Jack Briggs]

No. It may display the image in 1080i format, but the original image still originates from a 480i source. You can add scanning lines, but you can't add true resolution at 1080i when there is none. So, no, upconverted 480i is not going to look as good as native 1080i.

 

[Greg Kolinski]

from what I understand , 1080i upconversion like on my JVC pretty much just fills in extra scan lines with copied info,1080i HDTV has actual info on all lines,instead of just "filler material"
PLEASE correct me if im completly wrong.......

 

[Rich Chiavaroli]

It's a little more complicated than just 'filler' material, but for all intents and purposes, that describes it. Basically the image is blown up and the resolution is made smaller. But since the original doesn't have the detail that a true 1080i image would, the upconverted image can't possibly have this detail also. It's similar to blowing up a picture on the computer. If you took a picture at a higher resolution, you'd have more detail. But if you take a picture at 640x480, run it through photoshop and blow it up to 1024x768, it's just not going to be as detailed as the one you took at 1024x768. Photoshop will run the image through a converter to extrapolate out what the image should look like, but it's still a 640x480 image blown up.