Sharp: Why 1080p Matters

I attended part of the DisplaySearch TV Supply Chain Conference in San Diego yesterday and paid particularly close attention to the keynote speech by Sharp's marketing head Bob Scaglione, one of the brightest minds in the business. Bob's presentation was part of a panel about how TV manufacturers can avoid the commoditization of HDTVs by emphasizing 1080p and other advancements.

In Sharp's view, 1080p is important because their data show that 90% of HDTV broadcast content is in 1080i, meaning that there is no scaling that needs to be done like there is with 720p. Displaying a 1080i broadcast signal on a 1080p television requires a relatively simple translation of interlacing to progressive scanning. By contrast, showing a 1080i program on a 720p/768p TV requires not just an "i" to "p" translation but also scaling 1080 lines of resolution down to 720 or 768, not exactly the ideal scenario.

Broadcast content that is native 720p, like on ABC, FOX and ESPN, works perfectly with 720/768p plasma or LCD displays.

In theory, what Bob Scaglione said makes complete sense. From a technical standpoint, he is absolutely correct that 1080i content should always look better on a 1080p TV than it does on a 720/768p television. In practice, however, I'm not convinced there is all that much discernible difference. On my 768p Panasonic plasma, my opinion is that the Discovery HD content -- which is 1080i -- looks better than a lot of the 720p programming I see on FOX. This afternoon, I'll test this theory some more and compare the U.S. Open golf championship coverage on ESPN HD (720p) to that of NBC HD (1080i) and see which looks better on my 768p plasma.

And therein lies the problem: there are so many factors at play when it comes to TV picture quality -- resolution, color gamut, contrast ratio, black levels, cable/satellite signal compression and receiver quality -- that it's difficult to say that 1080p TVs by default will display a better-looking 1080i signal than a 720/768p TV.

The reality of HDTV is that there are many factors to consider when purchasing your next TV, image resolution being just one. 1080p isn't the single most determining factor in HD quality any more than megapixels are with digital cameras.