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Playstation 3 Only 720p Vs 1080p: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Two Modes



First up, a disclaimer: we can't cover every single 1080p game. Some may have slipped through the net, others supported 960x1080 output (or even lower on the horizontal axis) as a fallback option when 720p was not available, and we're not particularly interested in those. However, across the four episodes, we cover a total of 88 titles. In an era where many PlayStation 3 (and indeed Xbox 360) games struggled even to deliver native 720p rendering, the full HD credentials of Sony's machine were left in tatters across the years, but perhaps surprisingly, there are many, many highlights - as you'll discover over the weeks.


I won't go into any depth on the rest of the line-up - John's video is worth the watch - but there's much to enjoy in this first episode. You'll see Blast Factor, the first title from Bluepoint Games, you'll bear witness to the full horror of Marvel Ultimate Alliance in its 12-20fps 1080p mode (spoilers: 720p isn't that great either), you'll baulk at Sega's Full Auto 2 and then there's the debut of Gran Turismo HD - an interesting demo from Polyphony and the first 1080p release that wouldn't quite deliver a full, full HD experience.




Playstation 3 Only 720p Vs 1080p




There are other interesting takes on 1080p too - NBA Street Homecourt from EA Sports actually offered up both 1080p30 and 720p experiences, and it was also the first full HD title for Xbox 360 too (with added MSAA, absent on the PS3) - if you ignore the Quake 2 port we discovered years later to be running at 1080p on the Microsoft console. But returning to the PS3, what about digital release Flow from That Game Company, which seems to be downsampling to 1080p from 1440p?


Elsewhere, full HD offerings in 2008 were somewhat underwhelming, despite some highlights such as Pixel Junk Eden and Echochrome - simple, but highly effective and looking great at 1080p. FIFA Street 3 and MLB The Show delivered full frame pixel counts, but effectively made you choose between resolution or frame-rate - 1080p30 or 720p60, depending on the option selected on the PS3's front-end. Capcom's retro remakes 1942 Joint Strike and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando also performed better in 720p mode - it would be some years before developers and publishers would accept that sometimes 2D art was a better fit for revamping older games (Bionic Commando from Grin is well worth checking out, however).


Moving into 2009, PlayStation 3 was revamped with its excellent Slim revision, while software started to find its form with some consistency with the brilliant Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 finally arriving - but it was a muted time for full HD titles on the Triple. MLB 09 improved visuals in full HD mode, restoring the post-processing effects missing in its predecessor. However, 720p60 was the better choice, to the point where even if you had your PS3 configured for 1080p, you'd still get a 720p picture - only by disabling the 720p option on the front-end would you get the full HD output.


As you move up the LCD size chain, your 720p options become more limited because vendors are going with 1080p displays in most LCDs larger than 37 inches. When it comes to plasma, Panasonic's entry-level 42-inch TH-42PX8A carries a price of around AU$1,699, while the step-up 1080p version, the TH-42PZ80A, comes in at AU$2,549. Move up to 50-inch 1080p models and you're looking at AU$3,649.


3. Why is 1080p theoretically better than 1080i?1080i, the former king of the HDTV hill, actually boasts an identical 1920x1080 resolution, but conveys the images in an interlaced format (the "i" in 1080i). In a CRT, 1080i sources get rendered on-screen sequentially: the odd-numbered lines of the image appear first followed by even lines, all within 1/25 of a second. Progressive-scan formats such as 480p, 720p and 1080p convey all the lines sequentially in a single pass, which makes for smoother, cleaner visuals, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content.


4. What content is available in 1080p?Today's high-def broadcasts are done in either 1080i or 720p, and there's little or no chance they'll jump to 1080p anytime soon because of bandwidth issues. As for HD gaming, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games are available in both 720p and 1080p resolutions. (Also, the 720p titles can be upscaled to 1080i or 1080p in the user settings of those consoles).


5. What kinds of TV technologies offer 1080p resolution?Aside from CRT, which has basically been discontinued, every technology on the market comes in 1080p versions. That means you can find 1080p-capable versions utilising all fixed-pixel technologies, including DLP, LCoS and LCD projectors, and flat panels (plasma and LCD). Of course, as specified above, more affordable entry-level models are still limited to 720p resolution. But whatever the resolution, all fixed-pixel TVs are essentially progressive-scan technologies. So when the incoming source is interlaced (1080i or even good old-fashioned 480i standard definition), they convert it to progressive-scan for display.


7. What happens when you feed a 1080p signal to 720p TV?Assuming the TV can accept a 1080p signal, it will be scaled to 720p. But the caveat is that many older 720p and even some 1080p models cannot handle 1080p signals at all. In which case, you'll get a blank screen. Thankfully, most newer HDTVs can accept 1080p signals.


Whether you're dealing with 1080p24 or video-based 1080p50 doesn't alter our overall views about 1080p TVs. We still believe that when you're dealing with TVs 50 inches and smaller, the added resolution has only a very minor impact on picture quality. In our tests, we put 720p next to 1080p sets, then feed them both the same source material from high-end Blu-ray players. We typically watch both sets for a while, with eyes darting back and forth between the two to look for differences in the most-detailed sections such as hair, textures of fabric, and grassy plains.


Katzmaier stands by his previous analysis: the extra sharpness afforded by the 1080p televisions he's seen is noticeable only when watching 1080i/1080p sources on larger screens, say 55 inches and bigger and projectors that display wall-size pictures. Katzmaier also adds that the main real-world advantage of 1080p is not the extra sharpness you'll be seeing, but instead the smaller, more densely packed pixels. In other words, you can sit closer to a 1080p television and not notice any pixel structure such as stair-stepping along diagonal lines or the screen-door effect (where you can actually see the space between the pixels). This advantage applies regardless of the quality of the source.


Finally, it's a good idea to go with 1080p instead of 720p if you plan to use your TV a lot as a big computer monitor. That said, if you set your computer to output at 1920x1080, you might find that the icons and text on the screen are too small to view from far away (as a result, you may end up zooming the desktop or even changing to a lower resolution). But a 1080p set does give you some added flexibility (and sharpness) when it comes to computer connectivity.


Make sure you're gaming system is not set to 1080p. The HD PVR does not understand this format. Please set the output resolution to 1080i or 720p. Please see the appropriate setup instructions for your game console:


Note: Before connecting your Xbox 360 to the HD PVR or Colossus, connect it to your HD TV set to make the settings. By default, the Xbox 360 will be set to 1080p and HD PVR and Colossus will not work with this resolution. You will need to change your Xbox 360 to 480p, 720p, or 1080i.


Note: Before connecting your PS3 to the HD PVR or Colossus, connect it to your HD TV set to make the changes to the PS3 video modes settings. By default, the PS3 will be set to 1080p and HD PVR and Colossus will not work with this resolution. You will need to change your PS3 360 to 480p, 720p, or 1080i.


While all versions of the game hit that 60 FPS benchmark, certain versions are worth looking at for graphical fidelity. The PlayStation 4 version runs at native 1080p, while the Xbox One version is only 720p upscaled to 1080p. The PC version is as strong as your box allows.


Equipment retailers like to promote this standard as a superior viewing experience. However whilst it is particularly important if you plan on using a High Definition DVD player (Such as Blu-Ray DVD or even Sony Playstation 3), it should be noted that currently most Free-to-air Digital transmissions are only broadcast in 576i. Only the High Definition channels are broadcast in 1080i and none are broadcast in 1080p.


This technology made both of the formats superior in storage capabilities, especially after it became standard to double-layer the discs, letting them hold twice as much data. However, there was still a difference in storage between the two, since dual-layered Blu-rays can hold 50 GB, while HD DVDs could only hold 30 GB. In terms of picture and sound quality, the two formats were virtually identical, and the change in quality from traditional standard definition to 1080p was a significant leap for both of them. 2ff7e9595c


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