# Question about 720p/1080i setting



## Guest (Nov 8, 2007)

Hi,

I recently purchased the HD-A2 player during the WM sale and have a question. Which setting (720p or 1080i) yields the best results? I have a 720p Panny LCD and currently have the player set to output 720p as recommended by the manual. However, I have read some vague refrences here to some members having better results with the 1080i setting. Any advice or previous experience with this situation would be greatly appreciated.

PS - This is my first post. I came across this site while looking for firmware upgrades. Thanks for the great resource! :bigsmile:


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## evan (Apr 19, 2006)

I would try it in both settings for a while and see which one you like best, spend a week in each one mine is set to 1080i because that is the native resolution of my tv and I like it.Most people say to set it to what your tv accepts


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

1080i would have to be downcoverted to be displayed on your projector - it's always best to avoid any processing and use your native display resolution - in your case 720p.


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## imbeaujp (Oct 20, 2007)

I got the HD2A with a Pioneer Elite 940PRO-HD Plasma. I can not see a difference between 720P and 1080i signal. Should I ? I think that it depends on the TV up scaler-down scaler quality. 

The best way is to try it on your TV with some kind of movies... or maybe I am totaly wrong on this ?

JP


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

> I can not see a difference between 720P and 1080i signal. Should I ?


No. If you are connected via HDMI, that player will detect you are using a 720p set and output 720p even if you have 1080i selected. Anyway you look at it, a 720p set cannot properly display 1920x1080 pixels.


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

The player will put out up to 1080i to a 720p native display, IF the EDID handshake tells the player that your 720p display can accept a 1080i input. Otherwise the player will put out 720p. If your display is specified to accept a 1080i signal, and you cannot get it from the player, then you may have to update the firmware in the player, or possibly the display. Otherwise, contact Toshiba, and tell them you cannot receive the 1080i signal to your 720p display. This has been an occasional problem with the Toshiba HD players.

Which is better? You must decide. The difference is generally so slight that most people can watch it either way. In my case, I found that the "screen door effect" in my LCD 720p projector was slightly less objectionable at 1080i input, than at 720p input. I believe this may (ironically) be true because the down-conversion from 1080i to 720p inside my projector is slightly softer than the 1080i-to-720p down-conversion inside the player, which is an HD-A2. The latter gave an especially "hard" appearance to the picture. I think there is technically more detail in the 720p feed, but it makes the SDE look "etched" in the screen. I cannot see the SDE as prominently with the 1080i feed. So that's what I prefer to watch.


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

SteveCallas said:


> 1080i would have to be downcoverted to be displayed on your projector - it's always best to avoid any processing and use your native display resolution - in your case 720p.


Actually, it has to be down-converted somewhere, since the images on the HD DVD are at 1920x1080 resolution. For some people, the doen-scaling is better in the player, and for others it is better in the display. Everybody must decide for himself or herself.


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