1080i or 720p

If you have HDMI, definetely HDMI. Component is the best you can do in the analog domain, but if you can stay digital (HDMI) you will get better picture fidelity. You also save a lot of cables, as you have one cable to digital sound and picture with HDMI, yet you'd need 4 cables minimum for the analog connection.
So, both will work fine (to the TV or through an HDMI receiver), but HDMI will yield better results.

Dan

Ok thanks..

I have the HDMI cable plugged in from the ATV to the TV, and a Toslink Optical Digital audio from the ATV to my amplifier.

I set the ATV to display 720p instead of 1080i. I'll see how it goes.

Thanks.

Should be good then!
I assume your Receiver does not have HDMI in/out then, right?
With Toslink you might have occasional lipsync issues as the video and audio are processed at different times. IF that's so, the receiver might have an audio delay feature that lets you adjust it.
Then again, might not be an issue at all!

Best,
dan

Great Thread !!

Toslink lipsink problem I did not know about.

One additional point that I have found.

Depending on the TV sometimes 480P is the best if the programing was not recorded in widescreen. One of my plasmas will not zoom my content in 720 or 1080. Most of my movies where 640 x 480 or 640 x 360 to use on my iPhone. So I sometimes find myself in the 480P so I can zoom to fill the screen.

Mike

Some good stuff here, but I am still confused, instead of starting a new thread, I would like to add a question.

I am going to get a HD flat panel, should I get a 720P, or spend the extra money for 1080P ?

My HD content will be from my Atv, and possibly in the near future DirectTV HD satellite, based on this content, what do you fine "smart" folks recommend?

I live in Mexico, so my choice of televisions (HD) is more limited, and higher price's, and we have no over air HD content. I have a USA residence, so I can and do get USA iTunes and DirectTV

Hi,
well that's a cost question.
Unequivocally 1080p is better - even IF your input might be 720p a lot of time.
1080p will make you more future proof. It will look sharper even for 720p or 480 material due to upsampling (not significantly better - the source is 'only' 480 or 720 after all). It will allow you to see all TV input from 1080i sources at their full resolution (including DirectTV) as most TV stations broadcast at 1080i (a few do at 720p). All the movie channels (HBO, Showtimes, Cinemax etc ) broadcast 1080 on their HD channels (the fact that broadcast is 'i' and your TV would be 'p' is inconsequential in this case).

If your TV is 'only' 720p, it will have to downsample a lot of stuff you are getting. And who know, maybe Apple will support 1080x in the future....

Most DLP TVs are 1080p natively today. A good amount (but less so) of LCD are as well. What kind of TV are you looking to buy (DLP is usually the best bang for the buck, LCD and Plasma are nice and thin - but you have to make sure that they have the full 1920x1080 pixel count).

Hope this helps.
Dan

Hi Dosers, thanks for the info,

I was thinking that if your content was only 720P, that going 1080P was a waste, and the 720 content would actually look better on a 720.

I really would like to find Samsung LED DLP, I have read reviews and sounds great, I have not found a retailer here (Cancun) that has any DLP's, ,and Samsung Mexico (web) only shows one DLP model, not with the LED engine. In your opinion does the LED engine matter that much? I can order DLP color wheel

Hi again,
I will see if I can take a look the the Samsung MX site later.
In general, the colour wheel w/ Bulb Samsung DLP are perfectly fine as long as it's the LATEST VERSION, of the one before. If you purchase new, I assume it is. This version got rid of most previous issues like Rainbow Effects (colour wheel spins faster), 1080p input (versus display mode), the Ypbpr / RGB black level issue and so on. In other words, you are fine. The LED has some advantages, sure thing, but it's not night and day.

As for being a 'waste' - you will find less and less 720p systems out there (also depending on what size you are looking for). Sure, if you have 720p in, and display 1080p, there will be some upconversion. But it's not bad - and you'd get that even with 720p TV programs - it happens fairly regularly. I'd still get the 1080 (compatible with more resources natively) than 720 which has an overall lesser pixel count.

Cheers,
dan

If your TV accepts HDMI I would choose that type of connection.

if you are buying a HDTV bigger than 50", go for the 1080p. if smaller than 50" stay with 720p as you will not notice any difference between 720p and 1080p below 50" except if you are watching your TV a inch away from your screen you will notice 1080p is better. but do you watch your TV that close?

No offense (!!!!), but this doesn't make sense.
Regardless of the number of pixels, there is NO DOUBT that native resolution, that is display with little or no processing or up/down conversion is going to give better results than not;
The fact is that 720p is not used much in context. Most broadcast HD TV is 1080i (which 'just' has a different refresh rate than 1080p - without getting into the /24 or /30 stuff). Most gaming devices use 1080p. There is a big difference with 1080p compared to 720p, even with TVs under 50inch !!! The key is what your source is putting out (and natively - you don't want conversion anywhere IF it can be helped).
As long as the display size is big enough to actually fit all 1920x1080 pixels, one should obviously go for a 1080p.

What IF you have to introduce conversion at some point (for example 1080i broadcast TV will be converted to either 720p or 1080p in 'your' scenario)? Of course, more pixels are better. The native pixel count stays the same, while in 720p, it's cut.

It used to be that the 6 inch guns in CRT couldn't actually display all pixels, same still today for some size LCDs (though 2008 models have largely changed that).

Cheers,
dan