Automatic or 720p setting for Sky HD?

[jase fox]

I own a full HD plasma & on my sky HD box i currently have the HD resolution output set to "auto" which as some of you may know that in auto the HD content defaults to 1080i & standard def defaults to 576p (on my set anyway) i find the quality on auto setting to be very good for standard def & excellent for 1080i, however, i read many reviews in magazines etc that say 720p is better as its progressive, so i gave it a go, when i set the resolution on the sky box to 720p to my eyes i couldnt really tell much diff between 1080i & 720p but on closer inspection i found 720p to be slighty smoother & 1080i to have a little more detail although these diffs to me were minimal, also on 720p standard def is also in this resolution but i think i prefer 576p for standard, mmmm? Does anybody have an opinion to this as to whats the best setting for the sky HD box? & which is better 1080i or 720p??

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="jase fox"]Does anybody have an opinion to this as to whats the best setting for the sky HD box? & which is better 1080i or 720p??[/quote]

Whichever one you prefer.

Which, BTW, is not the throwaway answer it seems. It varies according to the rest of the system and your personal preferences.

 

[Anonymous]

You dont say what TV you have. Some are better than others at upscaling/deinterlacing. I dont believe the SKY box has that good a rating at upscaling.

So you have to try them all and see what's best for your eyes.

At a guess, "auto" .

I dont see the point in 720p, as the Sky box will have to convert 1080i into 720p and then your TV will convert 720p into 1080p to display it.

 

[Anonymous]

Whichever you prefer is bad advice in this scenario IMO. 1080i is 1080 lines, interlaced format, of video information. If you have a 1080p display (as suggested in the post) then anything other than 1080i output for your HD channels is throwing away a LOT of resolution. It is relying on the Sky HD box to deinterlace to P (which only the cheapest, nastiest displays can do a *worse* job of), then it is downscaling to 720p (loss of resolution therefore detail) and then your TV is upscaling back to 1080p again (interpolation based on a signal that has already suffered a loss in detail, thus any detail remaining is effectively smoothed out a little further). I think this is less noticeable to new users of HD because HD is just so much better than what we have had before. But trust me, once your eyes get attuned to it it becomes easy to see where just setting the box to 720p softens out detail, and introduces visible scaling and deinterlacing artefacts

I would advise AUTO or 1080i. In either case, with a HDMI connection, your Sky box will always be deinterlacing SD channels (going from 576i to 576p). So the only difference between AUTO and 1080i on SD channels is that the Sky box is also doing some upscaling, and that the TV is going to have to deinterlace again. Usually this means AUTO is better as it is less processing steps, and displays nowadays are at least getting much better scaling algorithms in them.

However from a purely functional/ergonomic point of view, AUTO will blank the image for a few seconds as the new resolution is output and the display must resync. This can be an annoyance to some.

Excuse long rambling post!! Long story short AUTO or 1080i. I can almost say with confidence NEVER 720p. Even with 720p or 768p displays, if they accept 1080i they can probably do a better job than having the sky box deinterlace and downscale then have the display potentially upscale a little again (to 768p).

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="Liam @ Prog AV"]Whichever you prefer is bad advice in this scenario[/quote]
How can "Whichever you prefer" ever be bad advice?!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

I have to agree with the prof on that one! Apart from your opening line, I agree with you Liam. I have mine set to 1080i and the auto delay is a pain. I have read that 720p looks better with Sky HD and that component is better than HDMI with Sky HD. I am very happy with HDMI and 1080i. Some more HD channels would help even more!