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To 720p or not 720p? HDBlog raises the question.

Syntax Olevia 37-inch HDTV LCD

When is 720p not 720p? If you're not the owner of a 720p HD display or projector, the question may seem arcane and pointless. If you are, you may want to head over HDblog and join the debate on this question. As you probably know — even if you don't own an HD display of any stripe — with the multitude of standards for HD, battle lines have been drawn, with some broadcasters and manufacturers aligned behind 720p and others favoring 1080i (and, no, we're not going to get into platform wars here; that's what the comments are for). Display makers claim to make sure their sets can show video at the best possible resolution regardless of source and format, and that's where the question above comes into play. According to some experts, 720p displays typically pick up just one 540-line field from each two-field 1080i frame, discarding the rest of the data, rather than sampling it. As HDblog says, "If you have a display like this, it means that you're watching 540 lines of resolution upconverted to 720p. This is not HD, just like watching a DVD upconverted to 720p is not HD." It's these kind of issues, of course, that hurt the growth of the HD market. Let's hope display-makers get it right soon; until then, you may not be getting the full picture no matter what you paid for that display.