1080i vs. 1080p

You might be shopping for a new TV(s) or even monitor(s) and must be wondering what the real difference between 1080i and 1080p is? Well before I start explaining what's the difference I'll explain what they both mean first.

Interlaced - horizontal rows of pixels are being changed repeatedly to give you a moving image on screen.

Progressive - whole images are being sent at once repeatedly to give you a moving image on screen.

What does this mean; it's just referring to how your screen TV / Monitor refreshes to give you a moving image. The best way to describe this is interlaced, is like repeatedly scanning an image over and over again to get a moving picture. Progressive is like drawing those pictures at the corner of your paper of different animations then flipping through the pages fast to see your character move.

Interlace

Pros

• Less bandwidth that can result in faster frame rates.

• pseudo-interlaced transmission - a method of interlace to prevent artifacts by creating blurs etc. to hide errors.

Cons

• Artifacts / Artefact - data is discarded because it's too complicated to store in the available data -rate in aggressive data compression.

• Interline Twitter - is flickering of the screen because the speeds are slowing down to make it visible (more so with computer monitors).

Progressive

Pros

• Clearer images because whole images are being loaded at once not pieces.

• Deinterlacing - is the process of converting interlaced video, like common analog television signals, into a non-interlaced form (Wikipedia).

• Interpolation

• Field Combination Deinterlacing

• Weaving

• Blending

• Selective Blending

• Motion Compensation

• Inverse Telecine

• Telecide

• Frame Extension Deinterlacing

• Half-sizing

• Line Doubling

Cons

• Takes up more bandwidth that can cause slower frame rates than interlaced screens.

My Experience

480i TV 27"

I have a TV that is 480i and when I use my PlayStation 3 on this particular TV lines will appear on the screen when playing certain games. For the most part this only happens with my PlayStation 3 (digital only) and not my XBOX 360 (analog only). I'm guessing it's because the PlayStation 3 was meant for HD (High Definition) only, causing some TVs to strain when playing video games. So even though interlaced screens can have faster frame rates it's just the way they refresh is the problem. For the most part TV news stations and most likely others use interlace because of bandwidth or they haven't moved to digital (is my guess).

1080p Monitor

I have a monitor that is 24" Wide TFT-LCD Monitor SyncMaster 245BW that only runs progressive. The reason why I know this is because LCDs (Liquid Crystal Display) only can do progressive and never see those lines when frame rate drops. You might have noticed these lines in older computer monitors because back then it was the norm to have interlaced screens.

Conclusion

In the end progressive is the better out of the two because of two reasons one, it's a digital signal two, images can be clearer since whole images are sent at once. To tell you the truth you can't really tell for the most part if a TV is progressive or interlaced. That's pretty much it with the difference with 480i, 720i, 1080i to 480p, 720p, and 1080p. Interlace (analog signals) is the old technology and progressive (digital signals) is the new technology so next time when shopping look at how clear the images are on each TV / monitor. I also want to note I think progressive screens are best with digital channels (even though it can "deinterlace") like seen on statellite and interlace screens are best with analog channels like cable; for everything else I think progressive is better.

Mental Note: This is just my opinion on Interlace vs. Progressive so some people might like Interlace and it's just fine.