April 2007 - Explaining Video "Number Soup" - page 2
1080i:
 Another popular video standard, you will find 1080i video as the broadcast standard for some of the better-looking HD channels on your content provider, such as HDNet and Discovery HD Theater. 1080i is also the native video output of the early HD DVD players on the market, as well as the native resolution of the vast majority of HDTVs currently installed. Even many of the early “1080p” rear-projection HDTVs were actually de-interlacing 1080i to 1080p; they were usually labeled as 1080p by the dealers and manufacturers.
Both a 720p and 1080i video image look quite good on today’s HDTVs. While all HDTVs are capable of accepting a 1080i signal, not all HDTVs display the 1080i resolution. HDTVs will scale or de-interlace 1080i signals to the HDTV's native display resolution.
1080p:
1080p is the current buzzword in video. Retailers are pushing 1080p video displays as the latest and greatest thing and they are right to do so. The most current chipsets from the likes of Texas Instruments’ DLP, JVC’s D-ILA and Sony’s SXRD are capable of displaying incredible, nearly error-free video that can WOW everyone from a soccer mom suckered into watching Monday Night Football to a jaded Hollywood filmmaker looking to build a screening room in his own home. Many of these HDTVs now cost below $2,000 in today’s marketplace as a starting point.
Blu-Ray and the next generation HD DVD players are currently the only sources 1080p capable. Although, the XBOX 360 is also capable of outputting 1080p but via the RGBHV port. Unless you have one of these sources (and you will soon, because they are incredible), you can’t really see all that your new 1080p HDTV can really do. Scaled 1080p looks pretty damn good, but native 1080p is the pinnacle of video in today’s market.
It is important to note that with 1080p, the only way any of these sources will transmit video of this high a resolution is via HDMI, thanks to the HDCP copy protection. HDCP copy protection is a highly imperfect format that installers and integrators complain constantly about because of trouble getting a source to make a “handshake” or digital connection with other devices, such as an HDMI switcher, an HDMI receiver or even a source like a Blu-ray or HD DVD player going directly into an HDTV. Firmware and software updates have improved things for HDCP, but it is still somewhat dicey. Many installers choose to use traditional component video cables to hook up HD sources, but that limits their output to 1080i rather than the tastier 1080p if copy-protected. Lastly, 1080p is so high-resolution that it doesn’t always travel well over long lengths of traditional copper cable. In the AVRev.com reference system, we use a fiber optic cable, which is far more expensive than traditional copper cables, so that we could send 1080p video from my Faroudja processor to my Meridian-Faroudja three-chip D-ILA 1080p video projector. The results are great and there are no handshake issues, because the content isn’t encrypted (to the best of my knowledge). I also use a fiber optic cable in my bedroom, where I switch two non-HDCP encrypted devices (a DirecTV HD TiVo and a Sony HDMI DVD player) with 100 percent success, leading me to suggest that the engineers behind HDCP need to get their copy protection more stable. Consumers will only tolerate so much aggravation before they give up and tell all of their friends not to adopt new video formats like Blu-ray and HD DVD, which would be a waste.
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