Vizio L37HDTV10A not really HD
 

I bought one of these about a year ago at Costco http://www.vizio.com/products/detail.aspx?pid=13#. It has "1080i support" but its maximum resolution is really 720P, was i lied to? I have found there is a lot of misinformation from stores about what really is HD and what you need to actually view an HD signal. "Buy this monitor and you will have HD!" Not true but I digress. The manufacturers page doesn't actually list the true resolution, which is 720P. I found this out by buying an "upres" DVD player and it only will go to 720P. When I view broadcast 1080i HD, the picture is very sharp, it LOOKS like HD (compared to SD, but I have no standards for comparison), but maybe it is just very, very nice 720P. Isn't this a case of false or misleading advertising? Are they calling anything bigger than 480, HD?

roger

Correct
 

Yes, they can call it HD; theoretically high definition simply means "more than standard definition" - anything with a vertical size greater than 576 lines (PAL SD format).

There is still a lot of confusion as HD is relatively new technology - it pays to do your homework before you go out and buy. I have friends who jumped in way too early and now they regret it, some of them bought standard definition plasma units thinking "digital" is the same as "high definition"...

The first group of HD LCD & Plasmas are/were 720p/1080i. The newest ones are Full HD or 1080p. You have HD......just not one that does 1080p. Costco is now selling Vizios that are the Full/1080p types.

Jim Martin
Birns & Sawyer
"At the ArcLight"

The 42" plasma I bought 2 years ago was labelled "extended definition" with no explanation of what that meant. Later I found out it is 480p.

I sure didn't do my homework.

720P is HD. You're not the only one who thinks it isn't, but it is.

Well Roger, let me put it this way. At least two of the major networks (ABC, FOX) broadcast in 720P. Some networks feel that 720P is better than 1080i(CBS, NBC). BOTH are HD broadcast standards so yes, your television is HD. The smaller lcd panels (especially the lower priced units) only have 720 vertical resolution. You should also know that nobody that I'm aware of is even broadcasting full 1080P as yet even though the newer displays are starting to support that.

You have not been deceived. Your set will simply down convert 1080i to 720P and you'll be rewarded with a nice, crisp picture as you noted.

-gb-

But if teh picture id down converted (scaled down), aren't you at risk for more motion artifacting?

It all depends on the quality of the scaling circuitry - there might be artifacts, or on the contrary, you may actually get a sharper picture if it's done right.

Don't confuse panel resolution with input signal type.
The "Overview" page reads in plain English: "This product offers a super high 1366x768 native resolution". Granted, 1366x768 is not super high anymore in 2007, but for just 37 inches this is pretty good. As you can see, it is not 720p, which is 1280x720. You could find it yourself if you did a one-minute search on the Web. Why TV manufacturers went with such a strange panel resolution is another question. The common belief is that is because they had readily available VGA chips.
If your player cannot upres to 1080i, this is likely your player's problem. I don't see a point in upressing to interlaced anyway, 720p is enough. Even more, I would rather output 480p from the player and let the TV do the scaling. This way it will scale only once: 480p->768p. If you upres to 720p in the player, the image will be scaled twice: 480p->720p->768p. Upscaling is overrated unless you have a very very good outboard scaler.
Duh, because it is.
720p is HD.
Yep, you got it.