a basic question on HD

Thanks all. Much more clear to me. I already have a Pioneer plasma 50" that is capable of 720p/1080i...and the vaunted Denon flagship AX1 DVD player. Just bot a house so wanted another set for another room, or more buy an upgraded set and move this one to the bedroom which is fairly large too. It seems to me that I should stick with looking at 1080p capable screens. The Denon is capable of upscaling to 1080P and besides, I think I can take my time with Bluray/HDDVD and see it how it goes in terms of software & new player models availability...but given need to purchase a display anyway, might as well get one that is 1080 ready so as not to regret it down the horizon.

A shame in way. The B&O set up looked really kool. Indeed the motivation for me was actually their speaker set up, Beolab5s. I like that they are not placement sensitive having their own sensors to auto adjust,and all speakers have inbuilt amplifcation so that a power amp is not necessary+ no sep sub needed as the BeoLab 5s have in built subs. Plus they just look interesting. But the problem is their connectivity: to use this system u have to get their processor as B&O uses their own proprierty connectivity methods for the processor/center speaker/display. (the Beolab 5s are not an issue, its the rest of the set up that is)

A sep question. So let's say I get the BeoLab 5s which should really driven via digital inputs (intern DAC/amplification/room equalization)....do think there is way to hook it up with a pre-pro/pwr amp so that the rest center/rears are driven by analogue connections?

avguygeorge,

Regarding "480p is part of HD. i.e.Can't do 480p without a hdtv", 480p is EDTV, although I don't know if they still sell EDTV sets. But I do agree that a regular TV cannot do 480p, only 480i. You need either EDTV or HDTV to display 480p.

Bruce

apparently B&O is coming out with a 1080p compatible screen in a month or so...

This STARTS at (a minimum!) 1920x1080

Absolutely agree with Elizabeth. That is why I have still have a Sony HD CRT that can acommodate for a variety of signals. The pixel issue is a big problem until standards converge. If you ever tried using the wrong resolution on a computer LCD screen (i.e. other than the native pixel resolution) then you will know what I mean - it goes all blurred. This means an LCD or a plasma will have an OPTIMUM input signal resolution and will not be as good for signals that do not match this OPTIMUM resolution.

If you still have many DVD's and still watch ordinary TV channels then an EDTV with a native resolution suited for DVD's may be your best choice in the interim (until old signals have disappeared and only 1080p exists)

Downscaling High Def 720p to DVD quality works well. Upscaling ordinary TV signals (less than DVD quality usually) to 720P or 1080P may actually look worse than ordinary TV!

Actually your 1366x768 screen will display max height of 768 pixels. So your screen will display HD 720P (progressive scan) or 1080i (interlaced) but not 1080P (progressive).

720P progressive is higher resolution than a 1080i. A 1080i is equivelant to half the interlaced value or 540P). So 720P has higher resolution than a 1080I, but not higher than a 1080P.

1080P is the highest resolution but a 768 screen will not show its capability.