There have always been epic battles with people taking sides.  There’s Good vs. Evil, Democrats vs. Republicans and it’s no different when it comes to HDTVs.  The difference is that the controversy is surrounded around the decision of whether to pick a 720p or 1080p television.  There answer is unfortunately, it all depends.

The 720 or 1080 speaks to the lines of resolution being rendered, and the p refers to the progressive nature of the video content being streamed.  1080p is the latest and greatest specification and is what you’ll find on any of the high end televisions in the market today.  If your television service comes from a cable or satellite provider your picture is going to look great but not 1080p great since they don’t deliver video in 1080p.  The most you’re going to get is 720p, or 1080i.  This means that if you get your television signal from a cable provider, DirecTV or Dish – 1080p won’t do much for you if you’re a couch potato.  Many televisions will up-convert and take the signal and scale the picture quality up to 1080p but it won’t look as good as the display you’d see running in an electronics store for 1080p HDTVs.  (more…)