42" 1080p, or 50" 720p?

[ganesh134 10+ year member]

If you will be getting a Blu Ray player, then go with 1080p.

 

[banginout 10+ year member]

My girlfriend and i are getting a bigger TV for our new place, and are running on a budget.
Went down to costco today, and the two TV's that caught my attention were a 42", 1080P LCD w/ 120hz refresh rate, and a 50" Panasonic 720P TV with what im assuming is a 60hz refresh rate. Both are the same price.

We have a good sized living room, so obviously we would like the bigger TV, but am i gonna see a big difference in quality between the two? We have HDTV, and will be getting a blu ray player (we watch a lot of movies)

All opinions welcome. I'de like to keep it simple and not have to order a TV and rather just buy one at a store, and im running on about an $800 budget.

depends what you watch...a lot of live sports then go with 120 to avoid screen lag... but basically it doesn't matter if you have cable between 720 and 1080 if they are progressive scan and not interlaced.... the only true 1080P is blu ray and very very few satellite channels....you won't notice a difference....

I would personally go with the bigger 50" 720P over the smaller 1080P.....the 1080P is useless unless you have blu ray and you watch a lot of sports....

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

on a screen the sizes you're considering you won't notice a diff between 720/1080 unless you sit 2' from the TV. Bigger screen will impress you more then anything, so go with the larger set.

You can't judge a TV by what you see in the store as 99% are NOT calibrated, so the best TV once calibrated could look the shittiest in the store.

I watch in 480p on a 92" projector set up and the picture is AMAZING....

 

[banginout 10+ year member]

I would go with 42" and 120hz
To me I would sacrifice just 8 inches just to have great quality picture with 120hz and 1080p.. 120hz is an awesome feature and possibly my favorite feature on my Sony 46" Z series.. It never failed to amaze me.

But some might say the different way, but to me 42" is big enough and you should want that kind of quality over extra 8 inches of screen

You have to consider that 1080P is only good for bluray...most HD channels only broadcast in 1080i or 720p at best.....My 52" projection screen plays 1080i and it make my buddies DLP 1080p look like crap and it's a BIG SCREEN! Trust me put them side by side and compare the picture the 720P will look just as good as the 1080p....pop a bluray in and you will notice the difference between 720p and 1080p

 

[PV Audio 5,000+ posts]

I think a more appropriate question would be a 42" 720 vs a 50" 1080, seeing as the smaller television at the same viewing distance at the same resolution will obviously have a clearer picture, thus possibly negating the need for the extra lines of resolution. Since it's an apartment, I doubt you really have the space to take advantage of the 50" screen, so go with the 42". The fact that it's a 1080p set is just making it more and more the obvious choice. You basically asked: "should I go with the medium sized crystal clear image, or a larger, blown up image with even lower resolution?"

 

[PV Audio 5,000+ posts]

depends what you watch...a lot of live sports then go with 120 to avoid screen lag... but basically it doesn't matter if you have cable between 720 and 1080 if they are progressive scan and not interlaced.... the only true 1080P is blu ray and very very few satellite channels....you won't notice a difference....I would personally go with the bigger 50" 720P over the smaller 1080P.....the 1080P is useless unless you have blu ray and you watch a lot of sports....

I think you're missing the key where this is an apartment where it's unlikely he could change the viewing distance to take advantage of the larger screen.

 

[hornedfrog1985 5,000+ posts]

depends what you watch...a lot of live sports then go with 120 to avoid screen lag... but basically it doesn't matter if you have cable between 720 and 1080 if they are progressive scan and not interlaced.... the only true 1080P is blu ray and very very few satellite channels....you won't notice a difference....I would personally go with the bigger 50" 720P over the smaller 1080P.....the 1080P is useless unless you have blu ray and you watch a lot of sports....

That's how I feel too. I don't get why people buy 50" screens and then put them 25' away from them. Closer the better imo. I know people say you can't even see the whole screen then, and have to look around... Idk but I don't give a shit if I have to turn my head a little. I do that irl too.

 

[PV Audio 5,000+ posts]

That's how I feel too. I don't get why people buy 50" screens and then put them 25' away from them. Closer the better imo. I know people say you can't even see the whole screen then, and have to look around... Idk but I don't give a shit if I have to turn my head a little. I do that irl too.

With all due respect, no, that's just not true. Not to get preachy, but it's far less your opinion and far more how your eyes work. What you're basically saying is that you prefer to stand right up on a street sign and move your head to read the letters than to stand back and read the words. Contrary to what you might think, your eyes have simply atrocious spatial resolution. What you're focusing on right now, which is probably one of these words, is the only thing in your visual field that is in focus along with a circle around whatever word you're on thats maybe 2cm in diameter. Beyond that, your acuity drops off exponentially. You don't notice this because you constantly move your eyes around to keep everything in focus.

The way to get around this and take in for information is to increase your distance from the subject material so that your small circle of focus takes in far more information. You need a larger screen, however, to make that useful because otherwise the information would just be too small to see and you would be better off sitting closer like you're saying. However, what you're advocating is sitting close enough to the subject that your area of focus is so small that instead of your eyes moving naturally to keep the image in focus, you need to move your body to different areas of the subject, thus, you can't realistically focus on what it is you're looking at. I tried to make this make as much sense as possible, but if it doesn't, let me know and I'll try and clarify it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif