GET THIS: HD in the AppleTV is only 720p!!!
I'm sorry but with this news my official opinion on macworld 2008 is that it SUCKED !!!!
HD rentals imo was the only real important announcement from the show. I was all excited at first about it then I learned you can only get the HD movies if you buy the appletv........ok fine. I thought, finally what I have been waiting for, full 1080p HD downloads. TO HELL WITH BLU-RAY AND HD-DVD!!!
I was all set to even go out to buy a big freakin 52" monster of an lcd all because of that take2 apple tv.
Now I learn the friggin thing is still only 720p!!!!!
ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, since I'm NOT buying the ultra slim notebook and there is no mactouch and no real HD appletv to speak of..........I'm kinda dissapointed.
HD rentals imo was the only real important announcement from the show. I was all excited at first about it then I learned you can only get the HD movies if you buy the appletv........ok fine. I thought, finally what I have been waiting for, full 1080p HD downloads. TO HELL WITH BLU-RAY AND HD-DVD!!!
I was all set to even go out to buy a big freakin 52" monster of an lcd all because of that take2 apple tv.
Now I learn the friggin thing is still only 720p!!!!!
ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, since I'm NOT buying the ultra slim notebook and there is no mactouch and no real HD appletv to speak of..........I'm kinda dissapointed.
Comments
I thought this was already common knowledge?
It is, and not only that, why is he posting this in the future hardware forum?
Have you actually compared 720p and 1080p at 50"? I doubt that you could tell the difference unless you sat so close to the TV that you had to move your head back and forth.
You have it backwards. 50" and above is where you can really start to tell the difference.
You can now just buy a smaller TV and save some bucks
i'd much rather download a 720p video vs. a 1080p one.. think about the time saved!
Good point! Why stop there though? Let's make it 640x480, now that's a really fast download!
Have you actually compared 720p and 1080p at 50"? I doubt that you could tell the difference unless you sat so close to the TV that you had to move your head back and forth.
I have and the difference is noticeable.....very noticeable. Oh, and yes sorry about the wrong section thing. Maybe technically speaking I'm still in the right section because the appletv take2 isn't shipping yet??
Crap. I forgot about the firmware upgrades for generation 1. Fine then. Admin? Move this to the appropriate section?
dude 720p vs. 1080p. Is this really going to cause such distress in your life? Really, its just tv quality and it is hardly different. Think of more important things. Please, it's not that important.
Of course its not that important. It still bothers me however. And thanks to the internet we can instantly share our views on the pet peeves in our lives. But seriously though this sucks. The friggin movie companies did this on purpose because they don't want competition for the blu-rays and hd-dvds. I betcha Steve wasn't exactly happy about this arrangement either. I'm sure he is telling himself..."ok, at least its a start".
No, it should be in the application section since it's just a software upgrade
My mistake. Still though........I've cancelled my plans on getting one.
I'm sorry but with this news my official opinion on macworld 2008 is that it SUCKED !!!!
HD rentals imo was the only real important announcement from the show. I was all excited at first about it then I learned you can only get the HD movies if you buy the appletv........ok fine. I thought, finally what I have been waiting for, full 1080p HD downloads. TO HELL WITH BLU-RAY AND HD-DVD!!!
I was all set to even go out to buy a big freakin 52" monster of an lcd all because of that take2 apple tv.
Now I learn the friggin thing is still only 720p!!!!!
ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, since I'm NOT buying the ultra slim notebook and there is no mactouch and no real HD appletv to speak of..........I'm kinda dissapointed.
LOL...
720p should upscale alot better than 480p.... to 1080p.
Just making an assumption from the OTA or DTV in HD, but the difference between 720p vs. 1080i is hard to measure, and 1080p to 1080i is the same thing when your hardware does the proper deinterlacing.
You won't miss much of a PQ on clean 720p source video input even when directly comparing to 1080p input, but you'll miss half the details on your head if you're a spec whore.
HDLite is still HD.
...and 1080p to 1080i is the same thing when your hardware does the proper deinterlacing. ...
Really??? and how do you figure that?
Saying 720p and 1080i are the same would be close to accurate... but 1080p is quite a bit more information than 1080i !
Concerning the rentals, I agree that 720p is fine. I usually only watch trailers in 480p anyway and they are pretty sharp. It may be the case that 50" plasma TV owners will be disappointed but are those 6 people really in the market for online rentals? They can easily get Blu-Ray discs through the mail or order their butler to go to the store and pick one up.
720p should more than satisfy all the people who are still happy with DVD, which I would think is probably a significant majority of the movie watching population.
Really??? and how do you figure that?
Saying 720p and 1080i are the same would be close to accurate... but 1080p is quite a bit more information than 1080i !
1080i60 is 1080p30 when deinterlaced properly. the field resolution remains the same.
XBox 360 games are 720p too but still called HD. ...
16:9 720p60 is not called HD, it is HD. HD comes in two primary flavors:
16:9 720p60
16:9 1080i60
There are two secondary flavors:
16:9 1080p30
16:9 1080p24
The number of pixels/second displayed by 720p content is about 80% of the number of pixels/second displayed by 1080i60. However, the amount of data that you see at 720p may actually be greater because 1080i providers are more likely to cheat on the specifications.
Sports channels tend to use the 720p standard because 720p is superior for fast moving action. This is why ESPN/ABC and Fox chose 720p over 1080i.
All flat-panels display progressive scans, irrespective of the source. If the source is 1080i or 480i, then the monitor buffers the first half-frame, interlaces it internally, and then progressively displays the interlaced full frame.
For more than a year now, many flat panel manufacturers are advertising 1080p displays as "Full HD." This is a marketing term and means nothing as far as standard HD is concerned. The ATSC defines high-definition (16:9 1080i/720p), extended definition (480p), and standard definition (480i). There are no degrees of high-definition.
The biggest improvement in your picture comes from the switch from analog to digital. Even digital 480i content looks great because images are of uniform quality irrespective of signal strength and have no multi-path reflections (ghosts). Going up to 480p takes you to DVD quality, but it is not as much of an improvement over 480i as 480i digital is over analog. 720p high-definition is spectacular. 1080i high-definition is also spectacular. However, it often takes a keen eye to distinguish high-definition from progressive-scan DVD or 480p.
Post Script: Most HDTV sets advertised as "Full HD" have astonishingly beautiful pictures. This is due to a number of factors. However, they can be summarized as superb engineering. Rather than explain all of the engineering that goes into the sets, their manufacturers advertise them simply as "1080P."
I think, as far as downloadable movies are concerned, providing 1080p may require higher compression levels which may make the things worse.
1080p is a big marketing feature and I am afraid there will be a lot of cheating around it. I've seen this many, many times: scanner resolutions, camera megapixels, Pentium IV [clock]speed vs. competition. I guess that a "real" 1080p should be reflected in the entire production process of the movie. What is possible to see at some point is clever sales people basically "converting" to 1080p to sell as higher value or applying more aggressive compression which actually degrades the quality.
As an example, what we have seen in digital cameras:
- More megapixels which add noise and lower quality but better formal specs.
- Very high compression at "normal" setting which puts the actual quality down but increases the average number of images on the card, as printed on the product sheet.
- Overall slowdown and loss of dynamic range because of the higher pixel count.
These are the few examples that come to mind.I am interested in buying Apple TV to watch photos with high quality (I am perfectly fine with 720p for the movies). I am afraid 1080p matters for still images. Does anybody had the chance to compare?
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/09...o-screen-size/
In summary - if you have a 50" screen (mine is 46")
You need to sit within 6 feet of the screen to get the full benefit of 1080p
On my TV, if you sit 12' away 720p looks only marginally better than 480p. 1080p would be a total waste.
There *are* quality issues to worry about. Bad compression is the main issue here. Visible macroblocks on large expanses of flat color really distract me. Complain about them, 720p is nothing to complain about.
C.