Can you see the difference between 720p and 1080p?

Can you see the difference, do you care?

  • 1080p is better and I wants it!

    Votes: 11 40.7%

  • It's sharper, but it's not important.

    Votes: 10 37.0%

  • They both look the same to my lame eyes

    Votes: 2 7.4%

  • No one should care about such a small difference.

    Votes: 2 7.4%

  • Don't turn off the monitor/TV, you're likely to be eaten by a grue.

    Votes: 2 7.4%
  • Total voters
    27
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
A week or more ago I heard a podcast discussing how some games on the Xbone and PS4 are not rending at 1080p, and that some are even rendering at 720p or lower. One of the hosts said it doesn't matter if the PS4 is managing 1080p on a game while the XB1 is only rendering at 720p because the difference is too small to be seen once it's upscaled. This pissed me off so much.

I can see the difference, and I want 1080p. Once I can afford a new gaming rig, there are games I'm going to go back and replay, just to see them at higher resolution than my machine can handle right now. I don't know how people can deny there is a difference. I once took screencaps from L4D2, captured at 1080, and downscaled them to 720 and 480 to show the difference. A spitter that was a dozen glowing pixels at 1080, was only half that at 720, and wasn't visible at all at 480. Even more telling was a witch in the fog, what was clearly visible at 1080 wasn't visible at all at 720.

Personally, I'm at facepalm levels hearing that the next generation hardware is still going to lack the ability to render games easily at 1080p.

What about anyone else? Can you see the difference in the games you play? Does it matter for you?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I've never had the luxury of experiencing either, since my TV is still 480i.

I will say that I can readily tell the difference between 30, 60, 72, and 85Hz, though. Heck, I get annoyed by the flashing of plasma TVs. Unless I hold my head relatively still, the strobe trails hurt my brain.

--Patrick
 
strawman

strawman

I can tell the difference, and it does matter to me.

Most people I've asked, though, don't really notice.

Plebes.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

I run games on my PC that is hooked to my PC at 720p because the difference is so close to negligible that it's not worth the reduced performance.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Math says that the lines on a 1080p TV that is 6 feet away from you will appear as sharp as the lines of a 720p television which is about 10 feet away.

--Patrick
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
PatrThom said:
Math says that the lines on a 1080p TV that is 6 feet away from you will appear as sharp as the lines of a 720p television which is about 10 feet away.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
That may explain it. The 50 inch is generally 15-20 feet away, whereas the PC is maybe 2-4 feet depending on if I'm reclining or leaning forward.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

It depends on the size of the display, and as has already been pointed out, the distance, but yes, I can tell the two apart.

What really annoys me is framerate. 30fps console games? Please, I don't get out of bed for anything under 60, and I prefer 120 (and yes, I can tell when it drops).
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

I can't really tell. Then again, I'm the kind of guy who's happy with the graphics as long as I can tell what's going on in the game.
 
Shakey

Shakey

I doubt that most would be able to tell the difference in a "blind" test at a distance and speed you normally play games at. Most just want it to say they have it and say they can see the difference to feel better than everyone else.
 
Shakey

Shakey

And here's an article on the new Xbox and PS4 debate. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/...p-about-the-next-gen-console-resolution-wars/

The last paragraph sums it up well.
None of this is to ignore the actual differences in resolution between the PS4 and Xbox One versions of at least a couple high-profile, multiplatform launch games. If you're the kind of person who isn't happy unless his gaming rig generates the highest raw benchmark numbers, the PS4 seems to be your console of choice for the time being (though, really, a high-end PC still wins out on this score). If you're the kind of person who values actual gameplay, though, choose your next console based on the games. You can feel secure in the knowledge that, graphically, there doesn't seem to be much practical, noticeable difference in performance.
Click to expand...
 
David

David

I've never been able to tell a particular difference. But then my monitor is just shy of true 1080p; it maxes at 1680x1050. So videos labeled as 1080p probably are delivered down scaled to me anyway.
 
Jay

Jay

FPS over resolution always is more notable but yes, I can tell when a video is being played from the inferior 1080.
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Yes, I can tell.
Yes it bothers me.
Yes I spend more to make sure I get it.

Same goes for 60,120,240hz refresh and 30,60,60+fps.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

I can tell and it bothers me a little.

That said, FPS-stability matters more to me. While I prefer 60 fps, I'll take 30 fps that stays 30 over something that bounces back and forth between 25-55.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

It depends on the program. Nature on PBS I can tell the difference, but not much of anything else. I haven't made an effort to see the difference.

I have downloaded shows on iTunes in 720 and 1080 and I didn't notice the difference, but they weren't nature or sports.
 
Frank

Frank

Yes, I have a 1440p monitor for PC gaming and a 60 inch 1080p in my not so large living room, and I care.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

For computer gaming I can really tell the difference. Because a 1080 has nearly twice the real estate/resolution. When I move my pc from my 1080 monitor to my 720 tv the picture quality is nearly night and day.

For TV it makes a difference, but most HD content on Direct TV is in 720.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
drawn_inward said:
I have downloaded shows on iTunes in 720 and 1080 and I didn't notice the difference, but they weren't nature or sports.
Click to expand...
There are two issues at play here that make pre-recorded media a vastly different matter than video game resolution. First is that a live action video is not rendered at any resolution, it may be captured at 1080p (or 4K or not digital at all), but the real world isn't pixels to begin with. As for computer generated images, they aren't rendered in the same manner that video games are, so their native resolution doesn't determine what is visible on-screen to the extent a game does. Second is that pre-recorded video is compressed, and downloaded video much more-so than a broadcast or Blu-ray.

Video games, on the other hand, are rendered in such a way that the resolution has a big impact on how much detail is incorporated into the final image (though various filtering techniques impact this, I sure hope consoles have gotten better about anisotropic filtering). Also, the video output of a game is uncompressed, which brings in a whole other set of issues, but mainly allows more details (both good and bad) to be seen.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
When I first hooked up my cable I was watching football and it just wasn't that clear. So I tinkered with the settings and found out that it was being broadcast at 720, instead of 1080. I adjusted and could immediately tell the difference. But that was watching NFL and I understand sports are one of the places where the difference is easiest to spot.
 
strawman

strawman

Dave said:
When I first hooked up my cable I was watching football and it just wasn't that clear. So I tinkered with the settings and found out that it was being broadcast at 720, instead of 1080. I adjusted and could immediately tell the difference. But that was watching NFL and I understand sports are one of the places where the difference is easiest to spot.
Click to expand...
Often sports are transmitted at 720p because they can run 60 frames per second in the same bandwidth. Most sport watchers prefer the higher framerate.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Sports and HiDef... LSU home night games are the best looking sporting events on TV. I am not a true fan but whenever I see that on, I have to watch.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

drawn_inward said:
I have downloaded shows on iTunes in 720 and 1080 and I didn't notice the difference, but they weren't nature or sports.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind, iTunes isn't quite telling the full truth when it describes something as 1080p vs 720p.

It will call an HD file 720p by default if it does not pass a check where the resolution of the file is at least 1080 in the vertical aspect. This includes 2.40:1 format movies where the resolution of the actual picture (not counting the infamous black bars) is actually 1920x800. It's still displayed in "1080p" on a 16x9 TV with the black bars making up the difference because 720p and 1080p are 16:9 standards, not 2.40:1.

So 2:40:1 HD movies in iTunes are technically considered "720p" even though they are neither 1280x720 or 1366x768.
 
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