Is there a huge difference between 720p or 1080p HDTV?

[kn]

footbag said:
Do you plan on buying either Bluray or HD-DVD or subscribing to HD service? If so, you will want 1080p. If you will be watching regular SD TV without the HD service 720 will be fine

This statement is completely wrong. Period. If broadcast TV (be it HD or SD) is your only concern, 1080 is completely irrelevant and unneccessary.

You might want to do some research on some place like AVSforum. This topic was discussed to death on this forum (as in many others) and had a link to a fairly informative thread elsewhere. For movies, in my understanding, 1080i and 1080p are irrelevant as the way the final image is constructed ends up producing the same result. I'm no technical guru so please don't take my word for it but the people on here clearly don't know what they are talking about -- such as the one above. Currently all broadcast TV is 720P/1080i. There isn't a live broadcast that I'm aware of, anywhere, that is 1080P native and the likelihood, due to the sheer data invovled is that 1080P broadcast won't be happening any time soon.

Movies are all 1080P/24FPS. Here's where it gets dicey and my understanding breaks down... On a 1080P display, it is capable of displaying its full resolution 60FPS while an interlaced image would be half that or 30 frames per second. Since the movies are only 24FPS, the final image integration process (de-interlacing?) that happens by the time the image is displayed results in a final image that is no different on the 1080P vs. the 1080i display. Again, this is from my limited technical understand and I highly encourage you to research it on your own.

Where you would lose capability is in any source that can display native 1080P 60FPS. The only think I know of at this point that will do that is the 360, PS3, and computer video cards. You would have to settle for 720P output on these devices instead. I think I read somewhere about 720P vs. 1080i vs. 1080p being an issue with some PS3 titles based on lack of a certain scaling chip in the PS3 hardware but, again, research it.

I have a 360, working on a PS3, a Wii, a PS2 and digital satellite. I'm going to buy a 720P set this fall -- most likely a Vizio VX42L series because of the features and cost. I'm not willing to pay for something I will rarely use, but that's just me. Good luck in your search and please, research this until you know what you are talking about before you buy. There are way too many fanboys pushing their favorite and the 1080P vs. 1080i argument is raging. (In part because the low cost HD-DVD players are "1080i" and the Blu-ray are "1080P")

*Edit* -- I've just re-read this entire post and I can't emphasize enough that almost all the information you are reading is just plain wrong. Just because a TV can display 1080P 60FPS doesn't mean you are seeing 1080P FPS. It all comes down to the source. Many who "see the difference" when comparing the two sets are getting the placebo effect...