If any of you think 720p is a standard definition, you don't know what a CRT TV is.
- Ultra High Definition(UHD) or 4k is becoming the today standard and it is one HD format, but it doesn't mean the same as HD.
- Full HD or 1080p is another HD standard, being full because the support of progressive scan in 1920x1080 rather than interlaced scan and not because it was "true" HD.
- 1080i carries less data (540 lines) than a 720p signal in the same amount of time (1/60 of a second or 60fps). For 1080i, the 540 lines are interlaced but taking the double amount of time (1/30 of a second or 30fps). That is why 1080i for movies may be good but for gaming is just an awful and inferior option compared to 720p in every way.
- Enhanced Definition is for progressive 480p TV sets, usually a term used to differentiate those from 480i TV at the middle of the 2000s.
The FACT is that HD is any resolution higher than 640x480 or 768x576; being 720p one of them in any resolution combination.
Lots of people here complain about 720p being blurry and that's because they feed this signal to a higher resolution TV/monitor that does an upscale to full screen. And it will be uglier if the display is very large and close to the viewer. It is a hard fact. Any flat screen will lower the quality of the video feed if it has to upscale. All flat sets have a fixed native resolution. This is the same PS3 vs 360 output resolutions debate all over again.
Any native resolution higher than 720p will contain more details and data, therefore superior. But that doesn't mean 720p is obsolete, worst or not HD.
Only God knows why Youtube delisted 720p as Hd, maybe it is because they lowered the stream data details to accommodate more bandwidth, but that is another thing apart from resolution.
Last edited by alexxonne - on 01 April 2020
