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On Tue, 13 Nov 07, "Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote:
When I saw the 1080 on a 50 in set and compared it to 720, it was as
drastic of a difference as analog vs 720.

Wayne.B wrote:
Was it 1080 source material?
My understanding, possibly incorrect, is that there is no broadcast or
cable 1080 at this time, and very little on DVD.\

I thought it was the extra lines that made it High Definition. As for
broadcasting, my local PBS station transmits one analog broadcast and
three digital. The first digital broadcast is always the same
programing as the analog.signal The other two digital broadcasts are
completely different programs, and all three digital broadcasts are at
720 lines..

Standard Def analog and digital (in the US) is always 480(i or p)
HD is either 720p or 1080i

But when the station broadcasts a High Def program, the
first two digital transmissions will be the same (also same as the
analog). My understanding is that they can broadcast 1080 lines that
way. My TV is Standard Def so it just picks up two channels of
identical programing at 720 lines each. My understanding is that a
High Def TV would combine those two channels into one and use 1080
lines of the 1440 lines being broadcast.
That may not be technically correct but I think it's close.

There is no combining of channels and your standard def TV can only display
480 lines