What resolution would be best for me?

TV Resolution and Xbox 360 (720p vs. 1080p) What's best?

• Alright so I really need a TV savy individuals help on this one. TV enthusiasts would be helpful as well. :) I already know the difference between Interlaced and Progressive pixelation so no need to explain that to me. Interlaced is every other line at 1/30th of a second as progressive is every line at 1/60th, etc. So Interlaced is bad for fast motion tv like sports and video games. So goodbye 1080i. Now I also understand that the vast majority of Xbox 360 games are native 720p. There are a few I know about like Bioshock that actually support native 1080p (correct me if I'm wrong). So when you go to play xbox on a 1080p signal is actually upscales the 720p games to 1080p which isn't actually 1080p to my understanding. Since the xbox fails at upscaling in comparison to an HD-DVD player it can actually cause lag in the game? (Once again if I'm wrong, correct me). I'm also aware of seating distance. THX recommends taking the inches of the TV, multiplying by 1.2 and converting the inches into feet (for easy measuring) to determine how far to sit from your 1080p TV. If they are correct that means you must sit 5 feet or closer to your 50" 1080p TV! That seems kind of insane but because of the high resolution I completely understand how you can and it not damage your retinas. So with the understanding that I'm already slightly knowledgeable about TV's here is my question. I just bought a Panasonic Viera 46" 720p Plasma 600Hz TV from Best Buy. It was on sale for 569.99. I thought it was a good deal and have wanted a nice TV to play video games and watch movies on in my room for a while. So I went with it. Now I found that they also have one on sale that is the same exact type of TV except its only 42" and its 1080p and its $30 more (699.99). The question: Should I keep my 46" 720p? or should I return it and try to get this 42" 1080p? I'm looking for the best for my xbox and movies, etc. Not necessarily blu-ray. I don't know if going smaller with higher resolution would be a good idea or not. Maybe I should even wait and save for a bigger 1080? What do you guys think? Side note, I'm sitting approximately 7 or 8 feet from my tv right now.

• Answer:

  Well at 42 inches it is very difficult to tell a difference between 1080p and 720p and at 46 inches you might get some benefit from 1080p, in your case I would try and get a 1080p only if it's 46 inches or bigger. Also yes set your 360 at 720p and since your TV is a plasma you should experience no lag due to the 600hz sub field refresh rates and blazing response times. If you wanted to exchange your plasma I recommend Panasonics G20 or G25 plasma's they are more but the picture is mind blowing and colors pop out. Also when you buy a plasma TV you need to break it in meaning no video games and have all the settings below 50 or 40 for the first 200 hours so you can properly even out the phosphors and improve the life of your plasma. I would leave it on 8 hours a day with a very zoomed picture to break in for 3 weeks every day.