1080p VS 720p

Now that prices on 1080p projectors have dropped enough to be accessible to almost anyone, the question becomes if it truly is worth it stepping up to full 1080p instead of opting for the cheaper 720p.

While the market is steadily moving towards full HD (1080p), many buyers will see that 720p will fit them just fine. The reason for this is simple, if most consumers use their TV's primarily for standard definition DVD and sports viewing, the 1080p will give you no significant improvement in image quality according to today's broadcasting standards. If you look at all HD sports broadcasts from Fox, ESPN, and ABC, they are native 720p and will look razor sharp when displayed on a 720p projector. In this case, having a 1080p projector will not make HD sports broadcasts look any better since the resolution will be limited to 720 lines of video information per frame.

As for DVDs, standard definition DVD has only 480 lines of video per frame. If you had a 720p projector, the DVD signal is rescaled to 720 lines. The same concept applies to 1080p. Your images will be scaled to 1080 lines of video. The problem with this is that since you are starting with 480 lines of video, the difference between 720p and 1080p will not be extremely noticeable.

This begs the question, is 1080p really necessary? The answer right now is no, but as the market moves towards full HD, if you have the money to spend and are looking for a long term investment, then yes 1080p is right for you, if not, 720p will suit you just fine for the time being.