Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do you think will see a difference between 720p and 1080p with the new iPad?

DenisAuermann

DenisAuermann

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
111
0
San Salvador, El Salvador
Hi, this is an honest question

Awhile back when I was purchasing my first HDTV I became aware of the whole 720 vs 1080p thing. At that time i wasn't able to notice any differences in video quality. Now with the new iPad do you think there will be noticeable differences? We will be looking at the device closer than our HDTVs and the iPad native resolution will be 1536p more than doubling 720p.

any thoughts?
 
Yes, you WILL notice the difference...

Yes, you will see a difference.

This is true as long as the video you are watching is 1080P, not 720P.

The new 1080P movies you can purchase through iTunes should give you a chance to see the difference.
 
DenisAuermann said:
Hi, this is an honest question

Awhile back when I was purchasing my first HDTV I became aware of the whole 720 vs 1080p thing. At that time i wasn't able to notice any differences in video quality. Now with the new iPad do you think there will be noticeable differences? We will be looking at the device closer than our HDTVs and the iPad native resolution will be 1536p more than doubling 720p.

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Content is going to be scaled in both cases, but 720p gets scaled more. Scaling will exaggerate any flaws in the video. That said, it's going to be a very subjective call. a well-compressed, high-bitrate (which means bigger file) 720p video can look better in places than a highly-compressed 1080p video. Compression is going to introduce color banding and blurriness, and the more compression, the more this will be apparent.

Individual pixels will be hard to distinguish unless you're REALLY looking. If you're looking to save space, 720p maybe fine if you're ripping your own files and can tweak the bitrate. Reports are that Apple's own 1080p downloads are VERY close to Blu-ray quality for only a little more storage space. http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2012/03/the-ars-itunes-1080p-vs-blu-ray-shootout.ars
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

No. Text & apps is where you'll see the most improvement. But the fact the new iPad can stream to Apple TV in 1080p is huge (no pun intended).
 
My guess is unscaled viewing will yield the same picture quality. However, 720p will be very small on the new iPad screen unscaled. Therefore, 1080p will be much better. Also, the less scaling the better. 1:1 pixel yields the best results. Higher pixel density will make the picture appear much sharper at 1:1 pixels. This is based on my experience with a 46" Sony XBR vs 27" iMac screen.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

No. Text & apps is where you'll see the most improvement. But the fact the new iPad can stream to Apple TV in 1080p is huge (no pun intended).
Click to expand...

:eek: This is the biggest reason IMHO. The big question I have is whether all those nice "Digital Copies" we buy on blu-ray will carry 1080p as an option or will this only be restricted to iTunes movie purchases....:rolleyes:
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

No. Text & apps is where you'll see the most improvement. But the fact the new iPad can stream to Apple TV in 1080p is huge (no pun intended).
Click to expand...

Doesn't it make more sense to download the movie to your computer and stream it to the AppleTV?
 
Here's the standard chart about when 1080p matters for tvs... in truth, most people could buy 720 with no noticeable difference.

Scaling that chart down, it seems like your ipad would need to be about a foot from your face to see the difference, which is really close, but within the realm of possibility. I watch my ipad while I'm cooking, though, so it wouldn't make any difference at all to me.

Where it will make a huge difference, though, is reading, and that's why I'm getting one. I mostly use my ipad for reading e-books and news. Just the other night, the pixels on my ipad 1 started to look really huge to me all of a sudden.:D
 
DenisAuermann said:
Hi, this is an honest question

Awhile back when I was purchasing my first HDTV I became aware of the whole 720 vs 1080p thing. At that time i wasn't able to notice any differences in video quality. Now with the new iPad do you think there will be noticeable differences? We will be looking at the device closer than our HDTVs and the iPad native resolution will be 1536p more than doubling 720p.

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you couldn't see the 720 v 1080 thing, you may struggle to see a difference on the iPad.

A friend has started coming round to watch Blu-Rays. He didn't notice much difference to broadcast 720p on his own set when watching the first couple of films, but last week we started watching Game of Thrones on Blu and he definitely noticed there. The video quality of the content makes a big difference.
 
On a 10" screen if you can SEE a difference between a 720P and a 1080P movie it is due to the "I paid so much it better be better" syndrome.

Most people can barely tell the difference on a 50" TV. Some people THINK they can but put 2 identical sets playing the identical source material in from of them and the bet is the end result will be 50/50 which would just be the normal odds of guessing it right. It's like telling the difference between 2 identical 5 x 7 photos taken by a 5 MP and a 15 MP camera. Virtually impossible TO THE NAKED EYE without blowing it up to a humongous size.
 
DizzyV6P said:
:eek: This is the biggest reason IMHO. The big question I have is whether all those nice "Digital Copies" we buy on blu-ray will carry 1080p as an option or will this only be restricted to iTunes movie purchases....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

All those Blu-Ray 'Digial Copies' movie files are standard definition. Sorry to burst your bubble.

You'll need to rip your own Blu-Rays, buy 1080p off iTunes or acquire a 1080p video from another source. The copy included for iTunes with your BR movies are only 480p.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back