I was thinking that TV stations now broadcast in 1080HD but a friend of mine contends that it is up res 720P - I used to ha Am i watching up rez 720 when I'm enjoying this crystal clear image? i had an older 720 tv and the Philips 1080p I have now is worlds better.

So what is broadcast from the larger TV stations? 720 or 1008?

TIA

Some use one, others the other. Same with specialty channels. Both are used, and used widely -- there is no simple single answer. My cable box identifies what the source is, and if I bother I can check to see which I'm watching -- but as my television converts it all to 1080 for display, I don't bother.

And of course most material broadcast is acquired -- so some 720 broadcasters may be converting 1080 material ... and some 1080 broadcasters will be converting 720 material.

Cheers,
GB

There was some contention that since all HD was braodcast in 720 that the best picture would be in 720 "native" res rather than 1080p "up rez". I was thinking that most of the newer CBS ABC NBC primetime shows were delivered in 1080p and would look better on a 1080p capable TV than on a 720 TV.

There was some contention by my friend that since all HD was braodcast in 720 that the best picture would be in 720 "native" res rather than 1080p "up rez". I was thinking that most of the newer CBS ABC NBC primetime shows were delivered in 1080p and would look better on a 1080p capable TV than on a 720 TV.

The Fox and Disney (ABC, ESPN) families use 720p, either 30 or (mostly for sports) 60. CBS and NBC (and presumably their local affiliates) use 1080i. To my knowledge there is no 1080p60 in Broadcast or Cable -- it's not part of the spec. And even if they acquire in 24p or 30p, it goes out in 1080i, AFAIK. But things are changing all the time and my info may be outdated.

There is no 1080p coming over terrestrial broadcast in the USA. It is 1080i
unless the station is owned by Disney (ABC,ESPN) or FOX and then
it is 720p.

The best picture is seen, regardless of the mode, at the TV
station before it gets crushed by the MPEG2 encoder trying to fit four
sub channels into a 19.3 mbit stream. For TV's of the same quality, the visual
difference between 720i and 1080i is not going to be particularly distinguishable
due to all the compression applied by ATSC or DBS satellite broadcast.

My local PBS station said that my 1080/29.97 DNxHD was the perfect format for them, and it looks good on air.Sent to their ftp.
Each station has their own "ideal" spec but most can use about anything