preview monitor 720p vs 1080p

[Jim Stamos]

im looking to get a preview monitor out of my spark card with edius for editing. found a nice 32inch samsung but its 720p . will this be fine for viewing purposes while editing. is there an obvious visual difference between this and 1080 if im looking at the identical footage. ive read other responses on other forums that insisted the difference is night and day, noticeable different. input welcome.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Are you editing 1080? If you are, you'll see the difference.

Go into a store and look at the displays - you will be able to see the diff beteen 720 and 1080 since you know what to look for. I've read "advice" that tells consumers to just go buy "any" HD, and they won't see the diff between 720 and 1080 - makes me cringe, as to me it's obvious...

FWIW, for some odd reason there don't seem to be too many 1080 full HD panels at that 32" TV size... you're stuck at 24-27", OR going on up to a 40"... not sure why that is, but discovered it when helping someone shop for a TV!

[Noa Put]

ive read other responses on other forums that insisted the difference is night and day

I depends, I have a 32 inch "hd ready" screen and a 32 inch full hd tv screen, side by side I practically can't see the difference if I view my 1080p dslr footage in it's native format through a media streamer. Only if you come up real close you see a difference in sharpness but from a normal viewing distance you don't.

You do notice more however if you use those screens as a computer monitor where the full hd version will give you a sharper image, this is especially noticeable on small text in your windows explorer f.i. and also because your monitor is much closer to you it shows faster.

Only when the screen size gets (much) larger the 720P/1080p difference get's more obvious and then it's reccomended to buy full hd screens if you use them for viewing your footage on from a distance. (Like your clients would do when they look at your film)

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

FWIW, for some odd reason there don't seem to be too many 1080 full HD panels at that 32" TV size...

In Belgium that was last year the case but this year almost every 32 inch tv is full hd and they are ridiculous cheap :)

[Alister Chapman]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I practically can't see the difference if I view my 1080p dslr footage in it's native format through a media streamer.

Probably because the DSLR footage isn't full HD resolution to start with. If you want to test the resolution of a full HD monitor you need material that is has full HD resolution, not just 1920x1080 pixels.

BUT, don't just focus on resolution, you want a TV/Monitor where you can accurately calibrate it. You want accurate image reproduction above all else. You need to be able to turn off any dynamic enhancements, control the brightness, contrast and saturation levels otherwise who knows what the images you are creating will look like on another TV/Monitor. resolution is only one of the many things that contribute to a good image.

[Noa Put]

Ok but in that case this should apply to many camera's that record 1080p or 1080I but don't have "real" full HD resolution meaning that for those type of camera's a 32 inch 720P screen would do just as well as a 1080p screen for viewing purposes if calibrated right, not?

[Alister Chapman]

Yes if the source resolution is no higher than the panels resolution then you won't see a difference, but you may find your missing things if you start introducing other things like captions or graphics that are full resolution in to your project. You may also not be seeing artefacts that would be visible on a full res panel.