1080p vs 720p

[Skippy]

ello,
My friend and I are debating if there are any difference from playing 1080p content vs 720p content. I'm saying that you won't see any difference due to the resolution but my friend insist on saying that it will be better quality since bigger resolution on the file will downscale better than a 720p. Am I totally wrong in being really persistant that it's not any difference?

 

[kch50428]

I notice the difference between 720p content and 1080p content from my iTunes library on my TV - which is 1080p... if you only have a 720p capable display, a 1080p file isn't going to be any better than what the display is capable rendering.

 

[Skippy]

Oh, I purely meant for the iPad mini.

 

[Retconaddict]

Oh, I purely meant for the iPad mini.

Well then definitely not.

 

[jsntrenkler]

Lol iPad mini needs a retina display in a bad way ;-)

 

[bt777]

I think on the iPad mini it's not so much an issue of resolution but more of an issue of compression ratios. The video quality also depends on the algorithm apple uses to downsize.

Generally, when downsizing the material is not quite as sharp so it may need to be artificially sharpened. The other side effect of downsizing is that it may reduce compression artifacts as less data is needed to produce the images.

Assuming that compression ratios are the same and that the scaling algorithm does a bit of post processing, the 1080p version should look a bit better, but I think it will only be noticeable under heavy scrutiny. The storage space saved by using 720p would be a bonus on the mini, but if you plan to get a retina capable device in the future, you will be disappointed that your videos are not in 1080p.

In other words, it depends on usage and what you value most.

 

[NWNirvana]

Yes you are wrong. 1080p content will look better than 720p content no matter the display resolution.

 

[CPUGEEK]

Yes you are wrong. 1080p content will look better than 720p content no matter the display resolution.

No your wrong. !08- will not make any difference at all vs 720 on a ipad and also other devices such as 32 inch tvs, They cannot display 1080p but it will scale it down to 720 or whatever resolution the ipad have

 

[Liviu Andrei Grigore]

by the way. if a game was developed at a resolution of 720p can it run properly on Iphone? or it needs to be made at the standard Iphone resolution of 960x640 or the Iphone 5 resolution of 1136x640 ?