1080i, 1080p

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by bigbear99

^ Not quite. Ignoring compression, at the same frame rate (important factor), 1080p will have twice the bandwidth.

Oh quite..... The frame above is 480i, it's 720*480. If it's 30FPS there is 30 of them completely different than each other. For example if I were to split the fields and combine them into one frame I'll have a 60FPS progressive video but it will now be 720*240. <this is light bulb moment brought to you by thecoalman>

While on the topic this is old trick for cleaning up interlaced video, you export to sequential image file like .tif and then you can use batch processing in image editing programs which often have very good filters. Then you combine them back into interlaced video.

If it were progressive it's going to be 720*480 and will have 30 non interlaced frames.

Where your bandwidth savings can come in is dropping the frame rate on the interlaced, you can use a much lower framerate with interlaced before it gets choppy.

[PacoMartin]

The cable box should output whatever the network broadcasts in. Most cable started carrying HD in 2003. All the Disney and Fox owned channels tend to output 720p because fast moving sports look better in progressive. NBC owned channels broadcast in 1080i. Full list of networks in wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-d..._United_States

Either 720p or 1080i are called "High Definition" since they both require similar bandwidth. A standard called 1080p is sometimes called "Full High Definition" but you will only get it from some blue ray disks, some games, and streaming services.

Standard definition TV in North America is 480i and 576i in Europe.

UHD-1, or ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV), is the 4K standard for television and computer monitors. UHD-1 is also called 2160p since it has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of 1080p.

[whogoesthere]

PacoMartin is right...its the cable companies that decide what they broadcast in...some use 720p because its believed to be better for sports programming...if there is an auto button I would set the cable box to that...you get your 1080p with bluray and streaming devices

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by whogoesthere

some use 720p because its believed to be better for sports programming...

That's only because they are using too low a bitrate for the 1080, use a OTA antenna on your local channels to see what you are missing. You can see this on regular programming as well, if there is flashing or a lot of action. Another place you'll see it is on dark sky scenes.

You can use different bitrates for compressed video. The resolution, codec, content and bandwidth(or file) limitations are all considerations. For example with 720*480 DVD that uses MPEG2 the sweet spot is 6000kbps. You may want to go up to 8000kbps if you have a lot of action or if it's homemade video which is typically very noisy and has a lot of movement, anything higher typically does not give you any benefit and just creates a larger file.

On the low end 4000kbps is about the limit and you will have noticeable loss in quality especially during action scenes. If you want or need to go lower you are better off lowering the resolution so it has sufficient bitrate which is what the cable company is doing. You lose detail over video with sufficient bitrate but that doesn't matter since it can't be properly rendered anyway.