Interlaced or Progressive?

Before I talk about Interlaced or progressive, it is important to understand that old time televisions had 480 lines of resolution. The HDTV technology simply increases the number of lines on the television thus bringing in more detail. Thus an HDTV is essentially bringing in clarity and resolution in such a way that the available depth and contrast makes pictures look almost 3D. The notable point is that pictures are not really 3D, but near life like in depth perception thus giving an illusion of 3D. So where does Interlaced and Progressive come in?

The type of scan is arguable considering the amount of lines for each HD format. Progressive scan is a better type of scan because it doubles the amount of times the TV displays the image per one second in comparison to interlaced. When these innovations were being brought in, there was lot of scope for improvement. As HDTV kept evolving, newer and newer formats kept pouring in with names like 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. These numbers are nothing but the number of lines a particular television is able to render using either interlaced or progressive scan. 480p is the DVD format. The Blu Ray (Will cover about it shortly) will be able to deliver 1080p content. Most of the TVs being manufactured are of 720p or 1080i standard. The problem is content development. This is a classic case of developing technology first and then developing the content to fit that technology. Presently, most of TV stations are beaming content in 720p max. That means, even if you have a state of the art 1080i or 1080p TV set, you will be still not using the maximum capability of the TV as the signal being received is much below the display capability of the TV. There is a raging debate about which is the best standard. The difference between 720p and 1080i is so minimal that is isn’t an issue at all. While 1080p is better than 720p and 1080i, very little content is made in this resolution so it really isn’t a factor right now and, it might never be. The only hope is settling down of standards war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Both these media will be able to display the HD content. You might ask why is it not possible to watch HD content on a DVD? Well, just like it is not possible to watch a DVD content on a VCD, similarly, it is just not possible to watch HD content on a DVD, unless you divide one Blu-Ray or HD-DVD worth of content into numerous DVDs.