Current Events > What is HD? Is 720p ultimately the same as 1080p?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I bought a 720p television yesterday, a 24 inch to play Switch games on my desk.

Anyway, I'd seen 720p videos before on my FHD laptop and they look noticeably worse, but then I've seen 720p videos that look great. And the Switch games on this television look amazing even though it's only 720p. Mario is 1080p but it looks great here.

Is it just the screen size that makes all the difference? Is watching a perfect quality 720p video on a 24inch screen the same as watching a perfect quality 1080p video on a bigger screen?

What's the ideal screen size for the popular resolutions like 720p, 1080p etc?

switch has 360p output anyway so it doesn't matter
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1080p is actually better, but you are right in your assumption that screen size matters, but it's in relation to your position while watching. There are charts online showing the differences in resolution relative to your viewing position.

I didn't even think they made 720p tvs anymore though. At least at popular retail store that is.
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What's the ideal screen size for each of the popular resolutions?

You know how images are made up of small dots, the idea being that if they're small enough you don't notice and just see the one overall image?

A 720p screen (regardless of size) has 1280 horizontally, and 720 vertically. A 1080p screen has 1920 horizontally and 1080 vertically. (For the record, 4K (aka 2160p) is 3840 x 2160.)

Because there's more dots in the same area (assuming the same size), the picture can be much smoother.

It isn't the ONLY factor though. All it dictates is how clear the display is capable of being. If a video / etc is shit quality, putting it on a 1080p screen won't fix that. Likewise, if a video is good quality, it's still going to look pretty decent on a 720p screen.

What's optimal doesn't solely depend just on size / resolution, but also on distance from the screen. You'll notice the difference between 1080p and 720p on a 15 inch screen at ~20cm away, but probably not at a meter or two away.
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ModLogic posted...

switch has 360p output anyway so it doesn't matter

wut
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