Which video setting is best for a 1080p LCD?

[Xab]

I just got a Tivo HD, and I was wondering if there's an output setting generally considered best for a 1080p TV. I have an LG 47" 1080p set. I figured Native would be best, but each time I hit the Tivo Home button, I get gray boxes on my screen and it just seems to run choppy. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[moyekj]

1080i fixed, no question. That way all your TV has to do to further process the signal is to deinterlace. Also the majority of HD channels are 1080i meaning that Tivo doesn't have to mess with those.

[SuperRob]

I wish the answer were that simple. The real answer is that it depends on the rest of your equipment.

In my case, I have a 1080p LCD that is known to have a poor deinterlacer. If that is your case, you'd probably be better off with 720p Fixed, especially since that's the resolution that the menus are rendered at as well, so you should get less menu/channel lag all the way around.

I'm getting a new receiver shortly that has a DCDi scaler/deinterlacer built-in. In that case, I'll probably go with Native and let the scaler do it's work, since it's likely better than the one in the TiVo HD.

[Stephen Tu]

1080i fixed, no question. That way all your TV has to do to further process the signal is to deinterlace.

Eh?? Almost certainly native or hybrid is going to be best, if you can put up with glitches when switching res. 720p -> TV -> scale to 1080p is a much easier, cleaner operation than 720p-> scale to 1080p -> interlace -> TV -> deinterlace. Good video mode deinterlacing is a lot harder than straightforward scaling. For 1080i channels of course there would be no difference between native/hybrid/fixed 1080i.

[morac]

For my TV (Sony XBR4), I'd say Native is the best since my TV can upscale/deinterlace as good or better than my S3 can and the resolution switches only take a second or two, but YMMV.

Here's what you can do. Put your TiVo HD in Native mode and then switch to a station that broadcasts in 480i and another that broadcasts in 720p. You may want to switch to 1080i fixed in either of the two cases:

1. The time it takes to switch resolutions bothers you.
2. The image quality in Native mode looks worse than in 1080i fixed mode.

[moyekj]

Eh?? Almost certainly native or hybrid is going to be best, if you can put up with glitches when switching res. 720p -> TV -> scale to 1080p is a much easier, cleaner operation than 720p-> scale to 1080p -> interlace -> TV -> deinterlace. Good video mode deinterlacing is a lot harder than straightforward scaling. For 1080i channels of course there would be no difference between native/hybrid/fixed 1080i. I was answering based on the premise by the OP that native was out of the question due to the resolution switching glitches.

[bicker]

I'm intrigued by hybrid. I'm going to check into it a bit tonight and see if it makes a difference on some of the SD programs we'll be watching.

[Chimpware]

I prefer native on my XBR. Main reason is not picture quality however, as in any HD mode picture quality is about the same. I prefer the widescreen scaling the XBR has that preferentially scales side of picture more than center for 4:3 SD programming. Some people don't like scaling, but for 4:3 I prefer it and I can only set it to automatically scale SD in native mode.

[monkeydust]

1. The time it takes to switch resolutions bothers you.
I switched to 1080i fixed long ago because of this reason. The pauses drove me crazy.