What's this 720p and 1080i stuff?
The number is the amount of horizontal lines (the more there are, the smaller the pixels and the better the picture). The 'p' and 'i' bit is a bit more complicated. The 'p' stands for 'progressive' – that is, the image is drawn line by line to form a complete image, from line one right through to line 720.
The 'i' bit on the other hand means 'interlaced'. Here half the image is drawn (all the odd lines) then, the other half is drawn (all the even lines). In effect your PS3 is only drawing 540 lines at once (easier to do than draw 720), but tricks your eye into seeing 1080.
720p v 1080i v 1080p - which looks best?
The jury's out. In theory 1080i is more detailed but 720p looks more solid. The real king of res is 1080p – all 1080 lines being drawn at once, something that tests PS3 and present TV technology to the limit. In fact there are very few TV's capable of 1080p and those that are often referred to as 'Full HD' – and they cost about £1000.
Above: When you've played PS3 in high-def, it's painful going back to a crummier picture quality
But can you actually see the difference?
Basically it comes down to this: Are you the sort of person that's going to look at a perfectly good 720p or 1080i image and think to yourself 'I wonder what it'd look like in 1080p?'. If yes, then go for 1080p. If not, save yourself £1000 and go 720p.
It's worth pointing out that if you do spring for a full 1080p set that not all games use this maximum res. Resistance: Fall of Man, for example, runs in 720p mode. Ridge 7, though, goes all the way up to 1080p. Running a game smoothly (at 60fps) at 1080p requires more effort than 720p, so any game using 1080p mode is either a triumph of programming, or is slacking in other respects.
The good news is that you don't have to mess about setting resolutions on your PS3 or TV for each game. Tell PS3 what the maximum res of your TV is when you first connect and it'll either switch your TV to 1080p when you play a 1080p game or limit the res down to whatever your TV can handle.
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