Paraesthesia

Perhaps I'm not the average person, but I can tell the difference between a 50" 1080 and a 50" 720 display from the typical viewing distances that they talk about. A 720 display will look fuzzier than a 1080 display in general at normal viewing distances although the larger the display the more pronounced the disparity.

All things being equal, however, a 1080 display will do a better job of rendering 1080 content than a 720 display will. The image has to be scaled/deinterlaced to fit the screen and the more processing that a display has to do the worse it's going to look.

Is 1080 vs 720 the most important thing to look at when buying a TV these days? Hard to say...it really depends on size of display. Basically, I would tell anyone that is buying a TV now that if they can't afford a 1080 display that they should hold off until they can, as it does make a difference and you should buy the best display you can get in your size range.

1080i vs 1080p is a total non-starter in my mind. I can tell when a de-interlacing error occurs, but most people probably wouldn't notice unless it was pointed out. And of course, most displays are progressive these days regardless of source that is fed to them (an LCD panel, DLP or plasma display is always outputting in progressive regardless of input).

What's annoying to me is the quality of HD broadcasts through cable (didn't notice as many issues with satellite, then again I didn't get local HD channels when I had DirectTV). They are compressing quite a bit and it's common to get macro-blocking errors, particularly when a lot of movement occurs on screen. Totally negates the HD experience.

Hopefully, Verizon's FiOS TV service is better.

Basically, though, right now is not the best time to buy a new TV unless you absolutely have to have one now. If you can wait 6 months to a year, more 1080 displays with better engines at lower prices will be coming out.

Also make sure you talk to someone knowledgeable on the subject when you do. It's a confusing market out there and there's a lot of false and/or misleading advertising going on. Companies are even selling TVs as HD when they plainly can't display the format.