a basic question on HD

Screens are a variety of sizes. All the plasma and LCD etc screens with a pixel count of 1080 to 1380 or so across and 750 to 1,100 up/down are 'native 720p or 1080i"
Remember 1080p is TWICE the bandwidth of 1080i.
And that 720p is about THE SAME bandwidth as 1080i.
To START using 1080p the tv MUST HAVE enough pixels.. This STARTS at (a minimum!) 1920x1080. You could have lots more pixels and still be in the 1080p ballpark, but not less.
Anyway, all this is still up in the air as very few TVs and players actually transmit the 1080p data. Between HDMI1.3 and it not even being implemented properly yet, and almost NO screen acepting a true 1080p signal from a player...
It is still a total mess out there.
I personally do not want to bother with HD until this mess is eventually cleared up (at LEAST two more years)
I have my 720 native res Plasma, and my Denon 5910 DVD player via HDMI. I get decent picture quality. Eventually the stuff being manufactured will have to connections and the stability to be worth investing in it. But in the two year time frame, we may go another step up anyway, doubling the bandwidth yet again.
Right now buying into 1080p is gonna get you only half of what you expected. (Unless you are using a Playstation 3 as your source??) and you have a screen with a 1080p inputs..HAH HA HA hah ha.....

Elizabeth,

While I share some of your dismay at the complicated HD market, I strongly
disagree with your deduction from these issues.

First off there are too numerous to list sets that DO accept a true 1080p
signal, all Sony's 1080 TV's do, as do their front projectors. Pioneer even has
1080p plasmas that yes accept a true 1080p/24 signal.

As for sources that output 1080p, perhaps you've missed the bandwagon.....
Your DVD-5910 can even put out 1080p (and is pretty good at it as well I
must say having had one for some time now) and many other DVD players
scale to 1080p as well, not to mention Blu-ray and HD DVD. If you think
these are 'lame' formats and waiting for a side to win, you are losing out on
amazing pictures that dwarf anything else you can get to display on any set,
the new Bond flick 'Casino Royale' sold over 100,000 copies in Blu-ray in only
a few weeks..... I know I onlu bought ONE so there are obviously many more
folks out there with these players.

For my money, if you are buying a new display of any kind and you DON'T
buy a 1080p capable set I think you are foolish as you will want this feature
before your TV dies or you want to buy another one, oh and you don't need
HDMI 1.3 to transmit 1080p, you can easily do it with 1.1.

Sorry for the rant, but I am going to go watch something on my 1080p
capable 70" Sony on one of the five sources I currently have that output
1080p.......

I agree with Kennyt above, having just acquired a Sony 46" 1080p LCD that puts out a magnificent picture. Even in 1080i it makes my 3 yr old rear projection HD Hitachi Director Series look like something from the 60's!

Can we record to Blu-Ray or DVD-HD yet? I have a HD camcoder.