I have the general ideal of what Progressive and Interlaced mean, but would like a technical definition that I can explain to people. Also, exactly what do you need to get these into your home system. I know you need a progressive DVD player to get that, but what about the TV? Do all HDTVs and Rear Projections do that? How does Interlaced fit into this picture. I see HDTV's advertised as interlaced pictures. Does that have anything to do with progressive scan?

Thanks for any information and clearing this up.

OK, in a nut shell...

normal dvd players out put in interlaced format. What this means is that every other line of an image is displayed for a split second then the other lines are displayed for a split second. This "flickering" of odd/even lines happens so fast, that your eye views the image as a complete picture. The downfall to this is that you loose some picture quality and sharpness.

A progressive scan DVD player outputs the entire image at one time rather than alternating lines. This results in a much sharper picture.

Standard TVs are not capable of displaying a progressive signal. They are built around interlacing technology so if you have a regular tv, don't bother buying a progressive player. New HDTVs are built to support porgressive signals. In my opinion they are a must have for any HDTV.

I hope that clears things up.

-=cysco

OK, does this mean that if a TV is 810i or 1080i, that they are HDTV's that display as Interlaced and are not capable of Progressive scan from a DVD player?

Some HDTV's I see are advertised as 1080i and 480p. Does that mean that it does both and only does 480 on progressive scan?

I thought DVD players are capable of 530 lines, so wouldn't that be hurting your picture if you already have a TV capable of 530 lines?