How to tell what's in HD and 1080i?

[Italfra1]

Is there a way to tell what's in HD and what is broadcast in 1080i?

I currently have my HR20-700 set in Native off. No matter what program I'm watching my HR20-700 shows the blue light lit up next to 1080i.

I'm trying to figure out the best picture quality possible. Should I be switching to Native On?

Any suggestions? Also what about Stretch vs Letterbox, etc. Thx.

[hilmar2k]

You ought to be able to tell by looking if it's HD or SD or SD upconverted to HD.

As far as Native on/off, that depends on you and your TV. Try both and see which looks better for you. Native on will send the program to your TV in it's original resolution. Native off will send it at the resolution that you specify. If you think your TV will doe a better job of scaling the image then use native on. If you think the HR20 will do a better job, use native off. You need to try both and decide what's best for you and your setup.

By the way, there are tons of threads on this topic, so I suggest trying a serach.

[rynberg]

Native 1080i material IS HD.....but with native off, ALL programming is upscaled to 1080i. It should be easy to tell if a program is actually HD or not....but aside from visuals, usually the program description will have an HD logo if it is.

[Italfra1]

Native 1080i material IS HD.....but with native off, ALL programming is upscaled to 1080i. It should be easy to tell if a program is actually HD or not....but aside from visuals, usually the program description will have an HD logo if it is.

Thanks. I think I'm liking my tv set to Native off. I'll go back and forth and see if I prefer Native On or Native Off.