AVCHD 1080i & 1080p, should you care?

AVCHD camera by Sony, Canon, Panasonic, JVC etc. is entering the market gradually to satisfy consumers' HD image quality demand. You may note that there exist both 1080i and Full HD 1080 p cameras circulating on the market. What's the difference between them? Which is better?

The similarity:
In the past, 1080i and 1080p are both High Definition display formats for HDTVs, with HD demand by family use camera, now 1080i and 1080p are widely used in family camera, both formats have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

The difference:
In 1080i each frame of video is sent or displayed in alternative fields. The fields in 1080i are composed of 540 rows of pixels or lines of pixels running from the top to the bottom of the screen, with the odd fields displayed first and the even fields displayed second. Together, both fields create a full frame, made up of all 1,080 pixel rows or lines, every 30th of a second.

In 1080p, each frame of video is sent or displayed progressively. This means that both the odd and even fields (all 1,080 pixel rows or pixel lines) that make up the full frame are displayed together. This results in a smoother looking image, with less motion artifacts and jagged edges.


Which is better--------------1080p is theoretically better than 1080i
1080i, the former king of the HDTV hill, actually boasts an identical 1920x1080 resolution but conveys the images in an interlaced format.
While progressive-scan formats such as 480p, 720p, and 1080p convey all of the lines of resolution sequentially in a single pass, which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content.

Take Sony AVCHD camera as example, it offers both 1080i camera and 1080p camera:
1080p: Sony CX700, Sony HDR-CX 100, Sony NEX FS-100, Sony A580, Sony SLT-A55, Sony SLT-A33
1080i: Sony HDR-FX1, Sony HDR-FX7, Sony HXR-MC1, Sony HDR-TG1, Sony HVR-HD, Sony TX7, Sony TX9

If you want to import your Sony Full HD 1080P video to iMovie, iPad, you may need Sony AVCHD Converter downscale 1080P to 720p for iPad, for iPad now does not support HD videos at 1920x1080 or 1440x1080. The maximum resolution supported by iPad is 720p, and iPad does not support the AVCHD format as input.