A tipster at our sister site Engadget snapped this shot from Gears of War 2's title screen, while waiting for a controller to be reconnected, on the enormendous 72 x 160-foot 'LED wall' at Dallas Cowboys Stadium late last week. It's reported that the stadium was being set up for the Jonas Brothers' June 20 concert, and the one piloting the system was none other than Steve 'SoneAF1015' Fatone, the group's video director.
Even better, footage emerged on YouTube as well (seen after the break), showcasing the screen in action, though playing Halo 3 as opposed to Gears of War 2. Other shots drop presumably Mr. Fatone (pronounce that as you will) playing Call of Duty 2 and, erm, showing everyone his Gamercard, paltry Gamerscore in-tow. But alas, congrats to you, Mr. Fatone, you've likely just played the biggest game of Halo 3 ever.
The difference in 720p and 1080p is only better/worse depending on factors such as screen size and the distance from the television. For all intents and purposes 720p and 1080i are the exact same resolution.
For gaming purposes it's pretty much irrelevant because I don't think there have been any console (non PC) games this generation that have had a native resolution of 1080p. The i/p doesn't matter to games as much as the 1080 that gives less resources to other things like lighting and particle effects. Even when games say they are a true 1080p they are actually upscaled from a lower resolution. I believe Halo 3 actually had a native resolution below 720 (something weird like 636p) as did GTA IV on the PS3. With a higher resolution you need to have higher resolution textures to take advantage of the resolution. 1080p versus 1080i is no extra work for a game developer. It’s just different settings on the display chip.
At the median viewing distance of 9 feet in most homes the following applies ....
"There are two standard HD broadcast resolutions 720 lines and 1080 lines. The following are the minimum screen sizes that will let your eyes resolve all the detail at the Lechner distance, one for each HD broadcast resolution.
For a 720p display it’s a 46” screen size. For 1080i or 1080p display it’s a whopping 69”screen. All screen measurements are diagonal inches.
A smaller display for each given resolution will not allow your eyes to perceive all the detail that appears in HDTV."
There is a good article I used to have saved that i can't seem to find that laid all of this data out beautifully in a visual representation to be used as a guide for setting up your TV for optimal performance. The author reversed engineered the data in a more practical way so that you would know if 1080p would be beneficial at the distance you have in the living room. I'll look for it and post the link if I can find it because it's a great resource.
Alistair, this said it at E3 2009 as well. Remember when they were about to show the reel of games? Right before that they mention how only the PS3 can do it on that large of a screen.
"You're gonna see a ton of live code on this screen that stands 40x80 and only the Playstation 3 can show you the resolution your going to see on a screen that size."
