What should be obvious but....

[EJG1980]

Out of interest, do people think we will stop at 1080p for normal sized TVs? i.e. Up to 42" say. For example, my 17" screen here has a res of 1024p, so in theory, there's nothing stopping a 34" screen from having 2050p, or a 50" screen from having 3100p.

There must surely be a threshold where the human eye can't tell the difference between any resolutions over a certain point? I've already heard people saying that unless you have a HUGE screen (probably 50-60 inches plus) it's quite hard to tell the difference between even 720P and 1080P (for HD DVD / Blueray films at least).

Although I still reckon manufacturers would bring out higher resolution screens even if the human eye couldn't tell the difference, just so they can use a bigger number in their marketing

[Nijo]

I think there are certainly diminishing returns, just as there are in other areas (e.g. frame rate, colour depth). There are benefits to having even higher resolutions, but the improvement is ever so subtle. It would make more sense (to me) for 'next-gen' TVs to come with wireless and ethernet ports, built-in hard drives, cameras for video calls... crap like that.
Where resolution does make sense is when we (finally) move to digital cinema. They need to be projecting at 4k and above to make a good image - and if you've ever been to one of these screens you'll know that they're really amazing compared to normal analogue prints. Improved projector resolution makes a lot of sense.

[JohnMcL7]

Out of interest, do people think we will stop at 1080p for normal sized TVs? i.e. Up to 42" say. For example, my 17" screen here has a res of 1024p, so in theory, there's nothing stopping a 34" screen from having 2050p, or a 50" screen from having 3100p.

Resolutions can be far higher, my 15.4 inch laptop screen has a 1920x1200 which desktop TFT monitors are nowhere close.

Depends on the usage as to how beneficial the extra resolution is, I certainly like having a WUXGA screen on my laptops for gaming.

John

[capcom_suicide]

I'm getting an HDTV asap, but just cannot decide if I should go for a 720p set or wait till I can afford a decent 1080p set. I can't afford an interim set, so if I get a 702p set it'll be what I use for the next 5 years at least.

Well my 720p set (Pio XDE) looked better on the 360 than another 1080p LCD that the salesman hooked up the 360 too.

So I would say that you should try before you buy, and that for Consoles over the next 3-4 years 720p will offer the great crispness at an "OK" framerate. I generally prefer 720p over 1080i (The exception being GOW) anyway.

So as a punter, I am not concerned that I went for 720p, because I went for a best of breed 720p set.

What I'm trying to say, is that a decent 720p set is better than a crap 1080p set.

[El Leone]

My understanding is the GOW cutscenes were generated in engine, but were not running in real time for performance issues.

You and Yoshi are both correct. And just to make it clear, there are 3 FMV cutscenes during Gears:

->Open Spoiler<-

End of Act 1 when the helicopter crashes. End of Act 3/beginning of Act 4 with the helicopter ride and the end of act 5

.

The cutscenes themselves are done in-engine, but were pre-recorded just because so much is happening on screen and the X360 probably wouldn't be able to handle it. Obivously they've taken advantage of this, so they've given it a smooth frame rate, extra AA, Level on detail on Max and some filter effects.