720p vs. 1080p: What’s the big deal these days?

You’ve heard the terms mentioned on here a hundred times: 720p, 1080p, etc. Is there really a big difference thes days? If you’re shopping for a TV, should you care about whether your TV has either one?

CNET has a new article that carefully explains the differences between the two. Mainly, the difference is sharpness/detail, and it also depends on what kind of media you’re going to play on the TV. If you’re going to go high-end HD or Blu-Ray, 1080p will look a lot better. If you just watch a few basic satellite HD channels and DVDs and SD programming, 720p is plenty for you. The number indicates the number of pixels able to be displayed on the screen at once.

Here’s the full read for those in the dark about what these numbers mean these days.