What res to encode at for a hi res tv

[swordheart]

Well i am about to start re-encoding my dr who vids ( again ), I have found out that the resolution of hi def tv's 1280 x 720 & 1920x1080, so if i do my encodes at 640 ( ie 1280 divided by 2 ) would that make it easier for the tv or the divx dvd player to upscale the xvid picture, and could it have an effect on the displayed picture ?.

[blutach]

Thread transferred to divx.

Regards

[Awatef]

First of all, rare are HDTVs that have standard HDTV resolutions. Most I have seen have something like 1366x768, so don't take 1280x720 or 1920x1080 as references.
Second, the coefficient is not very important for scaling. It does play a role but the end result will always be better if the source is sharper. Say, if your source is 720x, you're better off with it leaved as is than resized to 640x.
For HDTV, the thumb rule would be to encode at the highest possible resolution, which would be 720x576 max for DVD sources.