This issue has been bothering me for the last couple of days so I hope someone can shed some light on this issue that I'm having. I keep reading on different web sites that tv's will display all signals (1080i, 720, etc...) at their native resolution. While this makes sense, what doesn't make sense to me is that if this is true, then a tv with a native resolution of 720p (1280 x 720) receiving a 1080i signal, will down convert it to 720p? Or does that mean that it will accept the 1080i signal and display it at the tv's native resolution? I'm so confussed on this matter. If anyone can answer this debacle, I would appreciate it...thank you!
The display (TV) has a native display resolution, even CRT's. In the case of DLP, Plasma, LCD, Lycos and such the native resoultion is determined by the display technology itself. In the case of CRT's their native resolution can in theory be any resoltuion at all. In practice it is cost prohibitive so nearly every HD CRT you purchase today will have a 1080i native resolution.
And yes, most 720p (Well they are really not exactly 720p either but that is another subject) will accept 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i inputs then display in it's native resolution. Now you can add 1080p displays that will display in 1080p yet not accept a 1080p input (go figure).