PS3 Scales 1080i To 480p On HDTVs

Dr. Eggman writes "According to an article from IGN, PS3 owners are finding that 1080i-only HDTV sets are scaling down launch games to 480p. The scale-down occurs because the launch games do not support 1080i, however they should be scaling down to an HD resolution of 720 instead of 480p. It is unknown if this is a technical or software issue and if it can be patched soon." ABC news is reporting that a patch which should be available to PS3 owners soon will correct the backward compatibility issues we discussed the other day.

Comments

Re:1080i 720p?

[Diomedes01]

But it only shows 540 (got my #s mixed up).

On a CRT set, this may be the case. AFAIK, all fixed-pixel displays must internally convert a signal progressively before displaying it. Thus, a 1080i signal (1 frame of 540 lines sent 60 times per second) is internally interlaced to generate 30 frames of 1080 lines. Native progressive signals (480p, 720p, 1080p) provide the full number of lines 60 times per second, thus providing more natural-looking motion. This is why (IMHO) sports look better in 720p than in 1080i, despite the additional lines of resolution available in 1080i (which are essentially thrown out on any non-1080P capable TV, since they typically only have ~768 lines of resolution).