PS3 discriminates HDTVs without 720p

news via playstatic

True enough, not many people will really care about this but it sure is a weird thing to happen. Nowadays the most common HDTV resolution employed is 720p, or 1280×720 pixels progressively rendered, but there used to be a time where the standards weren’t so set in stone. PS3 owners with an HDTV from that era might end up with some strange resolutions.

As it turns out, when the Playstation 3 detects that an output source does not support 720p, it will scale back to 480p output instead, even if the television does support the far more desirable 1080i, or 1920×1080 interlaced, output format to which it could easily upscale. IGN performed some tests and found that this indeed happens:

We tested this development on older HDTV sets with games designed for 720p but not 1080i — Resistance: Fall of Man, NHL 2K7, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, and Need for Speed Carbon. Sure enough, the system downshifted all four titles to 480p rather than moving up to 1080i. This issue came up with either a digital HD video connection (using an HDMI cord) and an analog HD video connection (using component cables.)

http://files.playstatic.com/general/hdready.jpg
Or not…?

In comparison, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will correctly upscale 720p to 1080i if the connected output source is not compatible with 720p data. As IGN contacts Sony spokespersons, silence ensued, and as of now it’s not known whether this is a hardware or software problem, and what can be done to remedy this behaviour.