Can a 1080p signal be sent to a 720p native tv???

I have a Panasonic TH-50PX77U plasma 720p native. In the review from c-net, they said that they did all the testing for my particular set using a 1080p signal so they could gauge it with the highest standards. Yesterday, I bought a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and it won't let me output a 1080p signal, granted, I havn't hooked it up with hdmi yet so that may be the answer. I need to know if I just need to go buy a hdmi cable, or if I need to go buy another Blu-ray player that can output a 1080p signal to a 720p set(if there is such a thing).

Keep in mind that I probably would just buy the HD player that c-net used in testing except HD-DVD seems to have bitten the dust, and I am ready to buy...Thanks for the help.

The PS3 and all Blu-ray players can playi 1080p Blur-ay movies at 720p output. You don't have to make your tv convert it down. Same with HD-DVD.

If you are using component right now, chances are, your tv doesn't accept 1080p over that. Heck, most 1080p tvs don't either, it's usually limited to HDMI most the time. So it seems if you 720p tv does except it, it might be with HDMI only. Should be in your manual, a list of what resolutions each type of input accepts.

There can be a benefit. Like most 720p tvs are 768p (1366*768). So downscaling 1080p to 768p is going to look better than 720p upscaled.

For games, if a game renders at 1080p, downscaling it to 720p may give you some natural anti-aliasing to smooth edges.

If you guys complain why bother with 1080p input support on a 720p, that it's 720p in the end, then why don't you guys ever complain about the 1080i support, as that's going to be 720p no matter what, sometimes worse thanks to the deinterlacing.

One other remote chance of a 720p tv supporting 1080p. Is if it supports 1080p24, the native 24fps of a HD movie, and the tv convert it to 720p, but still display it at 24hz, or at new 120hz speeds, then you don't get the jitter from the normal conversion of 24fps to 60fp. Slim chance of that though. Even some 1080p tvs that can accept 1080p24 still convert it to 60fps, ruining the whole thing.

Thanks. Anyone else want to weigh in? I'm just seeing if there is any advantage to sending a 1080p image to a native 720p set(well, actually1366x768), or if it's even possible.

Thanks. Anyone else want to weigh in? I'm just seeing if there is any advantage to sending a 1080p image to a native 720p set(well, actually1366x768), or if it's even possible.

skingus