Ask HDBeat: How can I tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p {Engadget HD}

Jul 24th 2006 8:23PM This conversation kills me. "Kevin" above hit the nail on the head- most HDTVs sold today are natively 720p and will scale a 1080i picture down to 720p. The main reason you want a 1080p set is because the native resolution of that set is 1080p- it will upscale 720p, not downscale 1080i or 1080p.

If you have a 1080p set, not a 720p set the accepts 1080i input, you CAN tell the difference.