Rumors have been circulating around the Internet concerning how the PS3 deals with unsupported 1080i resolution. The Xbox 360 allows owners to choose between 720p or 1080i (and 1080p, for HD-DVD movies), but when it comes to 1080i-only HDTVs, the PS3 won't display their games at 720p…no, the system scales it down to 480p.
IGN has tested things out with some of the PS3 launch titles, and they have confirmed that 480p is the highest possible resolution you can view the games with any standard-resolution set. Resistance: Fall of Man , Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 , NHL 2K7 , and Need for Speed: Carbon got examined, and they all get scaled down to 480p.
Sony has yet to offer an official reply to this issue, but we're hoping they may resolve things with a patch at some point. Of course, we have no idea if this is a hardware or software problem, which may dictate whether the issue is…well, fixable.