05-19-2008, 12:57 AM
I believe the i stands for interlaced, and the p stands for progressive. So, you can see that is has nothing to do with pixel dimensions, but rather how they are drawn on the screen. Interlaced (i) draws every other horizontal line first and then starts again from the top drawing the in-between lines each cycle. CRT's are all interlaced, I think. A tv that is only 1080i capable cannot draw 1080 lines all at once top to bottom (progressive). It may be a limitation of the video processor and memory.