I have my MCE 2005 HTPC hooked up to my 60" Sony 1080p TV on a wall that separates my livingroom from the kitchen.  I'm planning to get a 19" LCD HDTV to mount on the other side of the wall, running a DVI cable and audio cables through and up the wall, and cloning the desktop.  Great setup for gameday.

However, the only 19" or similar sized HDTVs I've found are all 720p.  Since my 60" Sony would be my primary monitor, I'd like to keep the resolution at 1080p, and not have to switch to 720p or 1080i when using the 19" tv.  So, therefore, my question in the subject line:  Will most, if not all, modern 720p televisions with HDMI downgrade a 1080p signal and display play it as 720p?

If not, my only other acceptable option would be a 22" or 24" monitor capable of 1920 x 1200 ($500 or more).  For sound in the kitchen, I would need ceiling mounted speakers ($100 or more)power by my amp or built in monitor speakers.  The 720p tv ($300 to $400) would be more ideal.

It can if it can accept 1080p signals.  That should be fairly easy to find for wahtever models you are looking at.

The short answer is no, the 19" will just say something link input not supported

a 1080p will accept a 720P but not vice versa

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), Adaptec Dual Tuner (fed a steady diet of DirecTV... sadly NOT in HD)

I think trial and error is your best bet.  I have a 720p Samsung DLP and while it says it won't accept a 1080p signal, it does.  This is over HDMI.

My guess is that it most probably won't, but I imagine some 19" TV out there will accept a 1080p signal.

Good luck,

Monty

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XPS420 w/ 2 ATI OCURs
HDHomerun
DMA2100 Extender x 2

This is pretty much how I have my TV's setup.

I have DVI -> HDMI to my main DLP Projection TV.  Then I have Component Video to 3 other varrying size HDTV's throughout the house.  One is a 22" Toshiba 720p LCD and the other a 26" Toshiba 720p LCD.  They both accept the 1080i input with no problems.  YMMV

Save the $500 bucks and pop a second video card into your box and set it to output 720p (unless you have cablecard, in which case I don't believe it will work).

I just noticed you are specificaly asking about 1080p, not 1080i.  I do not currently have a 1080p source to try, so I am not 100% sure how a 720p TV would react to a 1080p source.

curbnoise:

Save the $500 bucks and pop a second video card into your box and set it to output 720p (unless you have cablecard, in which case I don't believe it will work).

I don't think this will work as you can't do clone mode with two different resolutions. If this were the case he could merely use the second out on his current card and clone using 1080p and 720p.

There are some TVs that will downsample a signal though. I can't believe they would be easy to find, but I'm pretty darn certain they do. The best bet would be to try and call the TV manufacturers and let them know what you are doing. You may also find a nice store around your house that is willing to let you hook up a laptop to the tvs in the store and then you could test before you buy (if the store lets you do this, be nice enough to purchase it from there )

http://www.percys.com/showproduct.aspx?productid=3463&zipcode=01605&affiliateid=10050&utm_source=Google-Base&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=Google-Base

Froogle is your friend.....

Tiger direct also has it for the same price....  and its highly rated.....

If a 720p TV would not support at 1080p source, how do BluRay players work in that situation through HDMI?  Do they just negotiate a lower resolution setting?