Sorry if this is the wrong place - but I've been wondering just how does 720p or 1080i/p display on an lcd or a plasma which has a lower resolution?

How does 1080 lines for example fit into 760 odd? Or the other way how does 720p fit into a 1080 panel - would there be black bars on the 300ish empty lines???

Sorry if this is a really dumb question but would appreciate any answers?

Thanks in advance!

No black bars - instead the image is scaled. Imagine zooming in or out of a large digital camera still on a PC - the principle is similar.

As discussed in the other thread, 1080i signals do not technically get downscaled to 720 or 768 lines on an LCD or plasma display. 1080i contains 540 lines per field or half-frame, so what a typical 720p display actually does is upscale the 540 lines to 720. Horizontal resolution is a different matter: 1920 pixels do not fit into 1280, so while 1080i is upscaled vertically it has to be downscaled horizontally.