maybe 75% of the people I know (which is anecdotal, i know, so its not good statistics) probably would give me a blank stare if I explained to them the difference between 480, 720, and 1080 i or p.

 I agree with one of the above posters up there when he said that most people buy HDTV's because they're flat and their big. And anything that flat or big will be HDTV anyways.

 As for the setup, I would argue that the "average" or at least "casual" gamer will probably set up their systems using composite cables, if not component cables. This of course, means that they will not be able to see the full 1080p-ness of a game, as it were. I'm sure that at least one person in the world has tried to hook up their PS3 using an RF adapter. 

 My point is perhaps the HD penetration rate might not be as good as an indicator as you think when it comes to PS3 or XBox sales.

 That being said, I'm pretty certain that people will buy PS3 because of its better graphics, even though some people will have it set up all wrong anyways. I hope it makes sense :-p

 you act like hdtv sales man dont push hdmi cables on customers......

I think the percentage using it to play video games is small.  I would be interested to see the numbers though, i bet most ps3 owners have HDTV, but 360 is probably less than 50%. 

Honestly i think that many HDTV owners don't even use the HD on it.  Not only that but even if a household has a HDTV, and the same household has a PS3 or 360 it doesn't mean that they usually use the PS3 on that TV.  Many people want to game on the smaller TVs in their own rooms rather than the big TV in the main room (common scenario).

People are forgetting that not all Big and Flat Tv's are HDTV, they are DIGITAL tv's but not HD, some of them are most certainly SD that is for sure!

 i'm not "acting" at all. What's your point?

In germany there is already no longer analog tv-broadcast. But what is delivered through the digital broadcast? Mostly SDTV. Very few programs are sent in HD. So digital broadcast is no point for HD. In my local stores I see gigantic areas filled with DVDs, and only few HD-DVDs and Blurays. And MediaMarkt shows off CRT-TVs with SD-resolution. It shows also some HDTVs, but also many SDTVs.

I have a question. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the people here who support Wii are downplaying HD as much as they can, saying that its not that big of a deal. whereas, PS3/Xbox fans are on the other end of the spectrum, insisting that HD is everything. The truth is that its probably somewhere in the middle.

Back to my question. 

If the Nintendo Wii supported HD? Would Wii fans still downplay HD? And would PS3/Xbox people push HD like its the greatest thing since sliced bread?

Hard deep penetration...... kwaad must be a porn fan 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the people here who support Wii are downplaying HD as much as they can, saying that its not that big of a deal

And I'll say that's total BS.

Just look at Japan : it should tell you right away that HDTV sets are not what drives console purchases.

Now, I have a Wii, I support the Wii, but I sure enough don't downplay HD. Saying there's not enough HD contents broadcasted in my country, HD sets are still incomplete option wise, HD sets are full of flaws depending on the technology used, HD sets are still expensive compared to SD sets, that I won't buy a HD set as long as my SD set works, and that I won't buy a HD set smaller than my current SD set (52"), is not downplaying HD : that's just mere common sense.

So where you see Wii owners downplaying HD, I see people with lots of common sense that don't buy a game console just because it outputs HD and HD sets is the future.

well it didn't take long for me going out on a limb and get shot down. I'm going by what I see on the forums