Hmm... maybe my mates panel isn't that good after all when it comes to dropping signals then and down converting, because his 1080p TV looks terrible at SD res at 37 inch's, and looks bad when down converting at 1080p to 720p games, for example on the PS3, the Advanced War Fighter 2 demo, which is definetly running in 720p, with stairs everywhere.
His is a Sharp model.
1 thing I don't want is a dynamic contrast. I'd rather have a full contrast, or not at all, as I switched this off on my LCD monitor too, especially for gaming.
The war to close off this agreement starts...
EDIT:
I went to the store and took my Xbox 360 with me running off VGA. It looked really bad.
They then got a Component cable and this worked flawlessly at 720p (on another console. Look below), and 1080i down converted, which actually looked better...
Anyhow, while testing cables, my Xbox 360 flashed 3 red lights and wouldn't turn on at all. We tried switching cables back and still the same thing.
They then got one of theirs out and it worked, so something was supposedly up with mine.
Anyhow, to help with the issue of the VGA not working right, they threw in a free component cable costing 15 quid
I'm happy with the TV now after testing it with a couple of games anyhow and know that I couldn't of got a better TV without spending around 500 quid more.
Went into Game after this, and they tested my console, and it works... but I got a free connection out of it anyway, and the satisfaction my TV is good after all.
EDIT 2:
When I want a 1080p TV, maybe once I've cleared this and its maybe in the next room, there is a 42 inch version thats 1080p thats probably too big for the room, but its the next one up, costing around £500 more, and maybe when this drops, yeah:
http://www.johnlewis.com/Technology/Televisions/Televisions/Plasma+TV/1377/230443383/Product.aspx