PS3 and HDMI equipped 1080i displays (1 Viewer)

So I'm at Worst Buy this morning buying some gift cards for a company function, and they start unpacking a full load of PS3's. I hadn't planned on buying one, and was going to wait until the "end" of the format war for an HD player, but oh well. $600 later I'm the owner of a 60gb PS3. Its sitting here on the floor still sealed and I'm debating whether or not to use it or ebay it and make a couple hundred bucks. My question is - I'm running a rear projection 1080i (Toshiba 65H84) - just over two years old and HDMI equipped. I've read that with anything other than a 1080p display, the signal will be down scaled to 480p - is this true when the display is 1080i, but HDMI capable? I'm trying to figure out exactly what I'm in for.

I don't know the answer but...why they just release their PS3s today? Or are stores getting more now?

The definitive answers are around here I'm sure, in case you want to wait before opening 'er up.

But AFAIK, the only downscaling is 720p games to 480p, and that's ONLY IF your TV can't handle 720p input.

There shouldn't be ANY problem displaying 1080p material as 1080i. Be it games or movies. You'd just set the output of the player to 1080i.

Seems this one quirk of the PS3 (that may eventually be resolved) is getting everyone in a panic, when it's only going to have a negative effect on some, and even then, not in all instances.

Stores are now getting second shipments. Sony is aiming for about a shipment per week.
They are airlifting PS3s from Asia rather than shipping by sea to speed the process.

As Grant said, 720p display is the issue, not 1080i, and a fix is in the works.

Clarification: Games encoded at 720p that are sent to a display that can't accept 720p will downconvert to 480p rather than upconverting to 1080i. Again, a fix is expected.