480p is not HD. Many Xbox 360 games are native in sub-HD resolutions - including Halo 3 and the Call of Duty series. It's the console that scales to 720p to handoff to the TV. Some TVs upscale great, others don't. A scaler on the Wii gives the power of quality control to Nintendo. It also gives them the ability to make games that will work without the scaler, but could come optimized for an HD peripheral.
