I was thinking about this the other day, do they have chips or something like that to upgrade a TV to 1080p instead of buying a new TV? It might be a stupid question, but it was something I was thinking about.

What make/model TV do you have?
The only 1080i TVs are CRT tecnology units. Digital technology TVs are all fixed pixel models whose actual display screens are refreshed in progressive mode. Many 1080p HDTVs do not accept 1080p input but the accept 1080i input and their internal video processor chip converts the 1080i to 1080p for display.
I am not aware of any digital tecnology HDTVs whose manufacturer has offered to upgrade an older model which did not accept 1080p input to the equivalent of a newer model that did. The upgrade would probably be more expensive then just buying the newer model.

I was thinking about this the other day, do they have chips or something like that to upgrade a TV to 1080p instead of buying a new TV?No.

I was thinking about this the other day, do they have chips or something like that to upgrade a TV to 1080p instead of buying a new TV? It might be a stupid question, but it was something I was thinking about.

All flat panel sets, LCD, DLP or Plasma, are progressively scanned. That means every pixel is updated 60 or 120 times a second. All interlaced 480i or 1080i inputs from the tuner or any other input is converted by the set to a progressive signal before being displayed on the screen.

All LCD sets on the market today have either 768p or 1080p panels. Some of the 768p sets can accept 1080p signals from HDMI or component sources. All 1080p sets today can accept 1080p signals on their HDMI inputs. This may be true of all DLP and plasma sets and is certainly true of most of them.

A 1080i flatpanel set is simply a set which cannot accept 1080p signals and today is a 768p set. If the set did not have a 1080p panel there would be no value in its accepting a 1080p signal since it would still have to convert the signal to 768p. All HD sources can can provide 1080i and 720p signals. For this reason even an older set with a 1080p panel which cannot accept 1080p functions just fine using the 1080i signal from a BD player. (I have an excellent 46 in 1080p JVC made in 07 which won't accept a 1080p signal but works great with my Toshiba HD player.) I hope this helps explain the "1080i" set.

All flat panel sets, LCD, DLP or Plasma, are progressively scanned.

Not absolutely true - there are some ALiS models of Plasma that use a form of interlacing. They were some of the earlier models (mainly marketed by Hitachi) with 1024x1024 16:9 resolution. They displayed a 1080i signal 1:1 with some crop, and were developed in association with NHK (who were the Japanese Broadcaster responsible for developing much of the HD technology we now take for granted) who wanted a flat panel display with good picture quality for a 1080i signal. By removing the de-interlacing process, they remove the need for a decent de-interlacer (which a couple of years ago was still quite an expensive component)

Even if the have 1337 soldering skills to remove said chip, find one with the same pinout as the existing one and resolder that on you would probably have to reprogram the software to enable 1080P. Reminds of some company that upgraded the Xbox from the 733MHZ to 1.4GHZ.