From Wikipedia

 Quote:
The first generation of U.S./Japanese HD DVD players could only output the 1080p content via 1080i signal and required 3:2 pulldown deinterlacing in a display to reconstruct the original 1080p signal (see above for an explanation of why this does not lead to any difference between 1080i and 1080p in many cases). However, the second generation U.S./Japanese HD DVD players and the first generation of European HD DVD players (both launched in Q4-2006) support direct output of 1080p signal.



So it looks like these statements would be currently inaccurate.