playing 1080 movies via usb cable

[i_hate_technology]

hello my friends, i have a very basic "yes or no" question, hopefully...
i download 1080 resolution dvds onto my portable hard drive which connects to my 1080 HD TV via USB type A, so NOT HDMI. My question is am in fact outputting the movies from my tv in 1080, or is it downscaled to 720?
As ive noticed that whether i play 1080 or 720 movies from my portable hard drive on my tv, the quality is exactly the same

Or do i need to use somethng else to plug and play my movies that involves a hdmi cable to get maximum quality

[patio]

What vid card ? ?

HDMI cable or display port should be used at any rate...

Where are these DLoads from ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

Have you checked the video files themselves to see what resolution they are?

"1080 resolution dvd" doesn't make sense. DVDs are not 1080p, that's Blu Ray.