Do Upconverting DVD Players Work?

I have an HDTV and was wondering if the cheaper upconverting DVD
players like Samsung's actually provide a better picture than a
standard player. Anyone have any experience with them? The Samsung is
only about $80.

On 2006-08-23, cgott wrote:
I have an HDTV and was wondering if the cheaper upconverting DVD
players like Samsung's actually provide a better picture than a
standard player. Anyone have any experience with them? The Samsung is
only about $80.

Can't tell you specifically, but the topic is treated at length he

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=477740

-Bill
--
Sattre Press Pagan Papers
http://sattre-press.com/ by Kenneth Grahame
http://sattre-press.com/pp.html

Not really, the only real bonus with these players is that they normally
have a HDMI interface. What you need to remember is your HDTV is already
upconverting to the screens native resolution, so messing with the signal
before the TV gets it can only in truth make the picture worse..!!!


"cgott" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have an HDTV and was wondering if the cheaper upconverting DVD
players like Samsung's actually provide a better picture than a
standard player. Anyone have any experience with them? The Samsung is
only about $80.

Okuda wrote:
Not really, the only real bonus with these players is that they normally
have a HDMI interface. What you need to remember is your HDTV is already
upconverting to the screens native resolution, so messing with the signal
before the TV gets it can only in truth make the picture worse..!!!

This has not been true in my experience.

The best of all worlds is when the dvd player does all of the video
processing in the digital domain within the player, and then sends the
signal, remaining digital, to the tv for display. This keeps the
number D/A and A/D conversions to a minimum.

I purchased a low-end Samsung upconverting player for my hd set and
found it crushed blacks badly. So I returned it, and just continued to
use my progressive scan (PS) player, which already did a fine job
anyway.

Then I read about the Oppo player and how well it stacked-up against
high-end players at the $3K price level. What was key about the Oppo
wasn't so much related to upconversion as it was in comprehensive video
processing. The Oppo employs a Genesis/Faroudja chipset whose video
processors run circles around those in most HD sets. Many of the
higher-end "upconverting" and non-"upconverting" players are similar.
I tested this using the HQV Benchmark DVD. My set, alone, performed OK
against the video tests, but the Oppo passed them all with flying
colors. By using the digital interface (DVI-HDMI) the digitally
processed signal remains in the digital domain all the way to the
screen (for fixed-pixel displays).

In this case bypassing the tv's internal video processor(s) makes the
picture quality much, much better.

Then I read about the Oppo player and how well it stacked-up against
high-end players at the $3K price level. What was key about the Oppo
wasn't so much related to upconversion as it was in comprehensive video
processing. The Oppo employs a Genesis/Faroudja chipset whose video
processors run circles around those in most HD sets. Many of the
higher-end "upconverting" and non-"upconverting" players are similar.
I tested this using the HQV Benchmark DVD. My set, alone, performed OK
against the video tests, but the Oppo passed them all with flying
colors. By using the digital interface (DVI-HDMI) the digitally
processed signal remains in the digital domain all the way to the
screen (for fixed-pixel displays).

In this case bypassing the tv's internal video processor(s) makes the
picture quality much, much better.


Got to agree here, I also have the Oppo. It does an incredible job of
upconverting. It has the best looking picture of any DVD player I have ever
owned. Check it out he www.oppodigital.com incredible customer support
as well.

"cgott" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have an HDTV and was wondering if the cheaper upconverting DVD
players like Samsung's actually provide a better picture than a
standard player. Anyone have any experience with them? The Samsung is
only about $80.

depends on whether or not the DVD's scaler is better than your TV's.

wrote:
Okuda wrote:
Not really, the only real bonus with these players is that they
normally
have a HDMI interface. What you need to remember is your HDTV is
already
upconverting to the screens native resolution, so messing with the
signal
before the TV gets it can only in truth make the picture
worse..!!!

This has not been true in my experience.

The best of all worlds is when the dvd player does all of the video
processing in the digital domain within the player, and then sends
the
signal, remaining digital, to the tv for display. This keeps the
number D/A and A/D conversions to a minimum.

I don't think anybody converts to analog and back to digital for this
kind of scaling
Using that logic, the DVD in my HTPC which up-converts in the computer
and sends the native data to the TV should be the best since there are
no A-D or D-A in the signal stream (DVI link)

I purchased a low-end Samsung upconverting player for my hd set and
found it crushed blacks badly. So I returned it, and just continued
to
use my progressive scan (PS) player, which already did a fine job
anyway.

Then I read about the Oppo player and how well it stacked-up against
high-end players at the $3K price level. What was key about the
Oppo
wasn't so much related to upconversion as it was in comprehensive
video
processing. The Oppo employs a Genesis/Faroudja chipset whose video
processors run circles around those in most HD sets. Many of the
higher-end "upconverting" and non-"upconverting" players are
similar.
I tested this using the HQV Benchmark DVD. My set, alone, performed
OK
against the video tests, but the Oppo passed them all with flying
colors. By using the digital interface (DVI-HDMI) the digitally
processed signal remains in the digital domain all the way to the
screen (for fixed-pixel displays).

The main annoyance I see from up-converted DVD is the image
'enhancement' in the 480 world. When up-converted, the 'enhancement'
becomes cartoon-like outlines at all the edges.


In this case bypassing the tv's internal video processor(s) makes
the
picture quality much, much better.

Got to get to the store to see how good the Oppo is but I gotta tell
ya, there isn't much to complain about with the PC DVD.

GG

cgott wrote:
I have an HDTV and was wondering if the cheaper upconverting DVD
players like Samsung's actually provide a better picture than a
standard player. Anyone have any experience with them? The Samsung is
only about $80.


They only upconvert on the digital (DVI/HDMI) output, not the analog
output. So if you don't have digital inputs on your TV you can't get
upconversion. This is part of the licensing rules goverening DVD player
manufacturing. There are a couple of Korean players that ignore the rules
and upconvert on component outputs, but the video amps in the players are
crap and they don't work very well.

--
E Frank Ball

(E Frank Ball III) wrote in
:

cgott wrote:
I have an HDTV and was wondering if the cheaper upconverting DVD
players like Samsung's actually provide a better picture than a
standard player. Anyone have any experience with them? The Samsung is
only about $80.


They only upconvert on the digital (DVI/HDMI) output, not the analog
output. So if you don't have digital inputs on your TV you can't get
upconversion. This is part of the licensing rules goverening DVD
player manufacturing. There are a couple of Korean players that
ignore the rules and upconvert on component outputs, but the video
amps in the players are crap and they don't work very well.


The best top rated upconverting DVD player is an oppo. On my JVC hd ila set
it is very close to HD . You do have to use the hdmi connection however.

G-squared wrote:
The main annoyance I see from up-converted DVD is the image
'enhancement' in the 480 world. When up-converted, the 'enhancement'
becomes cartoon-like outlines at all the edges.
I've never noticed this with my set up (Sony 34" HD set and Oppo
OPDV971H). But I completely understand the concern.