How good are upcoversion DVD players?

I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.

On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:28:06 GMT, Ernie Lane
wrote:

I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.


I have a related question.

I have a 1999 DVD player hooked to a new 1366x768 LCD. When I played
a few old DVDs, the movie was still letterboxed, top and bottom
stripes. But a few newer DVDs fill the screen! (now running on
component connection). The DVD player is set to "wide screen 16x9"
mode, but I don't grok why some but only some widescreen materials
fill the screen?

The best of them look pretty good, but not as good as digital
broadcast.

Do newer DVD players do a better job with old DVDs?

J.

"Ernie Lane" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion player,
what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a widescreen
picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.


not even that - a regular dvd player will play the widescreen without
letterbox picture if you tell it to in settings.
with an upconverting player a chip in the player does the job that a chip in
your tv would do anyway - maybe better, maybe not.
but you're not seeing hd - you could buy an old atari games console and
connect it to your tv - your tv would upscale it.
you wouldnt have a HD console though.



--
Gareth.

That fly... is your magic wand.
http://www.last.fm/user/dsbmusic/

"JXStern" wrote in message
...


I have a related question.

I have a 1999 DVD player hooked to a new 1366x768 LCD. When I played
a few old DVDs, the movie was still letterboxed, top and bottom
stripes. But a few newer DVDs fill the screen! (now running on
component connection). The DVD player is set to "wide screen 16x9"
mode, but I don't grok why some but only some widescreen materials
fill the screen?



different movies are shot in different widescreen ratios - the most popular
are 1.85:1 and 2.35:1

the 1.85 will fill your screen, the 2.35 will not.



--
Gareth.

That fly... is your magic wand.
http://www.last.fm/user/dsbmusic/

"JXStern" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:28:06 GMT, Ernie Lane
wrote:

I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.


I have a related question.

I have a 1999 DVD player hooked to a new 1366x768 LCD. When I played
a few old DVDs, the movie was still letterboxed, top and bottom
stripes. But a few newer DVDs fill the screen! (now running on
component connection). The DVD player is set to "wide screen 16x9"
mode, but I don't grok why some but only some widescreen materials
fill the screen?

The best of them look pretty good, but not as good as digital
broadcast.

Do newer DVD players do a better job with old DVDs?


Many older DVD Titles are two sided with a wide screen anamorphic version on
one side and a 4:3 version on the other. Also some DVD's offer the format as
a menu option on the actual disc so be sure you are playing the right thing.

On Dec 20, 11:28 am, Ernie Lane wrote:
I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.

You get a source that is 480 lines (or 576 in EU) upscaled to 1080
lines.
With HD DVD and Blu-ray you get a 1080 line source.
Not only that but with DVD you're limited to MPEG-2 averaging 4-6 Mbps
and peaking at @ 10 Mbps.
With HD DVD and Blu-ray you get MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1 averaging
between 15~28 Mbps (15~37 Mbps on Blu-ray) and peaking at 29 Mbps on
HD DVD and 40 Mbps on Blu-ray.
There is simply no comparison between upconverted DVD and a good HD
DVD or Blu-ray Disc. It is night and day.

Den 20.12.2007 kl. 17:28 skrev Ernie Lane :

I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.
................

Maybe I can help with that question. I had an upconverting DVD-player and
have now bought a HD-DVD Player Toshiba.
To my big surprise it was an upconverting DVD-player as well! And the
upconverting scaler was even better than the one I had before. Now DVD's
look nearly HD-DVD...but only nearly.;-)
HD-TV can not be compared as I am told to HD-DVD quality.
That quality is really awesome.

Just bought "Galapagos" with 150 minutes of exploration of all the
islands, like looking at it in real life. And "Total Recall" which have
been renewed for HD-DVD viewing. I nearly got tears in my eyes, and I find
myself looking at these wonders again and again.

The downside could be if a TV is too small-but I guess that in the US
everything is quite huge?;-) Mine is 42" and HD really showes. Smaller
sizes like 26"-32", would maybe not have the same awesome effect.


--
Hilsen fra Jens "Lyrik" Bech.

On Dec 20, 10:28 am, Ernie Lane wrote:
I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p).

I wonder what you lose in something like that. That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.

I'm sold on upconversion. If the DVD has a decent bit rate, my PS3
outputs a picture far better than I ever thought DVD could produce.
Spec-freakin'-tacular. So good, that even if Battlestar Galactica
were to ever come out on Blu Ray, I wouldn't buy it, because the DVD's
look soooo good upconverted. True HD is even better though. Planet
Earth on Blu Ray is flat astounding.

-beaumon

On Dec 20, 6:23*pm, wrote:
On Dec 20, 10:28 am, Ernie Lane wrote:

I have an HDTV (1080p), but only an upconversion DVD player (also 1080p)..

I wonder what you lose in something like that. *That is, obviously the
ultimate visual experience comes from playing an HD DVD on an HD (or
Blu-Ray) player. * When you play a standard DVD on an upconversion
player, what do you really get? *Maybe all they do is give you a
widescreen picture without a letterbox. *You can't get what isn't there.

The "Planet Earth" series on the Discovery Channel is the impetus for
this. *It's absolutely awesome in an HD broadcast, and I'm sure the HD
DVD on an HD DVD player is just as awesome. *But I wonder if the
standard DVD on an upconvert DVD player isn't all that much of an
improvement over the series on standard broadcast.

I'm sold on upconversion. *If the DVD has a decent bit rate, my PS3
outputs a picture far better than I ever thought DVD could produce.
Spec-freakin'-tacular. *So good, that even if Battlestar Galactica
were to ever come out on Blu Ray, I wouldn't buy it, because the DVD's
look soooo good upconverted. *True HD is even *better though. *Planet
Earth on Blu Ray is flat astounding.

-beaumon

That's because the PS3's upconverting using the Cell is better than
most upconverting DVD players.
The PS3 scores 120/130 on the Silicon Optix HQV DVD Benchmark test
disc. This score is better than the Oppo 980H upconverting DVD player
and the HD-A2 and HD-A3 HD DVD players from Toshiba.

However, anyone who suggest that upscaled DVD can look "almost as
good" as Blu-ray or HD DVD is flat out lying. There is no upscaling
DVD player that can come remotely close to a good HD DVD or Blu-ray
disc like Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Transformers, Cars,
Ratatouille, Die Hard 4, Planet Earth, Spider-man 2/3, King Kong,
PLanet Earth, The Matrix, The Patriot, etc.

It is not close at all.

480 lines of information vs. 1080 lines of information
8 Mbps vs. 40 Mbps
MPEG-2 vs. MPEG-4

On Dec 20, 10:47 am, ninphan wrote:

There is simply no comparison between upconverted DVD and a good HD
DVD or Blu-ray Disc. It is night and day.

This is true. But it's also true (in my experience) that an
upconverted
DVD HDMI connected to a HDTV set will be night and day better than
that same DVD connected to a non-HD set over analog cables. At
least for decent DVDs (preferably ones that are dual-layer, most old
movies are single-layer because the source is the limiting factor,
not the DVD "anyway").