TV v. DVD Player Upconversion
jwbeck17 -- Tue, 03/27/2007 - 13:04
Just a N00B question for you experts: I have a Sony progressive DVD player connected to a Pioneer PDP-5070 plasma TV via component. The output looks great even at 480p and compares very favorably to the cable 1080i content I see.
I've seen a lot about upconversion DVD players, and I am wondering if they would do a significantly better job than a 480p DVD player. Since the TV is pretty quality, does its Faroudja chip do a comparable job? Thoughts anyone?
I think it will matter quite a bit exactly which upconversion player you are talking about. Some will make very little impact, others may be noticeable. I hate to ask, but how much are you willing to spend? And are you sure HD-DVD or Blu-Ray isn't the place to invest?
I was just toying with the idea of getting an inexpensive one, while I can't justify an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player yet. I just wasn't sure if the "upconversion" technology that these things tout is a significant improvement. The way hi-def dvd player costs are going, I may get ready to get one by next year, with more content.
Yes, it will depend on the player and the dispaly it's used with.
A lot of the better displays have very good scalers built-in.
Unless the input exactly matches the display's native resolution, it is still going to have to scale.
Better to skip that step if you can.
IME I have yet to come across any affordable DVDP with better scaling than my Pioneer 50" PDP so my OPPO 970 feeds a raw 480i signal into the PDP via HDMI.
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