are upconverting dvd players worth the money?

[nageov3t]

I bought a cheap-o $19 dvd player from walmart this weekend just to get me by (I'm in a new apartment with no cable or internet access till next tuesday), but, well... you get what you pay for. I'm pretty sure the thing is a piece of crap. dvd's look pretty awful on my brand new lcd hdtv and I noticed a huge issue with the audio/video sync, so I'm probably going to see if I can take it back and buy a different player.

but are those upconverting players worth the extra money?

 

[dwell]

Only if you buy a decent one. Oppo players do a great job, but other than that you're better off letting your TV upscale your DVDs than purchase one of those $75 jobs you see at Best Buy.

 

[Dman877]

I've used a couple up-converting dvd players and I think it helps. The real benefit is the digital link between tv and dvd player. If you send composite video to the tv to upscale, the quality will be worse than if the dvd player upscales it and sends it over a dvi-hdmi cable. The quality difference isn't huge though.

 

[krotchy]

The Phillips player at Costco upconverts to 1080p and gets pretty good reviews from most people. However I am waiting for the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players to come down in price. They all for the most part do excellent upscaling and also allow the new HD formats. I have my eye on the Toshiba HD-A30 when it comes out and has a good sale.

 

[cheesehead]

Anything with RGB out - or, better still, DVI - should be good.

 

[Shawn]

I have a Toshiba HD-A2 which also works as an upconverter, and yes it makes a huge difference!

 

[TheisReich]

Has anyone tried hooking a dvd upconverter up to a lcd computer monitor? i wanna try the pioneer dv400vk on my acer 22inch (1680x1050) but am not sure what scaling issues i will have.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

PS3's do a GREAT job at upconverting.
i also have a cheapo phillips upconverting and its not so bad either.