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Upconverting DVD players

S

sharkeeper

Lifer
DVD's at 480P look rather soft on the big silver screen and look just awful compared to 1920x1080 HDTV.

There are a few players that upconvert the 480P to 720P/1080i. Do these really look better on a true HD setup or is it a gimmick?

Cheers!
 
depends on your display.

If you have a digital display (dlp, etc) and connecting the DVD player via DVI can yield very good results as the picture is kept digital the whole way.

Its a toss up for CRT displays.
 
I'm using a DLP projector with component inputs. HDTV looks fantastic, DVD's don't look so hot as one can imagine on a 132" screen.

Cheers!
 
do you have a DVI input? That would be ideal.

Otherwise I would try a upconverting DVD player and run it at 720p.

The scalers in the samsung players are pretty nice and you might be really happy with the results.

hehe, I'm not gonna comment on how 132" screen is just a little too big IMHO. You may get better results/contrast with 100" as well. But then again I'm not much of a projector guy.
 
No DVI however this is still possible although probably not going to work as well as I originally planned...

132" is ok, I would've gone even bigger (200 was the original plan) but the room I built for the theater wasn't large enough to accommodate such a large screen.

PJ is THE only way to go for true theater experience IMO. Until they have plasma/lcd/oled/etc that are 100 inches or larger and don't cost $100k...

The problem I have now is my own vision. I am near sighted and have 20/45 vision in the distance. I do have glasses that I use for night driving but really don't use them that often. I decided to put them on while watching some HD content and DAMN! I can't believe how clear it is. I was beginning to think that a PJ cannot be as clear as my 1920x1200 desktop display. Boy was I wrong! I'm handicapped! :Q


Cheers!
 
I've got the Zenith DVB318 which upconverts to 1080i through component.

I really don't see that much of a difference over my other DVD player. My other DVD player is the Panasonic XP30 so its no slouch though. Maybe if I saw it compared to other DVD players I might notice a difference.

I've gotten 4 other friends to buy the DVB318 and they tell me they notice a huge difference. I guess YMMV.

BTW, what PJ do you have? I'm using the Infocus 4805 on my Zenith while running the Panasonic on my Panasonic LCD RPTV.
 
Really depends on your display/player.

My cheap Sharp DVD player with Faroudja DCDi looks great.
 
Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Don't waste any more of your money on DVDs... heard of Sony's technology?
Click to expand...

I have 1800 DVD titles.

How many BR movies can you buy now?

I'm currently using an HP VP6121 PJ.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

How are those HP PJs? There aren't many reviews on them out there.
 
Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Don't waste any more of your money on DVDs... heard of Sony's technology?
Click to expand...

I have 1800 DVD titles.

How many BR movies can you buy now?

I'm currently using an HP VP6121 PJ.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Were all 1800 of those dvd's legally purchased? 😉
 
It was my understanding that they didn't want you to play dvds at 1080i. If you ever hook up a computer through component outputs to your hd set (like mine is) you'll notice it won't play on 1080i. However, if you download a snazzy little program called DVDIdle, which kills the macrovision protection, you can play all the 1080i you want, and lemme tell you, it looks DAAAAMMMNN good, but not as good as DiscoveryHD
 
The HP is very good, quiet, and contrast/brightness are unmatched in its price range.

I started buying DVD's over ten years ago and yes they are legal. I have lots of handmedowns too.

Cheers!
 
Originally posted by: Linux23
Originally posted by: her209
Don't waste any more of your money on DVDs... heard of Sony's technology?
Click to expand...

GLV?
Click to expand...

He's probably talking about Blue-Ray. You know, the technology that HD-DVD is going to Betamax right out of existance? 😉
 
Originally posted by: Merlyn3D
It was my understanding that they didn't want you to play dvds at 1080i. If you ever hook up a computer through component outputs to your hd set (like mine is) you'll notice it won't play on 1080i. However, if you download a snazzy little program called DVDIdle, which kills the macrovision protection, you can play all the 1080i you want, and lemme tell you, it looks DAAAAMMMNN good, but not as good as DiscoveryHD
Click to expand...

Which is why the Zenith DVB318 is going to be a collector's item. It is the only DVD player to upconvert up to 1080i using component. The RIAA recently cracked down on Zenith and made them disable the feature making the older ones (from March or earlier) the only ones capable doing it through component.
 
Your best bet is building a HTPC. CHeaper than an expensive upscaler and much better results. Don't send your projector a 1080i, 720p, 480p, etc. signal. Send it a signal of its NATIVE resolution do avoid any image scaling inside the projector itself, which reduces image quality. You can only do this with a HTPC. Then use a full featured and highly customizable player like Zoom Player and the ffdshow filter for superior scaling algorithms (like spline, sinc or lanczos) and you will get the best picture you've ever seen from DVD. Oh and be sure to use either WinDVD 6 or nVidia DVD filters within Zoom Player.

Hell I even notice the difference on my 50" HDTV. Check out the HTPC forum at http://www.avsforum.com
 
I may try the PC after all I have an XPS notebook.

I'll have to try playing a DVD on that and it appears the Audigy2 ZS PCMCIA will support direct SPDIF out to my DD decoder. With 400GB drives available for just over $200, a few of these in a SFF can store quite a bit of uncompressed movies...

I don't know if my stomach can handle Far Cry on the big screen though. 😛

Cheers!
 
Here's another choice, though it's not as cheap as many of them:

Immersive Simmetry DVP

DVI output
3 DVI inputs
Future expansion slot
RGBHV input
YPbPr input
24bit/192kHz Burr-Brown DACS
DD audio delay
Faroudja DCDi deinterlacing
Output Resolutions 720x480, 852x480, 720x576, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1920x540, 1440x720, 1440x960, up to 1400x1050 (others available with field installable firmware)

Looks pretty sweet too. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: sharkeeper
The HP is very good, quiet, and contrast/brightness are unmatched in its price range.

I started buying DVD's over ten years ago and yes they are legal. I have lots of handmedowns too.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Oh, by the way - DVDs haven't been around for 10 years.
 
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