I have looked around and everyone raves about the ps3s ability to upconvert dvds so well. I have the latest firmware update, with an hdmi cable, yet SD dvds look like absolute crap for some reason. Is there any settings in the menu i have over looked? I am getting crazy amounts of picture noise and some just look like old school pan and scan... any help is appreciated...

Do you have the upconversion enabled? (not trying to be insulting) Think it is under DVD/BD Playback under settings in XMB. I just watched a couple DVDs and thought they looked great.

I think I have mine set upscale to Full.

Do you have the upconversion enabled? (not trying to be insulting) Think it is under DVD/BD Playback under settings in XMB. I just watched a couple DVDs and thought they looked great.

I think I have mine set upscale to Full.

I do have upconversion enabled.. that was my first thought too. Maybe ive just gotten TOO used to HDM :eek:

The quality of the upconversion also depends a lot on the encoding quality of the DVD you're watching. The PS3 does a fantastic job of upscaling SD-DVDs, but it can't work magic.

Read the link in my sig.

Do you have the upconversion enabled? (not trying to be insulting) Think it is under DVD/BD Playback under settings in XMB. I just watched a couple DVDs and thought they looked great.

I think I have mine set upscale to Full.

Aren't there 3 options?

Normal
Full
Double Scale

Which is the best option?

Normal = true aspect
Full = full screen ("stretch")
double scale = zoom

Aren't there 3 options?

Normal
Full
Double Scale

Which is the best option?

Try them all.

Also, when you are playing the SD DVD you can hit the triangle button for access to the player menu. From here you can go to Display Settings (not at home so I dont remember the exact name) & change the scaling method, deblocking values, etc. in realtime while the movie is playing.

edit:

Hit Triangle, then go up to the AV Settings. Here you can tweak your video for optimal enjoyment.

Normal = true aspect
Full = full screen ("stretch")
double scale = zoom

Double scale is not zoom. It simply doubles the pixels so you effectively get a 960p output. Thus no real scaling needs to be done but the image doesn't quite fill the whole screen. Good if you have a really large screen which makes any scaling artifacts look horrible.

Double scale is not zoom. It simply doubles the pixels so you effectively get a 960p output. Thus no real scaling needs to be done but the image doesn't quite fill the whole screen. Good if you have a really large screen which makes any scaling artifacts look horrible.


If double scale actually creates a 960p output, then why would anyone ever want to run anything but double scale on every SD-DVD? Are we sure that double scale actually does this?? Awesome if it does!:eek:

If double scale actually creates a 960p output, then why would anyone ever want to run anything but double scale on every SD-DVD? Are we sure that double scale actually does this?? Awesome if it does!:eek:Wow, yeah, I always just assumed it was like a display's "double-size" scaling. But if it actually scales to 960p, then it seems like it actually would look better than normal upscaling (to 720p or 1080p), since normal upscaling isn't an even multiple of the original 480i image. I'll mess with it some on my set, but 960p would probably have some black borders on all edges of the screen, but it would be a much clearer, more "accurate" image. I peaked over in the blu-ray forums briefly, but couldn't find a very good explanation of how this setting works.

This is potentially great news if this is true!

Double scale put quite large black borders around the entire pic on my screen.

Think of a 720x480 (1440x960) picture on a 1920x1080 screen when using double scale.

Think of a 720x480 (1440x960) picture on a 1920x1080 screen when using double scale.

like when you watch a naughty video clip on your computer and set the player to be x2 ;)

aka 1:1 pixel mapping

Think of a 720x480 (1440x960) picture on a 1920x1080 screen when using double scale.720x480 is NOT a display resolution, it is media storage resolution.

The pixels of a 720x480 image are not square and have to be horizontally mapped to 640x480 for 4:3 images and to 854x480 for 16:9 images.

XMB? What is that? I have settings set to 'normal' and the dvd's look horrible (tried other, such as full, etc). I tried many types. What am I doing wrong?

Can someone dummy proof this for me and give me a step by step idea on what to click or is it just that one option under dvd that says 'full, normal, double'?

Appreciate it..I tried searching but no luck.

XMB? What is that? I have settings set to 'normal' and the dvd's look horrible (tried other, such as full, etc). I tried many types. What am I doing wrong?"XMB"="Cross Media Bar" (the PS3's standard operating system)

If you have upconversion set to "normal" and SD-DVDs look truly horrible, something else is wrong. It's possible that you might be expecting too much of old tech. Remember, too, that you need HDMI in order to upconvert DVDs (for copyright reasons). So if you're connected via composite or component cables, you're just looking at the same old 480p image.

Once you've experienced Bluray, theres no going back :)

Once you've experienced Bluray, theres no going back :)

I was thinking exactly the same thing and I totally agree! :D

So only real upscaling settings are the 'normal, full, double' settings? No other area? I tried it again..messed with display settings..I guess I was expecting more..oops :)

Under info on display while playing a standard dvd it says 'mpeg2' and while playing a blu ray it says 'avc'...the ave was doing 48hz...all this normal? Sorry..such a newbie..and I agree, blu-ray rocks! Using a 720p via hdmi currently..had a 1080p but was a horrible set and returned it..now waiting to buy the new Samsung or Toshiba's...3 weeks and already bought 16 blu ray movies..may need my wife to get a job soon..hehe

you aren't watching full-screen dvd's are you?.... they are widescreen... right?...

So only real upscaling settings are the 'normal, full, double' settings? No other area? I tried it again..messed with display settings..I guess I was expecting more..oops :)During playback of an SD-DVD, hit the triangle button. There are some additional video processing effects you can add to improve PQ slightly. But the difference is minimal. It sounds like you're just spoiled by blu-ray.

Watching full screen (was watching 'Everyone one loves Raymond dvd) and then I tried watching the widescreen movie Aeonflux...both looked same....anyone have a good standard dvd suggestion that I could try and see if I can see upscaling? I have huge collection of movies, so odds are I'll have it. :)

Was going to buy my boy a dvd upscaler system to go with this little 26" for his room but then thought I should just buy another PS3 for him and he could use that to watch his movies and play games..but most of his movies are standard and want him to get best possible quality..yes, he's a spoiled 7yr old (bugs me everyday for this tv and a blu-ray dvd set..he keeps using mine to watch Harry Potter..he's hooked on blu ray)

Try The Lord of the Rings Extended editions. Or any Superbit editions of movies you have. Anything that looks pretty clean and sharp, non upscaled, should do better upscaled.

For a 26" I personally wouldn't bother with a upscaler.

Even though others might disagree, the best SD-DVD transfer I've seen is the latest edition of Indiana Jones DVDs. Use those to test the picture clarity. For color depth, try a recent Pixar movie like Ratatouille. Between the two, you should be able to get a good sense for what the PS3 can do for SD-DVDs.

Others swear by a movie like Transformers to test upscaling and video transfer quality, but I was really disappointed by the video transfer so I'd stick with my above suggestions.

The problem with using a Lord of the Rings movie to test PQ is that those movies are too grainy and monochromatic to get much of a sense for the range and clarity of the picture.

You're absolutely right about Pixar films, forgot about them :) Generally any sort of recent movie animation upscales very well.

Why would you get SD-DVD in comparison to Blu-Ray just to see how good the upconversion is? Anyways, the best I've seen upconverted by my PS3 is Pan's Labyrinth. It almost looked HD with soft touches.

Using animation to judge PQ is really dumb! It is completely artifical to start with. What is the standard of comparison?! Plastic toys?

Using animation to judge PQ is really dumb! It is completely artifical to start with. What is the standard of comparison?! Platic toys???

Are you actually suggesting we should judge PQ against real life! Lol. Pretty much every film (and television show) uses filters and/or processing of some kind, so they never look like real life. The real world is a terrible comparison method for judging PQ!

Anyhow, live action's great for testing picture sharpness and I prefer it for testing contrast and brightness over animation, but animation's great for color tests.