I am seriously starting to believe that upscaled dvds look no better than 480p through component.

In 2002 - 2006 I had a 53 inch panasonic RPTV and a panasonic rp-82 progressive scan dvd player connected through component.

DVDs looked great on it. Especially Lord of the Rings.

Today, I have a samsung ln-t4071f LCD, one of Samsung's top of the line 120 hz LCDs. I also have a PS3, known as one of the best upconverting DVD players out there.

I swear...dvds look worse on this set up than they did on my old panny RPTV and rp82 player. The image is really soft, colors washed out...dvds basically look like the movie is 20 years old.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?

I swear...dvds look worse on this set up than they did on my old panny RPTV and rp82 player. The image is really soft, colors washed out...dvds basically look like the movie is 20 years old.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?

Well I didn't care for LCD televisions when I compared them to plasma.

I have two plasmas, a 58" 720p and a 42" 1080p, and a PS3 on each. I run both PS3s at 1080p (the 58" accepts a 1080p signal.) No complaints here about DVD picture quality on either.

I would suggest a calibration disc and some fine tuning.

There's no way even LCD should look that bad.
(ducks and runs.) :p

btw, blu rays look great on my set.

so it has nothing to do with LCD

HDMI was established to protect copyright interests and breathe life into complacent DVD player sales. Many here who knock those who believe that cables make a difference are the same folks who believe in there own little HDMI cable theories. The answer to the question of whether upscaling makes an appreciable difference is always that it "depends" on your TV, it "depends" on your DVD player, it "depends" on your vision. The nice thing about component is that it always looks good.

Just to elaborate on what AndyGood said, most likely the reason you're seeing such a huge difference is because of your TV and not the fact that you're comparing component to HDMI. Since TVs now support multiple resolutions, screen sizes and inputs, TVs now have separate adjustments for each resolution at each screen size and input type. For example, I have a TV that does 1080i (tube) and an up scaling DVD player that does the same. Originally I hooked the DVD player up progressive scan through the component input. The picture was fantastic. I switched back to interlaced and the picture was slightly stretched vertically and the blacks had a slight greenish tint to them. I then plugged the DVD player into the HDMI input. In 480p compared to component the colors were not as vivid nor as accurate. I switched the DVD player to 1080i and found that the picture was not as sharp, but the colors and white and black levels were phenomenal. These differences in picture were not because HDMI sucks at 480p or the DVD's up scaling to 1080i was so spectacular, but because my TV was adjusted differently for each resolution of each input type. I used to think that 1080i on DVDs looked the best until I did some adjusting and found that 480p looks the best on my TV for standard def movies. I chose to still use the HDMI input so I would have independent picture adjustments from the other inputs on my TV. In a perfect world there would be no difference between component and HDMI. There are differences because DVD players sometimes perform better out of one input than another and so do TVs. Calibrating the input on your TV for the resolution you're using through the service mode is the best way to compensate for this issue. If you have the ability to make picture adjustments independently for each input through the user's adjustments, that is another way too but will not be resolution or picture size sensitive and possibly not be enough adjustment that you need to make to get the picture to where you want it. Nothing now is black and white. It's not like it used to be when comparing composite to S-video at 480i anymore. The facts have been horribly twisted and confusion is at an all time high. It wouldn't have been so bad if there was just standard and high def. Instead there is 240p, 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p and 1440p will soon follow. There is probably a whole book of information that one should know before going HD. Most wouldn't read it though because they don't care. Most of what average joe sees and hears is more belief than fact. You tell average joe that he has high definition, he will watch 480i on wide zoom on his new high def TV and say "Man that sure looks purty." You give him a 100 dollar surround sound system to go with it and he'll think he's at the game even though none of the speakers are even hooked up correctly and has picture frames blocking half the speakers. There is a lot to take into account when putting video components together in order to make your system shine. You don't have to have the greatest gear to get the greatest picture. Whether it be video or audio, your system can shine no matter what it's made of when hooked up optimally and adjusted optimally.

Today, I have a samsung ln-t4071f LCD, one of Samsung's top of the line 120 hz LCDs. I also have a PS3, known as one of the best upconverting DVD players out there.

I swear...dvds look worse on this set up than they did on my old panny RPTV and rp82 player. The image is really soft, colors washed out...dvds basically look like the movie is 20 years old.

The more pixels that have to be 'interpolated,' the more 'blown up' the image will look, which means DVDs will likely always look worse on 1080p sets than 720p or 768p sets. A lot of effort is being put into 'upconverting' players no doubt because the manufacturers know that SD sources often look like garbage at 1080p.

Of course the problem of rescaling 480p sources will go away once they come out with 1440x960 sets, since in that case pixels would merely be doubled [(2*720)x(2*480) = 1440x960], and so no interpolation will be required.

For now, I would say your best bet is to buy a high end Oppo, or maybe the new XDE-500 from Toshiba.

I tried turning off the upscale function on my ps3 so that it would run in 480p...and it still looks like ****.

Do you have the old tv & dvd player anymore? Maybe you can try one or the other with the new hardware. Sounds like the old tv had a better upconverter. New widescreen dvds look like hd on my 26" 768p samsung tv and an old toshiba sd-4980 upconverting dvd player.

I tried turning off the upscale function on my ps3 so that it would run in 480p...and it still looks like ****.

If it still looks bad then it sounds like you have a problem. Try plugging the PS3 into a component input and run at 480p. Up converting does not cause your problems. There could be something wrong with the TV or the PS3.

There is only two ways to do this. One, send the TV a 480i signal and let the TV scale it or, Two, send a 1080P and let the PS3 scale it. Anything else you will have multiple scaling. The less manipulation to the signal the better. You want to keep the digital to analog conversions to a minimum also.

There is only two ways to do this. One, send the TV a 480i signal and let the TV scale it or, Two, send a 1080P and let the PS3 scale it. Anything else you will have multiple scaling. The less manipulation to the signal the better. You want to keep the digital to analog conversions to a minimum also.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no scaling involved in progressive scan at 480. The only way you would have multiple scaling going on is if you send a 480i movie out from a DVD player up scaled at 720p to a 1080p display. If the DVD player sends out the picture as simply just progressive, the TV will recognize that it is progressive and simply up scale from 480p. If the TV is better at de-interlacing than the DVD player is then send the TV 480i, but still I don't think the complaints he has with his picture quality are due to poor or over processing. It sounds like something is malfunctioning to me.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no scaling involved in progressive scan at 480. The only way you would have multiple scaling going on is if you send a 480i movie out from a DVD player up scaled at 720p to a 1080p display. If the DVD player sends out the picture as simply just progressive, the TV will recognize that it is progressive and simply up scale from 480p. If the TV is better at de-interlacing than the DVD player is then send the TV 480i, but still I don't think the complaints he has with his picture quality are due to poor or over processing. It sounds like something is malfunctioning to me.

Yes, you are correct, wrong use of words on my part. The only point I was trying to get across was to do as little manipulation of the signal as possible. Depending on how the TV upscales the signal to 1080P he may want to try and send a 480i signal to the TV and let it do the de-interlacing and scaling.