HI. I am in the market for an A/V Reciever and i would like to improve the quality of my direct tv signal. The HD is great. I have a pioneer elite 50" pro 110fd plasma. I have been eyeing the Denon 5803ci becasue of the Realta but i have been given contradicting advise as to whether the realta can improve the no HD digital signal provided by direct tv? IS the realta a better video upscaler then my elite TV? Can anyone help me understand if the realta will help me veiw all chanels in 1080i/p

Yes, the Realta is better and yes, the Realta can improve particularly SD picture quality with its decent denoising (bested only by Gennum GF9450 and by Algolith) and good deinterlacing. I honestly do not know how good a job Denon has done with implementing the Realta, though. The HQV chips can be implemented such that they do a very good job, but they can also be implemented poorly (I'm looking at you, Onkyo).

However, even if implemented well, it is not a miracle worker. Realtime video processing on consumer-level hardware can only do so much. (Even higher-end stuff not available in a standalone video processor has limits)

In almost all cases a VP will do a better job than your TV. The newer Onkyo receivers actually do a much better job using the REON chip then the previous generation which was not that bad. If you really want to make improvements though you may consider the new Edge which will not break the bank. :)