Just bought Panasonic VIERA S1 Series TC-P50S1 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
and am not happy with the quality of regular dvds on it.I recently purchased a sony upscaling dvd player( dvp-ns611hp) at costco and while it helps , I still am not impressed with picture quality.
Do I really need a better upscale dvd player such as a blu-ray dvd player or is this the nature of a 1080p tv trying to play 480i resolution? I can return the plasma if need be.Seems like spending so much on a tv shouldnt make you want to go back to your old 27' 15 year old tv to watch dvds on.

First of all, the SD DVD is 480i, so upscaling it will never look like true HD. But, it should look pretty good. How is it connected? Hopefully by HDMI or component? If by composite or S-Video, that's your problem. Second, BluRay players will upscale 480i DVDs over HDMI, but will also play BluRay discs, which are true HD resolution and will look incredible (better than any upscaled SD DVD). Third, you should adjust the settings of your plasma with a calibration DVD such as AVIA or DVE. What plasma settings are you using? Standard, Custom, Vivid (hopefully not)? Fourth, how do HD broadcasts look on your new plasma? If not great, you definitely have something wrong set on your display.

did you do proper break in of the plasma. in my experience, plasmas look better after breakin.

but thats just me;)

Better how?

switch back to your crt


Dvds should look good on your 50s1

Connected by hdmi cable .HD TV IN 1080 i does look good.Just am dissapointed in how sd dvds with 480 look even after upscaling.My sony upscale dvd is not top of the line so may get a blu-ray to see if they upscale sd dvds better.I have heard that the oppo dvd player is excellent for upscaling. Even if its not going to be true hd I would like it to look as good as it did on old tv.

I do not have it calibrated and am using the custom picture setting.Will calibration really make that much difference? Where can one get a calibration disc?

Almost any upscaler is a waste of your time. They were useful only years ago, when TVs had ****** internal scalers. Not the case anymore.

It's impossible to know about your individual situation without seeing the picture, especially since you don't specify what exactly bothers you about the picture.

It seems unlikely that your TV is messed up if your other inputs and HD material looks as good as other HDTVs. I think it's a bit strange to be super-picky about visual fidelity with a 480i source; if it's really bothering you, then buy the BR versions.

Get a better upscaler with a good chip.

Almost any upscaler is a waste of your time. They were useful only years ago, when TVs had ****** internal scalers. Not the case anymore.


All internal upscalers in tv's dont compare to a good dvd player.

some dvd's look near hd upscaled (atleast on my 42s1) while other dvds look just ok. i will give you an example. bad boy's 2 on dvd looks very close to hd, now a dvd like my kids dr. dolittle jr or something like that, it does not look very good. if you have you tv set up correctly and everything the dvds should look pretty good.

I have an inexpensive Blu Ray player and a regular - non upconverting DVD player hooked up to one of my kid's inexpensive 1080p sets.

Just for kicks, I took a DVD and played parts of it on each player to see what upconverting actually does on a 1080p set.

The regular DVD player looked flat and detail was lost. The Blu Ray player, upconverting to 1080p looked far closer to HD quality. Detail galore and color much improved.

I will admit that after viewing HD DVD and later Blu Ray, I haven't looked at a DVD since. I'm not a collector, having learned the constantly changing format lesson years ago.

So, from my experience, upconverting does have an advantage over straight DVD playback. Like with all things, your components will impact how much of an improvement you get, if at all.

The only thing I'd suggest to the op is to check the settings on the Sony upconverter to make sure it is set to actually upconvert the DVDs being played. My upconverters have all had settings for various resolutions, including 480p.

If it is upconverting to the desired resolution, try other options to see if your equipment does a better job with one over the other.

It does make a big difference depending on the dvd and the player. I recently invested in an Oppo 983H dvd player to go with my new 65" Panasonic plasma and even before calibration, the vast majority of dvd's I've played on it look very, very good on my display. of course, I don't sit as close to the display as I do with blu-ray (which, by the way, looks awesome on this set) but I'm pretty amazed at how good the dvd's look.

purchased a high end 300 dollar sony blu-ray and it makes all the difference in the world for regular sd dvds,so yes obviously the upscale chip or whatever it is makes a huge difference.Also watch my first blu-ray and was blown away. So now I see that the dvd player can make a huge difference in picture quality as well as the hdtv .Thanks for the help.Am no longer unhappy with the 50 inch plasma.

Connected by hdmi cable .HD TV IN 1080 i does look good.Just am dissapointed in how sd dvds with 480 look even after upscaling.There is no real benefit to up-converting SD content beyond 480p. While up-converting DVD players are a great marketing concept, the reality is there isn't much you can do to improve the quality of SD material being rendered on a fixed-pixel display.

Here is a clue.

27<50.Take a fruit roll up. Spread it to twice its size. See if it deteriorates.

A TV does not improve signal resolution.

When you play SD material on an 1080x1920 display, over 85% of the pixels that you see were not contained in the original material. The upscaling DVD player or the upscaler in the TV needs to calculate what those additional pixels should be. As others have pointed out, the fact that you then take this mostly derived material and blow it up to 50 inches to reveal every hunch that the scaler had can at times be disappointing.

My experience is that the upscalers in displays can be pretty good. My Sanyo Z3 projector does an excellent job, and the one the one in my 50G10 does well when combined with my older progressive scan (480p) Sony DVD player. I really have nothing to complain about.

I also agree that the quality of the source material is extremely important. Try to find a "reference disc" and see what you think.

Blu-ray players are under $200 now, and you can rent BR discs for a small premium. That may be your best path at this point. As great as HD can look on these panels, how could you ever consider sending it back?