Addressing some of David's questions -

I would agree that scaling seems like a mistake when your TV's native resolution is not actually 720p (1280x720) or 1080p (1920x1080.) Many LCD TVs mistakenly say they are 720p when they 1376 or something like that (I always forget the exact number.)

Deinterlacing at the DVD player could certainly be a good idea depending on the player.

Given that people have different equipment, and due to the lack of much concrete proof out there, you are likely on your own. You have to buy and try.

I have yet to see a BAD looking DVD player. But if you read up on some of the issues such as Chroma Upsampling Error, you may be able to start to recognize known issues. I personally think ignorance may be bliss sometimes when it comes to deinterlacing errors.

Anyway, some reviews actually use a benchmark such as HQV. That's worth looking for.

I recently saw an old B&W film on DVD while setting up a friends new HT. He has a new 50" Panny "720p" plasma and the Bose 321 sound/dvd system. There was a shot of an office space that was very big (cube city!) with a ceiling of florescent lights. There were terrible jaggies and moire patterns on the grid of lights! I stopped the dvd, reconfiged the player to send 480p to the tv and - tada! - the jaggies all but disappeared - a very clean grid in its place. Very dramatic change. So deinterlacing is very important. Scaling is very much a "who does it better" question. This was not an upscaling player, so the TV gets to do it.

To answer the DVD player question, Oppo makes a very good $200 upscaling player (to 1080i). I have one, and have been very happy with the quality of the upscaled image. When I upgrade to a true 1080p display (currently own a Sony 57" crt-based unit), then I'll also buy a Blu-Ray player. Until then, I'm happy with my SD DVDs and the Oppo.
HTH.

Hello,everyone,I'm new here

I know this is old, but it was very interesting and entertaining read. thanks

My apologies if this question is posted in the wrong thread.

Until recently I was watching VHS on an SD TV with audio through a stereo. Now I am knee deep in Blu Ray and HT. I have mostly been renting Blu Ray and SD disks.

The other night I rented Mimic (SD). The packaging claimed "Widescreen" 1.85:1. Every other widescreen SD DVD I've seen filled my TV screen but not Mimic. It was in fact 1.85:1 AR, but had black bars on top, bottom and sides. I had to zoom in (1.5x) to get the picture to almost fit the screen. Still, a very good picture for SD I thought.

But what's the deal with the "shrunken" 1.85:1 picture that must be zoomed to fill the screen? I have also seen the same thing on a couple of HD cable movies.

I checked the disk on two players, an OPPO and a Panny Blu Ray with the same results.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I am very curious.

Thanks to all the members of this amazing forum for taking the time and effort to enlighten us newcomers to modern video and audio.

But what's the deal with the "shrunken" 1.85:1 picture that must be zoomed to fill the screen? I have also seen the same thing on a couple of HD cable movies.

See: Anamorphic vs 4:3 letterboxed DVDs

-Bill

See: Anamorphic vs 4:3 letterboxed DVDs

-Bill

Question answered. Thanks very much, Bill!

Last night I purchased a 19" Samsung HD TV to be used in a master bath or possibly a kitchen or even an exercise room.

I picked Samsung after reading that the Sharp 19" had inferior speakers and weak sound.

At the time I noticed that the Sharp screen looked very squished vertically (or stretched horizontally) compared to the Samsung. This is consistent with the resolutions:

Sharp = 1366 x 768 which is 16:9
Samsung=1440 x 900 which is 16:10

It seemed that since the Samsung had more pixels, it didn't matter that it was 16:10. (Afterall, 720p is 1280 by 720 which corresponds to neither product.) When I got home and tuned to some live HD, then I realized that the Samsung shape wasn't ideal. Samsung allows you to either:

a) Fill their screen by stretching the HD image vertically or
b) Display a true 16:9 image and leave black bars above and below the image

Should I have buyer's remorse?

Last night I purchased a 19" Samsung HD TV to be used in a master bath or possibly a kitchen or even an exercise room.

I picked Samsung after reading that the Sharp 19" had inferior speakers and weak sound.

At the time I noticed that the Sharp screen looked very squished vertically (or stretched horizontally) compared to the Samsung. This is consistent with the resolutions:

Sharp = 1366 x 768 which is 16:9
Samsung=1440 x 900 which is 16:10

It seemed that since the Samsung had more pixels, it didn't matter that it was 16:10. (Afterall, 720p is 1280 by 720 which corresponds to neither product.) When I got home and tuned to some live HD, then I realized that the Samsung shape wasn't ideal. Samsung allows you to either:

a) Fill their screen by stretching the HD image vertically or
b) Display a true 16:9 image and leave black bars above and below the image

Should I have buyer's remorse?

Do they offer "(c) zoom the image slightly to full height, clipping the sides"?

Those would seem to be the only three alternatives when showing 16:9 content on a 16:10 display.

-Bill

My choice (a) may clip the sides slightly, not sure but will check. I thought it only stretched vertically which I didn't favor. There were quite a number of what Samsung calls P.Size choices.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do things here. I had an Xbox 360 but it's upconversion/playing of DVDs is sometimes terrible. So, I played DVDs through a PS2 and they look all right, but the TV doesn't seem to want to upscale my PS2 at all. Anyone know why?

Basically my main problem is the fact that 1/2 the time the DVD looks good, but then all of the sudden the next shot will look grainy, but then the next shot will look good again. Anyone know why this is so? The TV I have is a Samsung 46" 1080p.

Sometimes, such graininess is part of the original source recording.

the TV doesn't seem to want to upscale my PS2 at all
Your TV has to upscale the picture at all times or you wouldn't have a picture!

this thread will be unstuck soon: it will remain open though