I recently found the manual for my Panasonic DVD player that I've had for 4 years. It shows that it has RGB out for component in to my '04 KDF50WE655 50" Sony LCD rear projection set. I currently have it connected thru "S" video and, at least to my eyes, it looks awful damn good! Will I see a great improvement in PQ if I go to component configuration? Thanks for any advice. Katzman

set it to progressive out and use the component cables and it should be better pq.
probably not great but do it and let your eyes tell yourself.

My DVD player is not progressive scan. Still a good idea? Katzman

I went ahead and connected via component connections. I did a thorough calibration with DVE and watched FINDING NEMO. There was always a faint "glow" around Marlon before and now it's gone, so it has shown to improve PQ already. Looking forward to checking other DVDs. Katzman

Go down to wally world or bestbuy and buy a progressive scan DVD player for $50 or so. There will be an even bigger difference.

I mentioned that to my wife at Walmart the other day. Her response: "It's never going to be good enough for you is it?" My reply: "Newp!" There's a nice little Sony progessive scan single disc player there for $64, I just might do it! Of course I'll "have to pay for it twice"!

YPbPr can deliver greater color bandwidth than S-video, as this archived post (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=1605115#post1605115) (last paragraph) mentions. As indicated, some test DVDs have signals to illustrate this. -- John

Well, I puchased a Go Video progressive scan DVD player/recorder for $125 at Shopko. After setting for progressive scan, I watched Mission Impossible 3. To me the picture looked kind of blurry. I reset the player for interlaced and watched the same scene again. MUCH clearer! There's a scene where the characters are looking at a computer screen and with the interlace settings I could read the screen, with progressive scan it was blurry. I tried every combination with my TV, Pro-mode, Standard, even the dreaded VIVID mode (which I have toned down with DVE). I adjusted the DRC on the set, tried Cinemotion (which always gave me a blurry picture), and they all looked worse with P.S. I guess I'll have to take the advice I've given in this and other forums: "It's your TV, watch it however it looks best to you", which is NOT progressive scan! Any thoughts? Katzman

Quite a while back I found the progressive mode from a DVD player delivered better video for certain critical scenes prone to aliasing artifacts ( Dueling Genesis Chips (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=96993#post96993)). But for many scenes the DVD 480i out looked similar to 480p out. I have a 1080i/480p CRT RPTV that needn't upscale 480p (digitizing an already deinterlaced 480p YPbPr DVD output). It might be that the additional processing/upscaling needed for your fixed-pixel display with 480p analog output is degrading the PQ compared to 480i out. It's best to minimize analog-digital (and back) conversions. -- John

Well, I puchased a Go Video progressive scan DVD player/recorder for $125 at Shopko. After setting for progressive scan, I watched Mission Impossible 3. To me the picture looked kind of blurry. I reset the player for interlaced and watched the same scene again. MUCH clearer! There's a scene where the characters are looking at a computer screen and with the interlace settings I could read the screen, with progressive scan it was blurry. I tried every combination with my TV, Pro-mode, Standard, even the dreaded VIVID mode (which I have toned down with DVE). I adjusted the DRC on the set, tried Cinemotion (which always gave me a blurry picture), and they all looked worse with P.S. I guess I'll have to take the advice I've given in this and other forums: "It's your TV, watch it however it looks best to you", which is NOT progressive scan! Any thoughts? Katzman

Not surprising at all. What you have discoverd is that you have a cheap DVD player that has an inferior system for de-interlacing the 480i compared to letting the Sony do so. This a actually a common finding. Many people are surprised to find that their progressive and supscaling DVD players are not the benefit that they thought they were. Some are great, but some are crap. GO figure.

Yep! I myself thought that it might be the "GO (cheap) Video" player/recorder. Other player/recorders from more recognizable brand names were twice what I paid for this one. Live and learn. Katzman

ps. I like the GO figure reference Icaillo! Made me smile.

Component is a significant improvement over S-Vid or composite.

I do not find DVI/HDMI to be a very big (if at all) improvement, but that depends more on the quality of the receiver and TV. It never hurts to try.

For the most part, upconverting or progressive scan DVD players are a rip off. If you can transmit the 480i with at least component you are going to have a great picture due to the scaling in your expensive digital TV.

some will claim that a better scaler from a more expensive DVD player, like an Oppo, will make it even better. Perhaps, but I think it would be very very minimal.

I am going to test this out soon for myself.

Thanks for the uplifting comment on PS players being (for the most part) a rip off. I hope the "recorder" part works, haven't tried it yet. Will be looking forward to your experiment.
Katzman

Well lordy, lordy! Thursday night I decided to play around with P.S. yet again. Here are my results: VIVID Mode (I know that's a no-no but I calibrated it with DVE). I then used the Sound and Vision calibration disc and went to the resolution test pattern. With interlaced some of the windows were "alive" with "squigglies". I activated the P.S. and low and behold all the squigglies disappeared. I then checked that scene in MI3 again and I could read the computer screen this time (?). I watched the whole flick and was impressed with the picture I had. Faces were very detailed. I think I'm "on board" with P.S. now! Katzman