I just bought a Sony 75H DVD player for it's HDMI port. I wanted it simply so I could free up a component input on my tv. I plugged both the component and the HDMI in and compaired the two. I made sure all my video settings were the same before I did so. Much to my disappointment I found that component looked significantly better than HDMI especialy when I set the player to upconvert to 1080i. The picture at 1080i looked too soft and lacked color vibrance that the component had at 480p. This player is known for have very good upconversion, so I'm thinking it's either HDMI sucks period, or my tv is maladjusted. I did buy a cheap HDMI at walmart for 35 bucks made by philips. I kinda thought it could be the cable, but the difference was just too drastic. Anyone else experience this with the XBR970?

Using the HDMI must bypass or use different settings then componet. This is good to know tho since i wasn't sure if i should hook up my HD set top box using the componet or HDMI. I'll be using the other componet input for my 360.

Doesn't HDMI use a separate input? Input 7 for instance, as opposed to say, Input 5 for component? Each input has its own calibration (brightness, contrast, etc). Make sure they're set identically, including using the same Picture mode (Standard, Pro, etc), before comparing the two.

Ive made similar comparisons with my XBR960 and Panasonic S97S up converting dvd player, I basically had the same results as the OP, When comparing I made sure to use *all* identical settings between component (video 6) and hdmi (video 7), However my dvd player doesn't allow 1080i over component and 480p over hdmi looks terrible(very blocky) but the difference in brightness / contrast / color / sharpness was very noticeable between the two inputs even when comparing 480p vs. 480p.

I recently compared my PS3 over component vs. hdmi (this time both inputs were compared at 1080i), I tested a Bluray movie and a couple games and I still found hdmi to be a little darker and less colorful however the overall sharpness was actually slightly *better* over hdmi (I didnt believe it either and double verified tv settings) As for the difference in color / brightness I made adjustments to compensate (for the most part), Its a good thing these TVs save settings per input.. both of my component inputs are being used so im glad PS3 at least looks good over hdmi.

Yes, component video is sharper on these sets. For some reason there is an artificial softening effect somewhere in the TVs processing/converting of the HDMI signal.

I no longer use HDMI with my set. I even bought a high grade component video switcher so I could hook up 3 HD devices via component.

Some people have said they believe this to be device specific, but I have not found that to be the case. With all three pieces I'm using, component is equally clearer than HDMI, and I have compared them all.

Yes, component video is sharper on these sets. For some reason, there is an artificial softening effect somewhere in the TVs processing/converting of the HDMI signal.

I no longer use HDMI with my set. I even bought a high grade component video switcher so I could hook up 3 HD devices via component.

Some people have said they believe this to be device specific, but I have not found that to be the case. With all three pieces I'm using, component is equally clearer than HDMI, and I have compared them all.

PS3 is one such device that seems to prefer HDMI as far as sharpness goes.

I have the same DVD player on the same set, just got it Tuesday, and I wasn't happy with it through HDMI. I tried AUTO, 1080i and 720p, all with normal results.

Tried with component this evening 480p, before your posting, and I can see a slight difference, but I am still unpleased with the player. For $60 I wish I went with the Oppo from the start.

Could you share some of your visual settings?

Should i still use the HDMI for the cable box? Or just componet. I'm going to be going straight from the box to my receiver with coaxial digital cable. My receiver doesn't have HDMI inputs.

Should i still use the HDMI for the cable box? Or just componet. I'm going to be going straight from the box to my receiver with coaxial digital cable. My receiver doesn't have HDMI inputs.

Try component - it's probably sharper.

Let me reiterate.. I reset it back to factory settings, switched it to 1080i, and turned off the black level.

When I watched a few frames from A Day After Tomorrow, I could easily tell how much clearer it was. Damn near close to HD.


I figured I had done something wrong, when this DVD player incorporates one of the best up converting chip sets in the Faroudja line. Meanwhile, the reviews have been ALL positive, I must have done something wrong.



I am extremely pleased with my purchase. And for $60, I couldn't ask for anything else. Even at retail ($130) it's worth every penny.

Compare the 480p via HDMI to 480p via component, and you'll see the difference.

Unfortunately, upconversion to 1080i is HDMI only :(.

Of all the players & settings, hdmi ,1080i etc that ive tried I'd say 480i (not 480p) over Component provides the best overall DVD picture quality on my XBR960.

Sorry guys I just got to view this post that I started. I since then figured out my problem. I had a defective DVD player. For once, it was not the tv's fault. I found out this DVD player was tweaked when I saw that the fleshtones at 1080i were waivering in color. About every 2 seconds my fleshtones would get slightly more red and then go back to normal. I took the DVD player back to CC and exchanged it, hooked it up and found that not only did it not have the color problem, but the difference between 480p and 1080i were like night and day. For people who are wondering what the differences between component and HDMI, the component output is great. The HDMI output improves the black and the white levels mostly which makes things more life like but you may have to boost your saturation to get more color due to the higher chroma. Alot of people say that HDMI seems to have less color than component, but really it's just because the white levels are stronger that appear to wash the image out alittle. However, I do not frown at all on component. The picture quality was excellent and should never take a back seat to HDMI. I just wanted to free up a component input for when I get a Wii, so I chose to get a new DVD player to hook to the HDMI. The upconvert thing was like a bonus to me really. Now about upconverting to 1080i, I noticed that my colors are way more vivid and clear and the image is just a hair sharper, but not much and I get some tiny jaggies on very fine lines due to the non-progressive output, but overall it blows 480p away. The Blacks are as dark as the tube will go and the whites are blinding. You can't beat that.

So is HDMI better? On my tv, yes, but not by a whole lot on 480p. Upconverting, absolutely. For HDMI, it really depends on your tv since the DVD player isn't doing the processing. You could quite possibly get a tv where the HDMI sucks because the tv sucks at processing the digital information. In this case the component would win due to the better DAC being in the DVD player. Digital is not the absolute answer to everthing. A good set of component cables will hold it's own against HDMI at 480p.

I have the Panasonic 77S hooked up to my 34" SFP XS55. I use both HDMI(1080i) and component(480p) Most of the time component is better but some movies are better in HDMI. Try each per movie.

has nothing to do with which cable you use

upconvertion sucks

dvd's should be watched @ 480p

upconverting to 1080i is the worse thing you can do to the picture quality of a dvd

this was a big scam pulled off by dvd player makers to make everyone run out and get a dvd player with hdmi output

has nothing to do with which cable you use

upconvertion sucks

dvd's should be watched @ 480p

upconverting to 1080i is the worse thing you can do to the picture quality of a dvd

this was a big scam pulled off by dvd player makers to make everyone run out and get a dvd player with hdmi output

While I agree that it is a scam that manufacturers chose to make upconversion an exclusive to HDMI only, I don't believe that it's junk. My brother's 51 inch CRT hitachi looks the best at 1080i. Is it groundbreaking, not really, but does help the picture quite a bit. The whole upconvert to near high def statement is a joke. On my set, it cleans up the image and colors, but it's an enhancement, not a transformation. I'm happy with 1080i. I had no intension on even using the upconvert feature when I bought the Sony. However I scoped it out and found it looked pretty nice.

has nothing to do with which cable you use

upconvertion sucks

dvd's should be watched @ 480p

upconverting to 1080i is the worse thing you can do to the picture quality of a dvd

this was a big scam pulled off by dvd player makers to make everyone run out and get a dvd player with hdmi output

I disagree with this comment. I am going to say it really depends on the set you have, and which output your using. I noticed a small difference in 480p via component, but could notice a better quality picture in 1080i via HDMI. The picture looks very nice, and there's no convincing me to change. What works for me, may or may not work for you. I will continue using 1080i on my player, where I can notice a difference in the overall PQ.

Has anyone with this set tried the Oppo firmware hack that allows upconversion over component? I'd be interested to see what, if any, improvement there might be.

I think that's because HDMI is probably a STEP DOWN from Component, and 2 Steps down from RGB as far as analog displays are concerned.
DVD video is also stored in the component domain (Perhaps Blue Ray or HD-DVD are different).

Afterall the tv has to eventually make it RGB, so HDMI just introduces extra processing, filtering, etc thereby reducing picture quality on ALL Analog Displays.

BNC type RGB connections are by FAR the best for Analog Displays, I'm a Film and Media Arts Major so I work with the equipment all the time at my college.
HDMI, DVI, etc are probably better for Digital Displays, but not for good old CRTS.



I just bought a Sony 75H DVD player for it's HDMI port. I wanted it simply so I could free up a component input on my tv. I plugged both the component and the HDMI in and compaired the two. I made sure all my video settings were the same before I did so. Much to my disappointment I found that component looked significantly better than HDMI especialy when I set the player to upconvert to 1080i. The picture at 1080i looked too soft and lacked color vibrance that the component had at 480p. This player is known for have very good upconversion, so I'm thinking it's either HDMI sucks period, or my tv is maladjusted. I did buy a cheap HDMI at walmart for 35 bucks made by philips. I kinda thought it could be the cable, but the difference was just too drastic. Anyone else experience this with the XBR970?

I think that's because HDMI is probably a STEP DOWN from Component, and 2 Steps down from RGB as far as analog displays are concerned.
DVD video is also stored in the component domain (Perhaps Blue Ray or HD-DVD are different).

Afterall the tv has to eventually make it RGB, so HDMI just introduces extra processing, filtering, etc thereby reducing picture quality on ALL Analog Displays.

BNC type RGB connections are by FAR the best for Analog Displays, I'm a Film and Media Arts Major so I work with the equipment all the time at my college.
HDMI, DVI, etc are probably better for Digital Displays, but not for good old CRTS.

:rolleyes:

I have to disagree with the last post about bnc rgb connections and hdmi better for digital displays, etc...

In actuality it MAY work better, but that is NOT for the connector or cable type, but the electronics on either side of the cable.

BNC offers a lockable type of connector, with a stable 50 ohm (yes, that is right, 50 ohm) impedance (it is a miniature N connector, which is the standard 50 ohm interconnect for low powered rf communications, and an N connector will actually fit a bnc jack, without the lock!) Because of it's twist-lock ability and other convenience reasons, it quickly became standard in the professional broadcasting and video community (and the 50 ohm vs 75 ohm did not make a difference, since there is no loss of signal for the intended application). The RCA connector will hold the same quality as the bnc connector (for video purposes anyway -- for the same reason that 50 ohm bnc's are ok), and it is all over the home audio community, so as video got added to audio to make home theater, it stayed as the consumer standard. The electrical signal going through it is EXACTLY THE SAME in almost ALL cases (as long as it is a component, RGB, composite, etc... obviously 2 different labels on the connector can indicate a different type of circuit and a different quality). Be sure to use a 75 ohm CABLE(s) for any type of video run (many cheap cables that come with the home-video machines are not really 75 ohm and may degrade signal quality). The best quality cable to use is 75 ohm coax (like the cable tv or satellite cables), and that goes for video and (analog) audio connections too (and that wire is cheap too, in comparison to the expensive name branded cables sold in the stores!) You can EASILY use simple push-and-crimp F connectors on the end of bulk cable and add an F-to-RCA connector to make it work (or an F-to-BNC if you prefer!) with your gear.

The difference between True Component and RGB, is that component connections actually use separate H and V (horizontal and vertical? I'm not sure exactly what H and V stand for, but) as well as the red green and blue cables (R,G,B,H,V) and is the "professional" standard of analog high definition video interconnection (and also what is in the 15 pin high density VGA connector). I am not sure how the quality compares to the consumer standard, which combines some of the signals so theres 3 instead of 5 conenctions, but I am sure it is pretty close.

As for digital connectors, technically they may be a BETTER form of connecting components together, as analog signals can suffer loss through long cable runs or inferior cables. Digital cables will ALL BE THE SAME, as long as theres no loss of the digital data that makes up the signal (which can be caused by excessively long cable runs or inferior cables, too), but the chances of loss are much greater with analog than with digital, in my opinion. As for the reason the HDMI is not as "good" looking in certain conditions, is the circuits decoding the signal. In just about all cases, the source signal is already digital (be it a dvd, game machine, or hd-quality cable or satellite receiver). IT NEEDS TO BE CONVERTED TO ANALOG at some point if it will feed an analog monitor. The real question is this: Which component will handle the digital conversion process and/or digital processing better? ALSO, will the tv monitor convert the analog signal (rgb) back to digital for processing, then back to analog again? Might there be artifacts during these processes (digital to analog in the dvd player, then across the wires to the tv, then analog to digital in the tv, through tv's processing, then digital to analog again, finally to the tubes!

All this technical hype might not matter, as each component (whether digital and or analog, or the conversion between) will handle different signals with different quality, and there is so much between the disc being read and the electrons exciting the screen you see! In the end, try different things and decide what looks best (or if your a perfectionist, what looks closest to the original the way it was on the monitors in the studio or in front of the camera!) Its just better to have a true understanding of what is happening as we try to correct the issues.

-- Audioguy78

ps I am not really a video guy, but I have extensive experience in professional audio, and an HDTV set (please see my other post in this forum about my problem with my sony 32HS510 posted earlier today) and some experience in the engineering end of broadcast television (with an ABC affiliate), unfortunately before the days of HD. (I was there as my station switched its news room to DVC-Pro from BetaSP, and unfortunately powers above me chose to use Composite signals rather than any other choice! I wouldn't be surprised if they just upconvert the composite output signal from their newsroom to 1080i and transmit that to their digital transmitter, but I cant be sure what they are doing. Who knows what half of the stations are really doing to meet the standards of the fcc!

when a DVD player "upconverts" 480 to 1080, what is it doing and how?

dividing the signal into more individual picture elements.

dividing the signal into more individual picture elements.

what does that mean?

not tryin to hijak your thread, but can anyone tell me or direct to me somewhere that will show me how to turn my black levels off on my 970?