Hello, im a total noob and quite unworthy, and so I throw myself upon your good mercy. My concern is how to get the best performance out of DVD's from all regions on a Samsung 42 inch HD plasma I'm about to buy. I'm from Australia so the model numbers will be news to you guys. It is the Samsung PS42Q9HDX with 1024x768 resolution. For audio, it will be hooked up to a humble 2 channel NAD C320BEE running Usher S520's, mebe a sub latr. I have been checking out upscaling DVD players and am now thoroughly confused. I am looking at a Denon 1730 with 1080i upscaling, or with more difficulty, an Oppo DV981HD with 1080p. Is this the right Oppo for me, or is the 970 model better for my non 1080p set? I think the Samsung upscales to 1080i, though I am also confused about this also, and how this process interacts with the DVD players upscaling. Should I hold out for the Oppo 983? Or will the Denon be as good as my plasma can handle anyhow. Please help me find answers so that I may resume some semblance of a life. :eek:
cheers,
Julian

Hope I can help! First I wonder if you have a good progressive scan DVD player? If you do then you may not see much (if any) improvement from an upconverting player. Your tv has a native resolution of 720P and is capable of displaying 1080i. that being said, keep in mind that your tv will "attempt" to upconvert any incoming signal to your tvs native resolution.

Some tvs do this well, some do not. If you get a upconverting player you should set it to match your TV's native resolution as that will usually yield you your best results. In the end your mileage may vary as all you are doing is choosing whether to upoconvert via DVD player or by Tv. In which case the one with teh superior video processing will give you your best results.

If you already have a decent progressive scan DVD player I would hook it up with COMPONENT cables and see how you like the picture. If it compares favorably to OTA or paid provider HD programming...Leave well enough alone and save some loot towards a HD DVD or Blu Ray player. I personally am leaning towards HD DVD but currently use a spectron iQ upconverting player.

it made a LOT of difference for me, but that is because my old Toshiba was doing a pretty crap job.

If you have any other specific questions, I will TRY to get to them as soon as I am able.

julian_s23,
For your 42" HTDV with only 1024x768 native resolution you will be perfectly fine with any progressive-scan DVD players capable output 480p video. Using DVD player with up-converter will not improve anything. You will not be able to see differences between 480p and 720p outputted video on 42" TV with 768 pixels of vertical resolution. Feeding your TV with anything above 420p/720p does not make any sense anyway because your TV will downscale / re-sample higher resolution video to its native resolution. You will be perfectly fine and happy with just a progressive scan DVD player. And also keep in mind that practically all nowadays HDTV sets are doing upscalling job themselves good enough, so I personally wouldn't be worry about upscalling but more concerned about de-interlacing process because not all HDTV sets are making that process good by themselves.

Hey guys thanks so much for the replies. Ok, if I don't need an upscaling player, what is a decent progressive scan player I should opt for? My current DVD player is a budget LG that is about 5 years old. Also, im unclear what my Plasma is, 480p, 720p, or 1080i?

Hey guys thanks so much for the replies. Ok, if I don't need an upscaling player, what is a decent progressive scan player I should opt for?

I think most everything you'll find these days is both progressive scan and optionally upscaling. Do you have a price range?

Also, im unclear what my Plasma is, 480p, 720p, or 1080i?

I'm sure it accepts all those signals. 720p is closest to its native resolutions, but you should try all the combinations to see which you like the best.

-Bill

.... what my Plasma is, 480p, 720p, or 1080i?

Your plasma TV comparable with and can accept all those 3 signals. But all of them will be scaled to TV's native resolution (768 pixels of vertical resolution). One of my TV is 42" plasma Panasonic HDTV.
Per my own experience with I can say that the best picture I can notice is when I watch broadcast in 720p and DVD video in 480p. I can also set DVD to 720p but I honestly cannot tell the difference in picture quality. In my eyes outputted good quality DVD video in 480p and 720p looks identically perfect to me. DivX and other MPEG-4 video I usually watch in 720p but I think I more self-suggesting to myself that I see better picture in 720p than if I will watch the same video in 480p. Anyways - it will only depends on your own visual perception. You will have to play with the settings and find your own best setting suitable for your eyes.

Hello, im a total noob and quite unworthy, and so I throw myself upon your good mercy. My concern is how to get the best performance out of DVD's from all regions on a Samsung 42 inch HD plasma I'm about to buy. I'm from Australia so the model numbers will be news to you guys. It is the Samsung PS42Q9HDX with 1024x768 resolution. For audio, it will be hooked up to a humble 2 channel NAD C320BEE running Usher S520's, mebe a sub latr. I have been checking out upscaling DVD players and am now thoroughly confused. I am looking at a Denon 1730 with 1080i upscaling, or with more difficulty, an Oppo DV981HD with 1080p. Is this the right Oppo for me, or is the 970 model better for my non 1080p set? I think the Samsung upscales to 1080i, though I am also confused about this also, and how this process interacts with the DVD players upscaling. Should I hold out for the Oppo 983? Or will the Denon be as good as my plasma can handle anyhow. Please help me find answers so that I may resume some semblance of a life. :eek:
cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian,

A good player that performs well in the deinterlacing department and is also an upscaling player is the Sony DVPNS78H I think is the model number in Aus. I say this one because it is a bargain at $200AUS. This way you get great deinterlacing and get to test out DVD upscaling to see what looks better, the player or the displays upscaling ability.

If you have a little more money you could get the new 40GB PS3 for $699Aus that also has great deinterlacing and upscaling. This way you get to sample some Blu-ray on your nice new HDTV.

I was considering upgrading from an older Sony NS55 to a NS77H in order to feed component or HDMI to a Philips 19PFL5422D nineteen inch and get the benefit of the upscaling. Reading the above, am I correct that I'd be wasting my time and money to do this on this size display, and that I'd be just as well off with progressive thru the component on the NS55?

I was considering upgrading from an older Sony NS55 to a NS77H in order to feed component or HDMI to a Philips 19PFL5422D nineteen inch and get the benefit of the upscaling. Reading the above, am I correct that I'd be wasting my time and money to do this on this size display, and that I'd be just as well off with progressive thru the component on the NS55?

Quite possibly. Note that upscaling over component is no longer allowed anyway.

-Bill

Thanks again! Price range is $200-$400. I want a USB port if possible. The new Oppo 983 sounds like an option worth waiting for. I can pick up a new Denon 1730 for $250Aus, but no usb is holding me back.

Thanks again! Price range is $200-$400. I want a USB port if possible. The new Oppo 983 sounds like an option worth waiting for. I can pick up a new Denon 1730 for $250Aus, but no usb is holding me back.

The Oppo 983 has no announced ship date, could be months away. The 980 has USB, $169 US.

-Bill

dmeader,
Get NS77H for a "test-drive" and check yourself how picture looks to you in different selectable modes. If you could not notice any differences in picture quality between NS77H and your old NS55 then return back NS77H and save money. You can only find the answer on your question through the comparison test that that you can do yourself for your own consideration. Just my thoughts and 2c. on this.

..Price range is $200-$400. I want a USB port if possible. ....

In my humble opinion it will be a waste of money spending more than $100 on SD DVD players this days, especially, if you need DVD player for 42" TV. Get Pioneer DV-400V or Philips DVP-5982 . Both have USB and both have very good picture quality. Get whichever will be cheaper to you. But choice is up to you of course.

cool, i'm going for the Phillips; its $60 less than the Pioneer. Thanks for the advice guys.

cool, i'm going for the Phillips; ....

Sure, and keep in mind that USB will only work with mass storage devises formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. Does not work with NTFS formatted devises. And this is not only applicable for Philips. All DVD players with the USB have such requirements.

Good luck!

Would you guys recommend going 720p or 1080i on the DVD output to a 1366x768 native resolution LCD? I'm currently using 1080i setting on my player however am I defying the whole purpose of progressive scan by going i and not p?

For any TV with native vertical resolution of 768 pixels the optimal setting is 720p. Signal in 1080i/p will be downscaled to your native resolution. In some cases that "downscaling" process may even degrade picture quality.
I would recommend to go with 720p all the time. IMO of course.

For any TV with native vertical resolution of 768 pixels the optimal setting is 720p. Signal in 1080i/p will be downscaled to your native resolution. In some cases that "downscaling" process may even degrade picture quality.
I would recommend to go with 720p all the time. IMO of course.

I concur as I have only a 32 in LCD and I was able to clearly distinguish background haziness and blurring in the outdoor fire scenes in Spiderman in 1080i that cleared up markedly in 720p on my Spectron DVD player.