I've been considering an HC1500 - the biggest complaint about this PJ is that it doesn't do well upscaling 480 material. Since I watch a fair bit of SD TV it is a bit of a concern. But my question is why would this be a problem if you set your tuner (or dvd, etc) to just output at 720/1080 instead, so long as the output device has a decent scaler? Or is the problem just related to 480 source material itself?

If the scaler is good then you should get a good image on the projector. I use a media pc and do software scaling and DVDs are quite good.

Upscaling is all about the strength and capability of the pj's (or tv's)processor and associated software options.

Standard def dvds with 480p resolution should look good via that PJ if the dvd player has good up conversion capability and you connect via HDMI cable/ports and the HC1500 is HDMI input equipped.

Unfortunately other analog devices like cable and sat receivers don't provide up conversion so if your projector isn't provisioned with good up conversion capability then what you see on the screen won't be so good.

Our Panasonic AE-900U is a great 720PJ BUT it doesn't do a great job of up conversion so we route our standard def DirecTV to our 56in tv which fortunately does a GREAT job of up conversion.

I don't think PJ makers worried too much about putting powerful up conversion capability in their machines but I think that will change. Maybe you can find a projector that has up conversion capability to suit your needs.
goodluck

I'll be using an HD-DVD player for SD DVDs that has a good scaler, and my HD cable box does allow me to set modes up to 1080i for output, so that's why I'm not sure if I should be concerned with this pj's scaler or not. Although I can't remember if the cable box supports HDMI or not since I'm using component on my current pj (no hdmi on it). I currently use an Optoma H27, but it's got 2200hrs on it (and was only used in bright mode), so the image is pretty washed up on it now..

I was initially very turned off by the SD picture from the HC1500, coming from a 5 yo Infocus X1. But after a while I managed to work it out to a point where I simply couldn't go back to the X1.

I think the most important thing is to have all conversions done in one place - my biggest mistake was sending 480p to the projector with my DVD recorder doing the de-interlacing, and the projector doing the scaling to 720p. When I switched to 480i and left the HC do all processing I was actually rather impressed by it.

I still plan on purchasing a long HDMI cable, but for now I am just happy with the results over component. At the end I still felt like the X1 had a smoother picture with most DVDs, but that makes sense since it's native 800X600 matrix has to make up less information from a DVD. On a 720 projector there are a lot of extra pixels that need to filled up somehow and that leaves more space for noise. Still though the slight trade off in smoothness was worth it to me, because the Mitsubishi is much quieter, brighter, and easier on the eyes because of the faster color wheel. I thought long and hard about it, but simply couldn't go back to the X1.

On another note - I got a call from a woman last night, to check if I was happy with my new projector. I was a little worried, because that had never happened to me before, but she said that I had registered on the Mitsubishi web site, and she just wanted to check and make sure everything was ok with my projector, didn't try to sell me anything nor asked me any personal info. Has anyone else got a call from them? After thinking about it, I felt it was pretty nice of them.

I was initially very turned off by the SD picture from the HC1500, coming from a 5 yo Infocus X1. But after a while I managed to work it out to a point where I simply couldn't go back to the X1.

I think the most important thing is to have all conversions done in one place - my biggest mistake was sending 480p to the projector with my DVD recorder doing the de-interlacing, and the projector doing the scaling to 720p. When I switched to 480i and left the HC do all processing I was actually rather impressed by it.

I still plan on purchasing a long HDMI cable, but for now I am just happy with the results over component. At the end I still felt like the X1 had a smoother picture with most DVDs, but that makes sense since it's native 800X600 matrix has to make up less information from a DVD. On a 720 projector there are a lot of extra pixels that need to filled up somehow and that leaves more space for noise. Still though the slight trade off in smoothness was worth it to me, because the Mitsubishi is much quieter, brighter, and easier on the eyes because of the faster color wheel. I thought long and hard about it, but simply couldn't go back to the X1.

On another note - I got a call from a woman last night, to check if I was happy with my new projector. I was a little worried, because that had never happened to me before, but she said that I had registered on the Mitsubishi web site, and she just wanted to check and make sure everything was ok with my projector, didn't try to sell me anything nor asked me any personal info. Has anyone else got a call from them? After thinking about it, I felt it was pretty nice of them.

Thanks, that helps since I'm also a previous X1 owner