Upconverting DVD Player Options/Impressions - Page 73

To my knowledge, there are no HDMI to Component converters available. Since this would require conversion from Digital to Analog, I don't even know if it is possible. Certainly it is not likely.

While the list of upconverting via component players has not been updated, several are still available used or refurbished on eBay. In addition, you may be able to get a refurbished Oppo from them directly. One new player available direct from China is the Kingwell 6900i for $139.00. I bought a prior model from them and was very satisfied. Here's a link:

http://www.kingwelltechnology.com/

Good luck,
Bob

Thanks BobKat. I found that www.hkflix.com had some Oppo 970s left. I ordered one on Saturday. With any luck I will get it this week. Interesting though, I would be curious if any members have tried that kingwell player.

Hi,
I just bought an Olivia 537H for my bedroom. Don't want to spend too much but could someone recommend inexpensive DVD player that can do progressive scan and upconversion to 1080i? Multi-region would be desirable too since we watch a lot of Bollywood movies.
Thx.

I am not very savvy about the options so need expert advice.

I have got the Samsung 1080p LN-T4671 and am not sure of what DVD player to buy. I plan to use the TV only for watching Dish Network-HD and DVD's (both HD and regular ones). I do not plan to use the TV for my computer or for gaming. I am leaning more towards buying a 1080p HD DVD player which will also upconvert regular DVD's to 1080p.

1. Is that the right approach, if so what 1080p DVD player should I get ? I would strongly prefer DVD players which are region free and can handle both PAL as well as NTSC. I would like to stay below $350 for my budget.
2. If the better approach is to just buy an upconverting 1080p DVD player. Which one should I buy. Seems that Oppo is the right choice but which Oppo is more compatible with this TV.
3. What other cables do I need to buy and from where ?

Thanks

HD-DVD players are a different forum. None of the SD-DVD players discussed here, including the Oppos, will play HD-DVD discs.

And: none of the HD-DVD players will play both NTSC and PAL or can be made region free for SD-DVD discs


Either the 980 or 981 would work fine. But again: neither plays HD-DVD.


What other cables other than what?

Buy them from forum sponsors:

http://www.monoprice.com/
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

-Bill

My dad was given a Sony Bravia DAV-HDX500 home theater system through work, which I promptly took from him and hooked up to my 1080p 42" Aquos. The DVD player upconverts to 1080i and I currently have it connected through the component cable that came with the system (it does have an HDMI output).

I put in Fantastic 4 just to see if there was going to be a difference and I was impressed! Much clearer than my old DVD player. One thing caught my eye, however. It seemed as though the highlights and shadows on the actors faces lagged behind their facial expessions. I found it quite annoying.

After a few minutes, I put in The Departed and this time everything looked fine. No lag in the highlights.

Does anyone know why it did that? When the characters moved, the light on their faces kinda 'floated' around a little until they stopped moving, then they would settle back into place.

[ One new player available direct from China is the Kingwell 6900i for $139.00. I bought a prior model from them and was very satisfied. Here's a link:

http://www.kingwelltechnology.com/

Good luck,
Bob[/quote]


I am interested in this too. I would be interested to know if anyone has any information on the kingwell in actual practice and how good it does on dvd upconversion via component. also is it region free.
thanks

What brand dvd was it. I am looking for one that will upconvert through component and do a good job of it.

The Sony Home Theater system has a dvd player built in. Only problem, this
unit (as most) will not upconvert over component. 480p is the best that
connection will do unless a hack has been applied.

error .... Sorry!

Yes, all flat panel displays (like your LCD) will deinterlace (if necessary) and scale (if necessary) any supported input signal to their native resolution. So an upscaling player is not mandatory. People sometimes feel they get better results from them, but it is just a question of where the deinterlacing and scaling is done: in the player or in the display. You can see differences by trying different gear and settings, but they can be subtle compared to the overall image.

-Bill

I believe your TV has a native resolution of 720p, so that would be your best bet.

I have the 532H and I recently bought a SpectroniQ PD-3000HD upconverting DVD player for $37 at my local HH Gregg. I am very pleased with it at this price, it has a few quirks but nothing that shutting down and turning back on cant fix.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am new into the HDTV world.

How good is the scaler in the Samsung 5054? I was going to buy one of those upconversion DVD players, but from what I am reading most are not as good at the upscaling than what is in the TV. I am not going to spend alot as this is just going to be used for about a year or so....because...

I am not quite ready to commit yet to Blu or HD-DVD and was wondering should I buy a upscaling DVD player or just get a better 'regular' DVD player?

Thanks for any help or recommendations!

PS. If I buy one I was going to most likey get this one...the Samsung 1080P7

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do

I can not comment on that specific unit, but both Circuit City and Best Buy have useful return policies. I purchased one unit from Best Buy, I don't recall the brand, and it choked on several of my favorite DVDs such as Lawrence of Arabia and so I returned it and wound up with a Sony unit that cost only a few dollars more and has worked very well with the DVDs that the other unit could not handle.

So if you get it test it out with your DVDs as soon as you can and keep the box and receipt handy.

how does the toshiba HD-A3 rate on its upconversion performance? is there an upconverting dvd player that will do a better job than the hd-a3 while costing no more than $150?

I just purchased the phillips dvp3960 only because it does up convert, has hdmi, plus its for a bedroom setup so I wanted a lower end unit. Anyone have any feedback on this unit? I watched a movie with it last night and it does a great job and for under $40 it can be beat.
Philips DVP3960

Doesn't the whole decision process of whether to get an upconverting player really depend on how well the HDTV does this?

I mean, the rage now days is to get 1080p HDTVs, whether they are plasma or LCD or DLP.

If you have not made the jump to HD-DVD or Blu-ray and still have an older DVD player, but one of the newer HDTV sets - why automatically assume that you have to go buy an upconverting DVD player?

How many have actually just tried letting their HDTV do the 'upconverting'.

It would be interesting to read about direct user experiences in comparing PQ between upconverting players and then outputting SD DVD as 480i and letting the HDTV do the 'upconversion' to whatever its native resolution is.

Also what about the potential of PQ loss with multiple conversions? Suppose you have a progressive scan DVD player or you have selected 720p output from your upconverting player -but your HDTV is 1080p - which means the original SD DVD 480i signal is converted twice: once by the upconverting player and once again at the HDTV.

One would think that doing fewer format conversions the better end PQ.

Even if the upconverting DVD player will output 1080p does that necessarily mean that in all instances it will be 'better' than if you simply kept your legacy DVD player and send the 480i signal directly to your HDTV to do the upconverting?

Erik

It's certainly a factor.


It's not mandatory.


I've always presumed that everyone has tried all combinations of deinterlacing and scaling. I do.


Although it is not a night-and-day difference, I can see an improvement with my gear when doing scaling in the player. But this is not true in all circumstances.


True. But maybe more true in theory than in practice


There are no firm rules as to this, so no it will not be better in all instances.

Just about everyone who posts says this, by the way. The forum motto should be "it depends".

-Bill

I need some advice. We just purchased the Samsung 46" 1080p 4661, and hooked it up to our old dvd player. Looked pretty good.

Is a 1080p upconverting dvd player worth getting, and if so any recommedations for brand/model?

All of this is pretty new to me, the 4661 just replaced a 10 year old 27" failing crt.

"Worth" is a subjective issue.

A new player may make a difference, but it won't turn SD-DVD into HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

Are you fanatical about your DVDs? That would help in justifying the expenditure. But note that the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players also play SD-DVD.

-Bill

Do you have to have an hdmi port to get the effects of the upscaling? My projector has component vga and video nad my DVD player just died last night and I dont want to buy hd or blue ray just yet. Thanks

Yeah, it's got the hdmi ports.

Short answer: yes, you need HDMI for upscaling.

More accurately: there is no technical reason why this should be so, but the industry no longer allows component scaling for feeble anti-piracy reasons. Some older players have hackable firmware that turn component upscaling back on.

The Oppo 970 has been popular for this. It is no longer made but you can find them used.

Else, the Oppo 980 ($169) has both component and HDMI, but you are limited to 480i and 480p over component for copy-protected discs.

-Bill

Are there any upconverting players to avoid because of poor upscaling pq?

The most important factor is deinterlacing performance. It happens before scaling and constrains how good the image can look. There are objective tests for deinterlacing; scaling quality is more a matter of personal preference. (I don't have a answer for your specific question).

You might look at the scores various players receive in the big database here: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi

Unfortunately, updates to that site have slowed way down. Many newer players are not shown.

-Bill

I just got my HT setup installed yesterday - no upconverting DVD (yet), just an old Sony that has component out to my Yamaha 1800 that I set to "Passthru" - but it does transcode component to HDMI and from there it goes to a Panasonic TH-50PZ77U.

I put in some SD DVDs and checked out the PQ - letting the Panny do the upconverting to 1080p. The only thing the AVR doing is the transcoding from analog component to digital HDMI at 480i since the Panny will support 480i over HDMI.

The PQ was really quite good - even standing up close about 4ft from the display.

I think for me, I don't see a need for an upconverting player.

Or, are there telltale details I should look for on an SD DVD that might suggest an upconverting DVD player would do a better job? Is there a specific movie/scene that would really push the envelope to reveal shortcomings that I can look for?

Thanks,
Erik

That would he hard to do without A/B switching between two players to see the differences.

Deinterlacing errors are easier to see. There is a big article here: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...e-10-2000.html

...and the index to the whole test suite is here: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi

-Bill

I have the same situation. Just purchased a Samsung LNT4661. I have an old Toshiba SD DVD player SD-K730 with component video out. Switching from composite to component video connections did noticeably improve the detail in the picture. Then I compared the present setup with the Toshiba HD-A2 using a HDMI connection and upconversion to 1080p. It was really hard to see much difference at all. Then I purchased a Oppo DV-980H and hooked it up via HDMI 1080p mode and played the same SD DVD's to compare to my Toshiba SD-k730. While the Oppo seemed slightly better, it was only a marginal difference. To describe it another way, in more static scenes, I really could not see any difference but scenes became more complex and dynamic, the nod went to the Oppo but it was not an earth shattering difference. In the end, I decided the improvement was not worth the $180+ dollars to replace my current setup.

If I were starting from scratch, I would spend the extra for the Oppo as there are other advantages such as the superior audio quality and Divx capability but for right now, I'll keep my wallet fatter and wait.

I too am new to the HD experience.
I have a 42" Panny PX75U and a Panny DVDS35.

When I play any DVD it plays through at 480i as indicated on the TV screen. Is there any way to get the TV to upconvert to 780p or 1080i? I can't seem to find any info anywhere. The DVD player does not have an HDMI port.

If I cannot do the above then I am considering purchasing an upconverting DVD player or HD/Blueray. My home theatre receiver does not have HDMI capability. Is this a problem?

If I do have to purchase a DVD player then there is another question that I have. My receiver has the option to use a DVD player with a 6 channel output. I have not been able to get much information on the latest DVD players with this feature. Is there an advantage to this technology? How much does it cost and where can I find further info?

With BlueRay and HD-DVD, would I see a clear difference from an upconverting player? Is it worth the investment at this stage or do you feel that they will go the way of the 8-track/cassette tapes?

Thank you, as always, for any advice you can give.
G

As asked, how important is DivX when purchasing an upconverting DVD player?