[Greg Young]

My question is if I purchase a dvd player (new Marantz, Panasonic, Denon 5900) dvd player that has a 720p can I actually get that on my DLP that takes 720p. The reason I ask is because I have been told a dvd is fomated to go so high (progressive scan) and that's it. So are these dvd players with 720p are they for the future or can you get 720p now. Secondly, if you get 720p now do you get it because you use your dvi or hdmi output to your dvd player or can you get it with component too. Thanks for any help Greg

 

[ThumperBoy]

The current DVDs are limited to 480line source video, those new players merely upconvert to 720p or 1080i format, but thats not true HD. They are scaling the lower resolution source material which can introduce artifacts.

 

[mnilan]

Greg:

I have a DLP and I have a Bravo D1 DVD Player. The advantage of this setup is that the Bravo D1 allows you to keep the image signal path in the digital domain until it reaches your eyes. While ThumperBoy may be correct about the upscaling introducing artifacts, I can assure you unconditionally that an upscaling, DVI-output DVD player will give you the best image on your DLP that you can get from a DVD. See the October (I think) Widescreen Review of the Bravo D1 for a more authoritative description.


720p is the resolution of your DLP and your DLP scales everything to that resolution. However, if you are using a non-upscaling DVI-output DVD player, your DLP scales the image up to 720p AFTER some D/A and A/D conversions. There is MUCH MORE noise introduced into the image signal by this process than by the scaling process. And, in this case, the DLP is upscaling this noise to 720p along with the image. So, if you can get the image to your DLP WITHOUT any D/A and A/D conversions, you will have a better image. Period. This may NOT be the case with CRT-based displays although that would depend on the quality of the chip that does the scaling in the TV...


Many of the recent and upcoming upscaling DVI-output DVD players do not upscale on the component outputs because component outputs do not have HDCP - this is a concession to those wise folks in Hollywood. You are probably going to be in the market for a DVI switch if you go this route...

 

[makanan]

Mnilan,


An ignorant question: why does the DLP display device do D/A or A/D conversion of any signal it gets from a DVI-in? Regardless of the resolution, isn't the signal coming over the DVI always digital? I thought the benefit of DVI was that the signal is always digital and that you would let your DLP display device do the scaling to 720p if it had a better scaler than your DVD player. I'm probably just lost in my shorts so please straighten me out.

 

[mnilan]

makanan:

You are correct, the DVI is a digital input. I have never tried to switch between scaling on DVD player versus the DLP, so you may also be correct that the DLP might do a better job of of the scaling. My impression from the Widescreen Review article on the Bravo D1 was that the scaling was better in the D1 but I now need to go test it with my own eyes . Let me get back to you in a day or two...


I did do several "blind" tests between the DVI input from the Bravo D1 and the component input from both a Pioneer 45A and a Toshiba 4700 with my wife and several friends. There was an improvement when I output 480i from the Pioneer and the Toshiba (and let the DLP do the de-interlacing) but the Bravo won hands down each time for each person who judged. So I'm sold on DVI and hoping a reasonably priced player with good build quality comes out soon. Maybe the D2 due out in Feb...

 

[makanan]

Thanks Minlan. I think I will wait for the new crop of DVI equipped DVD players and try to find one that will send 480i over DVI (although I've seen conflicting posts about whether any will send 480i over DVI). I haven't seen video via DVI but am looking forward to it. Please let me know how your DLP scales compared to your DVD player. Have a good weekend.

 

[ThumperBoy]

Ah so you didn't compare with a top-quality Faroudja-based player!