[sabt]

Just bought a Toshiba HD-D2 (same as HD-A2 but comes with an HDMI cable). Here are some pics of the Toshiba and Philips. The Day After Tomorrow, Chapter 16, fed into a Vizio LCD 42" via HDMI. The Toshiba has the vertical compression problem, just like the Philips and unlike the Sony 75H. For some reason, at 480p, the picture is enlarged and cropped on the right.


I also posted a thread on the Philips and Sony 75H


Philips 1080i

Toshiba 1080i

Philips 720p

Toshiba 720p

Philips 480p

Toshiba 480p

 

[xenon2000]

Pictures are not close enough for me to really see any resolution differences between all those examples. Pretty much just coloring differences. But that could also be a camera that is not set to a static manual exposure and white balance.


I thought the 42" Vizio LCD wasn't true 720p at 1366x768, but instead it's a non square pixel format res of 1024x768.


I just had the Vizio 47" 1080p LCD and returned it because the light leakage was so bad at anything other than dead center viewing. Also it couldn't handle a 1080p resolution via the VGA port I was using for my HTPC. Also the text of the menus was an awefule color scheme, hard to read yellow text on white background. And tiny font. Not sure if the 42" model is the same, but I suspect it is.

 

[piturra]



Quote:
Originally Posted by xenon2000 /forum/post/0


Pictures are not close enough for me to really see any resolution differences between all those examples. Pretty much just coloring differences. But that could also be a camera that is not set to a static manual exposure and white balance.

The difference between my Toshiba HD-A1 w/v2.0 FW vs. my Philips 5960/37 coloring, exposure and white balance was a non-issue because I ...

Calibrated each HDMI Video Inputs using Digital Video Essentials (verified w/HD DVD DVE)!


So I concentrated on the sharpness and clarity which was so close that my Philips 5960/37 is now my Main SD DVD player. The slight Philips compression vs. my Toshiba HD-A1 was obvious since my HD-A1 does not have any compression.


One day when I have time, I'll create a Philips 5960/37 480 > 1080i vs. Toshiba HD-A1 480 > 1080i SD DVD comparison using "Serenity" or "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"!


By the way, nice comparison pic's sabt!


Phil

 

[xenon2000]

I still think the images look too similar to tell any real difference. A closeup of his eyes would be more helpful. Not just cropping, but a picture from about 2 feet away. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[sabt]



Quote:
Originally Posted by piturra /forum/post/0


The difference between my Toshiba HD-A1 w/v2.0 FW vs. my Philips 5960/37 coloring, exposure and white balance was a non-issue because I ...

Calibrated each HDMI Video Inputs using Digital Video Essentials (verified w/HD DVD DVE)!


So I concentrated on the sharpness and clarity which was so close that my Philips 5960/37 is now my Main SD DVD player. The slight Philips compression vs. my Toshiba HD-A1 was obvious since my HD-A1 does not have any compression.


One day when I have time, I'll create a Philips 5960/37 480 > 1080i vs. Toshiba HD-A1 480 > 1080i SD DVD comparison using "Serenity" or "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"!


By the way, nice comparison pic's sabt!


Phil

Well the HD-A2 does have the compression because there was no difference in picture size. My Sony 75H's pics were slightly taller.

 

[sabt]



Quote:
Originally Posted by xenon2000 /forum/post/0


Pictures are not close enough for me to really see any resolution differences between all those examples. Pretty much just coloring differences. But that could also be a camera that is not set to a static manual exposure and white balance.


I thought the 42" Vizio LCD wasn't true 720p at 1366x768, but instead it's a non square pixel format res of 1024x768.


I just had the Vizio 47" 1080p LCD and returned it because the light leakage was so bad at anything other than dead center viewing. Also it couldn't handle a 1080p resolution via the VGA port I was using for my HTPC. Also the text of the menus was an awefule color scheme, hard to read yellow text on white background. And tiny font. Not sure if the 42" model is the same, but I suspect it is.

42" Vizio is true 720p. It's not 1024x768. I don't know of any 42" LCD HDTV that is 1024x768; only the plasmas.

 

[xenon2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sabt /forum/post/0


42" Vizio is true 720p. It's not 1024x768. I don't know of any 42" LCD HDTV that is 1024x768; only the plasmas.

Thanks. You are right. I was looking at the 42" 720p Plasma. So used to looking at 1080p LCDs, that I forget that I have been looking at mainly plasmas for 720p solutions. Lame that the smaller plasma solutions are 1024x768 instead of 1366x768.


Though it's even more strange that 720p displays (other than projectors) use 1366x768 instead of the 720p standard which is 1280x720. Guess no one wants to do 720p at the native 1:1 pixel mapping.

 

[Huey]

Look guys, 5982 is good because it's 1) cheap, 2) versatile (region free, DivX, USB, video controls, passes BTB), 3) Mediatek chipset (fast layer changes, good PQ), 4) easy to use, 5) easy on the eyes (thin, black, display not too bright), but it's certainly not the best upconverter--that would be the Reon VX (expensive Denons, XA2), ABT (HD-A2, A1, A20), external scalers, or good HTPC with modern video cards.


Why wear out your HD-DVD or BD player loaders with SD-DVDs prematurely when you can buy Philips so cheap? Save your expensive players for HD playback only.

 

[sabt]



Quote:
Originally Posted by xenon2000 /forum/post/0


Thanks. You are right. I was looking at the 42" 720p Plasma. So used to looking at 1080p LCDs, that I forget that I have been looking at mainly plasmas for 720p solutions. Lame that the smaller plasma solutions are 1024x768 instead of 1366x768.

Though it's even more strange that 720p displays (other than projectors) use 1366x768 instead of the 720p standard which is 1280x720. Guess no one wants to do 720p at the native 1:1 pixel mapping.

I think it has to do something with computers and computer monitors supporting 1366x768. I think it was less costly to just continue with that resolution rather than creating new 1280x720 substrates, or something like that...who knows!!!

 

[sabt]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Huey /forum/post/0


Look guys, 5982 is good because it's 1) cheap, 2) versatile (region free, DivX, USB, video controls, passes BTB), 3) Mediatek chipset (fast layer changes, good PQ), 4) easy to use, 5) easy on the eyes (thin, black, display not too bright), but it's certainly not the best upconverter--that would be the Reon VX (expensive Denons, XA2), ABT (HD-A2, A1, A20), external scalers, or good HTPC with modern video cards.

I'm glad you didn't mention those ugly OPPOs

Quote:
Why wear out your HD-DVD or BD player loaders with SD-DVDs prematurely when you can buy Philips so cheap? Save your expensive players for HD playback only.

You make an excellent point. I probably can just put the Philips on top of my Toshiba considering the Philips is literally 1/5 of the weight and size.

 

[naschbac]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Huey /forum/post/0


Look guys, 5982 is good because it's 1) cheap, 2) versatile (region free, DivX, USB, video controls, passes BTB), 3) Mediatek chipset (fast layer changes, good PQ), 4) easy to use, 5) easy on the eyes (thin, black, display not too bright), but it's certainly not the best upconverter--that would be the Reon VX (expensive Denons, XA2), ABT (HD-A2, A1, A20), external scalers, or good HTPC with modern video cards.


Why wear out your HD-DVD or BD player loaders with SD-DVDs prematurely when you can buy Philips so cheap? Save your expensive players for HD playback only.

Only the HD-A20 has the ABT chip of the gen.2 players. The HD-A2/D2 uses the Celeron M CPU and a software scaling algorithm. Given enough CPU power the software route could actually be the best, but I doubt that's the case here.

 

[DonoMan]

Celeron M has plenty of power for scaling. Scaling takes very little power compared to deinterlacing.

 

[naschbac]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DonoMan /forum/post/0


Celeron M has plenty of power for scaling. Scaling takes very little power compared to deinterlacing.

I don't know what other tasks the CPU has to contend with; audio, video, etc.


However if Toshiba makes a really solid scaling algorithm, and you're feeding a 1080i display so that you don't have to rely on the A2 for de-interlacing, then the A2 should be a VERY competent upscaling DVD player.


At this point I'm becoming less and less inclined to get an A20 just for the ABT1018 chip. The A2 audio should be better (1.5 Mbit DTS instead of 640 Kbit DD over toslink), and since I don't have a 1080p display, and doubt I will for quite some time, the $250 A2/D2 is looking better and better.