[jadkar]

I didn't really know where the best place to post this was and this is a "general" home theatre forum so I figured here would be a OK place. Moderator please move this if need be.


ok....So I have had my theatre for a while but never understood "up-scaling" completely. I know what it means but I don't know how it applies to my particular setup. I have decided to inquire about it now because I bought a new Yamaha RX-V765bl receiver to replace my 5 year old Sony ES receiver. This receiver has some sort of up-scaling ability in it.


Setup....


Panasonic AE700 projector

Yamaha RX-V765BL


inputs:

Motorola HD DVR

PS3

Dell Studio XPS 435mt


I know when using the cable receiver on HD channels I probably don't need any kind of up-scaling. However I have the following questions.....


-What happens when I am watching a non-HD channel. Does the receiver upscale automatically? Does my projector also? What happens if they both try to?


-My HTPC is set to HD screen resolution on the PC itself. so I would assume it doesn't need to upscale. However my DVDs that I watch (on MyMovies jukebox) are not in HD. The PC I guess is stretching them to fit the resolution I have on the desktop. Is the PC up-scaling? Is the receiver doing anything with this image? I'm particularly confused about this because if I analyze the signal with my receiver it claims it's a 1080i input signal (probably because that's the resolution I picked on the PC to output) but does that mean it's not trying to optimize my DVD that's playing on the PC?


I hope I am not confusing with what I am trying to convey. Unfortunately the manuals to my projector and receiver don't really touch on this topic.



Thanks!!

 

[imjay]

Our Panasonic projector is supposed to Up Convert(up scale) but it doesn't do nearly as good a job with standard def movies as our dvd player with up converted HDMI output. We see a HUGE difference is image quality when the player does the up scaling.


We don't watch much television programming using our projector - we prefer large screen TV for that stuff and it does okay upconverting standard def DirecTV programming to an acceptible quality image considering most tv programming is just fluffy stuff anyway.


I 've thought about buying a stand alone up scaling unit and am waiting for the 2010 models to all be released to see if spending all that cash will really be worth the result.

 

[typh00n]

I have no idea where this thread should go but it seems this is a room/building forum, I'd say something like Display Calibration might get more responses. I found it via google, trying to find specific information on upscaling of projectors vs. receivers.


I have a epson 8500UB and will have a Denon 790 next week, but I'm not sure which is better at upscaling

 

[BartMan01]

There is no 'pat' answer to the question and it will all be device dependent.


For example: I have a 65" Mitsubishi CRT RPTV. It only accepts 1080i and 480i/p inputs, and natively displays 480p and 1080i. It only scales letterboxed DVD's (or other 4:3 content) properly when fed a 480i/p input. It can not handle 720p at all, and has only a couple of zoom options for 1080i.


So for that set:

If the source is 1080i or 480i/p I typically don't want it touched unless the source has the appropriate zoom options to fit letterboxed 4:3 to a 16:9 screen. So for some DVD players and SD TV, it is critical to me that the material is passed 'as is'.

If the source is 720p and the source has no scaler (like the PS3 with some games) then I have to have to have it upscaled to 1080i by another device or I am stuck with 480p. In this case it is critical to me that 720p is upscaled to 1080i by the receiver or an external scaler.


On the other hand, my smaller downstairs TV is a 1080p LCD set. It will accept 480i/p or 1080i/p inputs and displays 1080p natively. For that set, the question becomes which device has the better scaler. Everything needs to end up 1080p and some scalers do this better than others. If the scaler in the TV is better, then I would use it. If the scaler in the source device was better, I would use that. And if the scaler in the receiver is better, then again I would use that.


You have to look at each device in the video chain and make a device by device determination on what to do with the signal.