Highgear

I'm a little new to the HT world. I have had a progressive scan player for some time but was unable to use it due to my 12yo.XBR that only had s-video....no component hook-up. We just purchased a Panasonic TH-42PX5OU HD plasma. The first video was Princess Diaries 2 DVD for my little one. I could SEE the difference when I activated the progressive scan. WOW, what a picture. After witnessing this, my eyes are now open to the what is possible with home theater. My question now is. Will I see any change in DVD picture quality if I go to say a Panasonic DVD-S77S that is a HD DVD player. I did a little research and found that some of the new HD DVD players have a DCDI chip in them that smooths out stair-step edges. Although I don't think the Panasonic has that chip. So, should I make the jump to a HD-DVD player?

bryce0lynch

HD DVD players don't exist yet. What you are referring to are upscaling DVD players. Consensus seems to be that if you have a digital Tv with a DVI/HMDI port, then you should get an upsampling DVD player. Your plasma is analog.

BobDole42

Highgear's plasma is an HD set with a native resolution of 1024x768. An upscaling DVD player that can output 720p would likely make a very noticable difference. Check out the Oppo or the Denon 1920, to name a couple.

Edit: just checked the specs - the Panasonic TH-42PX5OU can accept 720p via the hdmi input. Definitely check out an upscaling player.

Highgear

Thanks Bob for the encouragement. As I said, I'm fascinated with the bright colors and smooth picture in the progressive mode of my old DVD player. If I can get a better picture, I want it. Tomorrow Direct TV will be installing a HD reciever. Should I have him hook it up component and save the HDMI for the a new DVD player?

Thanks!

BobDole42

Yep, use the component input for the Direct TV and save the hdmi for the new dvd player. In my opinion (and many would agree) the improvement you will see from using an upscaling player is much more significant than the change from an interlaced to a progressive scan player. The Panasonic plasmas are awesome - enjoy!

Superman07

personally i'd use the hdmi for the direct tv feed. 2 reasons:

hdmi calbe is more expensive. if you want to switch you can go buy a set of comp. cables for cheap and swap the setup yourself.

second, why use the better capability connection for a pq that will be worse no matter what you do?! bottom line is dvds are 480 nomatter what you do to them. sure you can use the upscale feature, but your alterning the signal significantly. if you use the hdmi for the direct tv you'll be getting digital signal output through the dtv box straight to the plasma. true hd. true digital.

better you two to nothing if you try both you'll get a better result with hdtv through the hdmi port.

mbs

Your first point is a good one. If they'll give you a cable, might as well take the expensive HDMI one.

However, I disagree on your other points. First, IMO, an upconverting player (from 480i to 720p) makes a HUGE difference, at least on my set and to my eyes. Second, component cables will not give you an inferior signal. Both cables are more than capable of displaying 1080i with no degredation.

Superman07

well what i meant to convey here was that you would be taking a digital signal, converting it to analog, and then back to digital if you use the compnent cables. not that they aren't capable of displaying 1080i, but rather that you'd be picking up noise and signal loss from the conversion.

joshd2012

Another option:

http://www.beachaudio.com/product_in...mi142&ref=true

Get a switch box and have them both go through HDMI.

digitalfreaknyc

doesn't support 1080i.

jpfisher

Direct TV's HD package is very lacking and is, IMO, not worth the $300 cost of the new receiver (plus you have to upgrade to a 3-LNB Oval dish if you have an old style 1-LNB round dish - the oval dish doesn't work as well in bad weather).

I'd just use component to connect the DirectTV receiver and use HDMI for the DVD player -- I think you'll find yourself getting better use out of that.

-- Jim

Spiky

Not necessarily. Most digital displays convert to analog inside regardless of what connection you use, so it's happening no matter what. Dirty little secret. This is why so many people are shocked to not see a difference between component and DVI/HDMI connections for HD sources. And any loss is far less than the benefit you get using an upconverting DVD player compared to a standard progressive player, if the TV has a good scaler.

It still comes down to the quality of the TV's processing vs the source's processing.