I just got a 40inch HDTV and a dvd player that has the upconverter built in. The DVD player has a resolution setting button that allows me to choose either 480i, 720p, or 1080i. But no matter which resolution I choose, the picture quality stays the same. Does anyone know why this is the case? I'm connected though the HDMI. Here are the models of my TV and DVD player:

Samsung HDTV Model: LN-R409D
- http://samsung.com/Products/TV/LCDTV/LNR409DXXAA.asp

LG DVD Player Model: LDA511 http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/LG-HD...oductDetail.do

The likely reason is that your TVs scaler is as good as the DVDp's. I don't know the quality of that LG unit, but that is likely the reason.

Most (all?) fixed-pixel displays have their own scaler (it will convert all sources to 760p in your case). So, on its own the TV is coverting the DVD from 480p to 760p. If the DVDp does a better job, then setting it at 720p would show a benefit.

I agree with MBS. The scaler in your tv is quite good (I have the 26 inch version in my bedroom). Although I don't have experience with your dvd player, I would not be surprised at all if its scaler isn't as good as the tv's scaler (after all, $120 for an upconverting DVD player is on the very low end of price). If you are happy with the picture you are getting, then forget the upconversion and enjoy! However, if you want more and/or have the urge to tweak, try out a better upconverting DVDp. I use a Denon 2910 ($700) with my Samsung DLP and 720p looks much better than 480p. You should be able to find a dealer that will let you try out another DVD player for a few days to see if it makes a difference.

Thanks for the explaination. So the tv's scaler and the dvd's upconverter are basically the same thing? I will return the dvd player and try different model to see if it makes any difference.

Pretty much. Your tv has a fixed resolution of (approximately) 720p. In order to display an image, the tv must scale all incoming signals to match it's native resolution. Some tvs do that quite well and others do not. If your tv has a good scaler, you should feed it 480i from your DVDp (in other words, don't let the DVDp do any scaling at all, not even progressive scan). Since your tv has a good scaler, you will probably need a pretty good DVDp to see a difference. The Denon 1920 is a good choice at $250. I use the 2910 at $700 and like it very much. I'd bring a new player home and do an A/B comparison between 480i (i.e. using the tv's scaler exclusively) and 720p to see if you see a difference. If so, go with the new player. If not, save yourself some money!

A slight twist on the above:

That TV has a WXGA resolution of 768p rather than an HDTV resolution of 720p. unless you are able to feed it exactly its native 768p resolution (like from a PC), it will ALWAYS be rescaling the signal. Depending on how much processing it does to do this, it may not matter what scaler is in the DVD player. You could potentially see the same results from a standalone scaler for $3000 if sending it a non-native signal.

Good point. It has been my experience that scaling from 720p to 768p doesn't create the same problems as scaling from 480i to 768p.

You could always get the new Anthem D2 that will scale to just about any resolution you can think of (including 768p). It's a bargain at $6500

My set is also a 768p set. But I do see a difference when using my Oppo (or HTPC) at 720p. The TV is still scaling from 720p -> 768p, of course, but the Oppo doing most of the scaling (480p -> 720p) does improve the quality to a noticible extent.

I bought a samsung 850 dvd player.. I had nothing but problems with it.. the picture was too dark at 1080i.. the picture at 480P looked better on my cheaper dvd player.. so I took the upconverter back to ciruit city.
I would try a differnt dvd player for upconversion.
JACOB

Did you even try calibrating your TV at the different resolutions? Most TVs store separate settings for each resolution input. There is absolutely no technical reason why an upconverted DVD image would be darker than the original 480i. Upconversion does not affect image values such as brightness or color.

I did.. but then it would be over 50 percent in brightnes, contrast, etc.

JACOB

Again, upconversion does not affect brightness. If your calibration settings are drastically different at 480i and 1080i, this is probably an issue with your TV.

I have the new Pioneer 4360 plasma, and I'm thinking of getting an upconverting player. Would there be a very noticable difference? My current player is a bit old and is connected via component cables.

So if yes, I'd like some recommendations as to what's the better upconverting DVD player on the market. Two points however, I'd like a region-free player, and also one that allows pillarboxing upscaled 4:3 content.

I would think the Oppo player should be the one you look into: http://www.oppodigital.com/

I'm very happy with my Oppo; like the user above, even though my Toshiba 42 WLT58 has a very decent scaler built in, the Oppo's scaler makes a significant improvement.

The Oppo can be made region free easily and does a great job with 4:3 content - see this thread over at the AVS forum.

The only thing I would say is that the Oppo is only considered average via component; connecting via DVI/HDMI is a must.

It looks good but I see it has no HDMI out, only DVI that you can then connect to an HDMI input via a DVI-to-HDMI switcher. That can't be too good.

My HD TiVo is HDMI out and my TV is DVI only. I have a $5 adapter attached to the cable and have no complaints.

HDMI and DVI are nearly identical for video. The only practical difference is the connector shape. You could call HDMI an upgrade or specific use of DVI technology.