mijang

I am thinking about purchasing a new upconverting DVD player. My only concern is whether it is really a necessity because I keep reading that an upconverting DVD player will only improve the video if the upconverting is better than what is built into your TV.

My television is a Sony 50" Grand WEGA™ SXRD Rear Projection HDTV, model KDS-50A2000. I have looked on the Sony website and in the instruction manual and have found no specifics on the built-in upconverting. And to be frank, even if I did, I'm not sure if I would even know if it were better than that of a potential new DVD player.

Does anyone know the specifics of the upconverting on my TV? The quality? Is it 1080i or 1080p? The DVD players I am considering are the Denon DVD-1730 and the Denon DVD-1930CI.

jonw9

A TV will upconvert (or down possibly) to it's native signal. A 720p signals will turn inputs to 720p and so forth.

You have a 1080p set, so any input signal is converted to 1080p.
I don't know much about the Denon players. I just got my Oppo 970HD today so I will report back on that later.

I am guessing the greatest benefit will probably be from the HDMI signal than any conversion, but I could be wrong.

Spiky

Well, those TVs are supposed to be pretty good. And those Denons aren't bad either. Generally it is better to have it done in the player, if everything is equal.

atlantamoi

I find all this a bit confusing. I read on AVS that it's better to leave your DVD player at 480p or 480i if you are playing a normal (non-HD) DVD and let your TV do the work. Maybe that was just in a Panny thread where I read that. I guess when my Oppo arrives I'll just mess around and see what looks best.

jonw9

I got my Oppo last night (970HD).

I messed around with the various resolutions and found 720p to be the best.
It all depends on your sets internal workings. Apparently the deinterlacing and scaling is better on the Oppo than my set.

It is tough to say though, as you need to stop the player to change resolutions. It would be much easier to compare on the fly.

mzupeman2

No doubt, the upconversion in my Sony Wega LCD Rear Projection 42A10 has some nice upconverting capabilities. There's definitely an amazing opportunity to utilize this, but this TV uses a DRC Palette which is a small square graph, where you can adjust 'reality' and 'clarity'. There's 0-100 each way and of course any variation of each is possible. It's insanely hard for me to utilize the TV the way I would probably find to be acceptable, because I just don't know where to go with it. That's the only reason right now why I'm not utilizing the TV's upconverting capabilities.

cultshock

The SXRDs have that DRC Palette too. I don't use it though, because that feature is only available if you send a 480i signal from the DVD player, not 480p. I've heard some people on other forums say that it is better to send a 480i signal for the TV to upconvert, and then tweak it, but after comparing, a 480p signal looks much better on my tv. Anyway, the SXRD does a great job in upcoverting IMO. Of course it's probably a YMMV deal, where some DVD players may do a better job than the TV and some do a worse job.

mzupeman2

Well yeah, but if I went for an upconverting DVD player, I wouldn't spend that much, probably a hundred dollars and I'd go for the Panny. My TV probably does a comparable if not better job than that. Again, it's just that I'm so unsure of where I should have my DRC palette set, that I just can't be bothered with it. I can get a sharper image out of the 480i signal, although the upconversion seems to mess with the black levels a bit... but 480p has been fine for me all this time as well... so 480p I stay.

cultshock

Me too. I'm sure that some time down the road, I'll buy a player of some sort that does a better job of upconverting than my TV does, but for now, I'm satisfied letting my TV do it as it seems to do so quite well.

Mr. Salty

I have that same TV, and the built-in upconverting is pretty good.

I just ordered the Oppo 981HD DVD player. It'll be here on Tuesday, so I can post then if there's much improvement.

cultshock

Yes, please report on that when you can. If it does a noticably better job of upconverting than the SXRD does, I may pick one up too, but if not, I won't bother.

atlantamoi

Got my Oppo 970 yesterday. Honestly, I didn't notice a huge difference between that and my cheapy Philips 642. I need to mess around with it more I think. I tried 480p, 720p and 1080i on my Panny 50'' 60U 720p. It's through HDMI as well.

This is a silly question, but if I'm playing the DVD at 480p my TV should automatically upconvert to 720, yeah? I mean, the only settings I would need to make are through the DVD player?

jonw9

Yeah, the TV will convert to 720p, the changes you would make are to the player output. I would figure ideally the output would be 480p or 720p. I think 1080i would just add unnecessary conversions, and extra interlacing, and another deinterlacing by your set.

Mr. Salty

I've only had a couple of days to play with my new Oppo 981HD, but so far I'm impressed.

I'm running the Oppo to the Sony KDS-50A2000 using the supplied HDMI cable, and output is set to match the TV's native 1080p. The Sony SXRDs have excellent built-in upscaling, so the improvement isn't night and day. But the picture does seem consistently smoother, with less of what looked like edge enhancement (I don't think it was edge enhancement, but that's kind of what it looked like).

Build quality is excellent (it weighs more than most players its size). Couple that with all the other capabilities of the Oppo, and it's a steal at $230. SACD, DVD-A, multi-region, converts PAL to NTSC, and it plays DivX and Xvid-encoded data discs, and MP3 and (I think) WMA music discs.

The only weakness is the remote. The buttons are too small, badly laid out, and poorly labeled. But worse, the remote has to pointed almost directly at the face of the player.

But that's a minor complaint. I've already set up my Home Theater Master MX-500 to work with it, so the factory remote is going into a drawer anyway.

My previous player, by the way, was a second-generation Sony --- I think the model number is DVP-S300.

cultshock

Thanks for the report, it sounds pretty nice.

thursdaynighter

Well, I bought a basic HTB for $400 (Panasonic ht940 with upconverter). I have a Sony 60" LCD and the results are mixed. I put Troy in the first night and after some adjustments and my eyes getting used to the picture, it looked very good. Other movies are ok. I wish there was some all-encompassing rules to make a great picture, as there are sooo many different settings to choose from. I REALLY wish the TV and DVD player manuals went into more detail. A manual lists features but doesn't go into detail as to what they can do. For those that have great pictures....any ideas as to how to make an optimum picture witht he equipment that I have?

Spiky

Start with a setup DVD like Digital Video Essentials. If you still think it may be less than perfect after that $17 purchase, look for your local ISF tech to come out and play with the TV for around $400.

mzupeman2

Well remember thursdaynighter, that not every DVD is going to look great. You can see Star Wars Episodes I-III for the difference of compression over time. Episode I was really soft, some edge enhancement here and there... at other times it looked pretty good. Episodes II and III though, look to be almost HD with the upconversion.

Mr. Salty, your thoughts on the TV's upconverting adding some edge enhancement is correct from my experience. Sony's upconversion does add some edge enhancement. Can't speak about other brands though.

thursdaynighter

Well, the more I mess around with the settings I am getting better and better results. Last night my wife and I watched Layer Cake and Rocky (original) and the picture and sound was outstanding!

PS...went through and looked at movies that I just recently watched on my old player at 480p and the upconverted 720p looks very, very good. Had my doubts about upconversion but now I'm a believer.