DVD OAR Upscaling and Playstation 3 help
04-30-08, 12:18 AM
#1
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DVD OAR Upscaling and Playstation 3 help
I bit the bullet and bought a Playstation 3, today. (I've wanted a Blu-ray player for a while, GTA IV was the final nail in the coffin) I was playing around with some DVDs as I was curious how they looked. This is the first DVD player that correctly detects the OAR of the DVD and displays it accordingly. Every other player I've ever had, if you had a 4:3 image but widescreen TV, the picture would be stretched.
So that's great, then I wondered what would happen with a letterboxed, 4:3 (letterboxed to 16:9) film. I popped the movie in, and bam, a nice, windowboxed (all four sides) picture. Grrrrrrreat. That's ok, I'll just zoom the picture on my TV. Oh, er, I'm already on the widescreen setting. If I go to one of the zoom modes, it assumes a 4:3 image when my PS3 is outputting 16x9.
I think it has something to do with the upscaler. If i turn it off, the image fills the screen, just like it did on my older players, but now my TV is doing the upscaling and it's just so-so. Doubler, I guess, is a straight line doubler. Normal looks best. Full seems to stretch the image left and right but not up and down. I suppose if you have a 4:3 show and don't want black bars on the sides.
So, any suggestions? (Other than buy anamorphic DVDs!)
The Blu-ray, by the way, looks phenomenal. My PS3 came with a demo disc with lots of trailers. I rented a BD (A Clockwork Orange) just to test it out, I'm in love. I think the best part is the pop-up menu. I love being able to change languages, look through the special features, all on the fly while the film is still playing.
So that's great, then I wondered what would happen with a letterboxed, 4:3 (letterboxed to 16:9) film. I popped the movie in, and bam, a nice, windowboxed (all four sides) picture. Grrrrrrreat. That's ok, I'll just zoom the picture on my TV. Oh, er, I'm already on the widescreen setting. If I go to one of the zoom modes, it assumes a 4:3 image when my PS3 is outputting 16x9.
I think it has something to do with the upscaler. If i turn it off, the image fills the screen, just like it did on my older players, but now my TV is doing the upscaling and it's just so-so. Doubler, I guess, is a straight line doubler. Normal looks best. Full seems to stretch the image left and right but not up and down. I suppose if you have a 4:3 show and don't want black bars on the sides.
So, any suggestions? (Other than buy anamorphic DVDs!)
The Blu-ray, by the way, looks phenomenal. My PS3 came with a demo disc with lots of trailers. I rented a BD (A Clockwork Orange) just to test it out, I'm in love. I think the best part is the pop-up menu. I love being able to change languages, look through the special features, all on the fly while the film is still playing.
05-01-08, 08:27 PM
#2
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Yeah, I am not enthusiastic about my PS3's upscaling of SD material like DVDs and DIVX avi files. Luckily, I hung on to my Oppo 980H, which does perform those tasks beautifully. I will mess around with my setup to see if I can replicate your symptoms, and report back with a solution if I can. What TV is your PS3 hooked up to?
05-05-08, 07:46 PM
#5
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No rush. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. For the record, the upscaling looks beautiful and it works just like it's supposed to for letterboxed films. It's the 4:3 DVDs that act strange.
BUT, not as big a deal, I got a free remote, today (Circuit City giving them away free, Best Buy matched it for me) and it makes changint the settings pretty straight-forward.
BUT, not as big a deal, I got a free remote, today (Circuit City giving them away free, Best Buy matched it for me) and it makes changint the settings pretty straight-forward.
