sbelli

I am a happy owner of an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on and love the picture quality of just about every HD DVD movie I get my hands on.

And, yes, I know that I cannot upscale standard DVDs via component thanks to industry "rules". Yet with the many titles unavailable on HD DVD, I really, really wish it would upscale as I've heard that good upscaling can look pretty darn close to HD DVD quality.

Would love to get an upscaling player, but my TV doesn't have HDMI or VGA (funny, I remember back when I purchased my Mitsubishi WS-48313 a four years ago the salesman told me that DVI would make it "future proof").

Can't afford a new TV either. But what really frustrates me is that I really don't understand why there are rules on upscaling over component. I know it has to do with copy protection and I would assume that means they think pirates could make better copies with upscaling. But if they've already broken the copy protection on HD DVDs and Blu Ray discs, what's the point? Is there a reason why the industry still has to restrict upscaling over component?

Can anyone point me to a good article that explains why it's such a big deal to allow upscaling over component?

dick_grayson

I don't know the answer to your question, but this might be helpful.....

There's an Oppo upconverting dvd player that has dvi out. It's, at most, $200


oppodigital.com

matome

Your Mitsu has DVI then? You can get an HDMI to DVI cable and it *may* work if your TV is HDCP compatible. That's a big if. My first Sammy DLP set purchased in 12/02 was surprisingly able to take the upconvert signal from Denon through it's DVI jack. I didn't think it would've been HDCP compatible from back then.

EDIT: I just found this blurb from googling:

You may want to pick up an upconverting DVD player and an HDMI to DVI cable from monoprice and give it a shot, as it looks like the connection may work.

Hammer99

If they allowed upscaling over component, J6P could hook up a DVD recorder directly to the player and make copies. More of a potential loss I guess than ripping + burning on a PC.

sbelli

matome -

Thanks. I've thought about trying an HDMI to DVI cable - when I get the cash to buy another upscaling player (since my pre-Elite 360 doesn't have the HDMI). Just wish there wasn't the component restrictions since the 360 already is an upscaling player.

Spiderbite

But I thought that was what the copyright protection on the disc itself prevented?

DVD Josh

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the first OPPO player did not have HDCP codecs, meaning that you could hook it up to a HDCP or non-HDCP display device.

Spiky

This is the reason behind the not-over-component rule. Of course, there are no DVDRs that accept component input, so......

Cemetery Man

My modded Xbox 1 does a great job upconverting over component. Of course luckily I happened to have one already as opposed to having to buy a dvd player since I'll buy some sort of brd/hddvd combo player sometime in the future.

Drexl

The protection on the disc supposedly protects the ripping of the content.

HDCP supposedly protects the capture of the content in the digital realm.

No upscaling over component supposedly protects the capture of the content in the analog realm. The reason for the rule is that Macrovision, which supposedly protects the capture of content in SD, doesn't work in HD.

sbelli

Well, I just purchased a Spectron IQ Upscaling DVD player (BD3000HD) that actually allows upconversion over component. I think it's a defect in the design of the machine.

In the menus, if you select component as your output, it will not allow you to select higher resolutions (and you must select progressive scan to get the 480p, of course).

However, the menus allow you to chose HD (meant for the HDMI out) and then the resolution 1080i. And the signal still comes out the component ...upscaled to 1080i.

Yes, it's a cheap DVD player, but it does the job. I still have to play around with it a bit more to see if I truly am impressed with the picture quality of the upscaling.

Seems like it makes a difference on the quality of the DVD you are watching as to the quality of the output. For instance, Casino Royale looked amazing -- very close to the picture I see on my HD DVD player (other movies, of course, since CR is only Blu Ray). Portions of Pan's Labrynth also looked pretty darn good (more noticable in bright scenes).

However, with other DVDs, there's less, if any, difference between the picture and the 480p I'm used to. Older DVDs -- like Jumanji, which my kids were watching -- actually might be a bit grainer. Guess it's due to the HD upscaling showing off defects in the transfer.

sbelli

Well, here's an update. I thought I'd also try buying an HDMI to DVI cable to see if it also makes any difference in the picture.

Well, using that cable I can get the player's menu and splash screen, but no picture on copy protected DVDs. Home made DVDs work just fine and are upconverted to 1080i.

I know this sounds like an HDCP issue. However, my tv is supposed to support HDCP over its DVI input. So I'm not sure what the issue is. I've tried turning the TV and the DVD player off. Then turning the TV on. Then the DVD player as this should ensure the proper "handshake", but still no output for copy protected DVDs.

Any thoughts?

sbelli

OK, I finally got it to work after unplugging and plugging in several times. I had tried this before, but this time pushed really hard. Not sure if one of the prongs wasn't making contact. Strange that it worked with non-copy righted material prior to this. I guess one of the prongs must be dedicated to the handshake (and apparently wasn't making contact).

Anyway, the picture is actually worse on DVI than it is on component (more pixelization in dark scenes).