Having yet joined the HD world (everytime I get close I get hit with a $1000 car tune-up... new bathroom renovation... yada yada)... but the question is, and it may be a silly one... do standard dvd's look like crap on a nice HD set? When I get into the game, I plan on going 1080p...........

yup, i cant even watch a standard dvd no more

They'll look just fine if you get yourself a nice upconverting DVD Player. The Playstation 3 now upscales, and it looks beautiful. It's becoming an extremely awesome value for the money.

The Toshiba players a better value. I enjoy DVDs but HD disc look better on HDTV.

They dont look like crap at all for the most part, however I can tell pretty good difference now that Ive watched so much on HD-DVD and BD...

Shouldn't this depend on the kind of DVD player you have and the connection you utilize? A friend of mine has an HP 42" Plasma that was connected with component cables from his HD cable box and the pic was great but then their progressive scan DVD player connected thru composite -- and I was still satisfied with the pic. My "Ben Hur" Collector's Ed. still looked great, IMO.

Depends on the disc too. With a large HDTV, it becomes much easier to separate good transfers from bad ones. But for discs that have been done right, they can look pretty damn good when upconverted. The problem is when you start watching Blu-ray or HD-DVDs. Going back to SD DVDs after watching a few HD ones really makes you notice the difference.

Once I got a decent player (Bravo D1) I have been very happy with my SD collection.

And in the next couple of days I plan to compare it to my PS3 since I did the upgrade last night.

Yeah, definitely get a good upconverting player, then it's not bad. Not as good as HD-DVD or BluRay, though.

They're not HD, but still look great IMO...even with a regular player and even more so with an upconverting one.

But I'm not a huge videophile..still haven't made the HD leap either, but several in my family/friends circle have.

DVDs look really good on HDTVs with the proper player. You can tell the difference if you are used to watching HD discs, but the current players do a fantastic job of upconverting DVDs.

It depends on the tv and player, really. Some setups have pretty good upconversion to begin with. Watching SD DVD's is nothing like watching non-HD cable. Now THAT looks terrible. If that is what you have in mind, no, it does not look even remotely that bad.

My 46" Samsung DLP set looked beautiful when watching SD dvd's through component connections. So far every Samsung DLP set I have seen, that has been the case, but I have only seen a few in homes. Now, it's better when I now have an HD-A2 dvd player with HDMI for upconversion, but it looked great with my old player as well... certainly not any worse than a non-HD set. People loved watching movies on my screen and that was before I even got the HD player.

I'll add that yes, you obviously need to go component... if you go composite it will of course look like complete junk.

Since you apparently don't have an HD set yet, DVDs will look awesome to you on a new HDTV.

Exactly. I have had an 65" HDTV for 5 years and have always been pleased with my standard dvds thru component video. It was THE way to watch dvds until HD-dvd & BR came along.

Compare it to watching SD dvds on a standard TV thru S-video or composite and there is no comparison. I haven't jumped into the HD-DVD ring yet so I don't know what I am missing (which is probably a good thing).

It is easy to tell a bad transfer from a good one on an HDTV but even more so when you have a large screen.

Once I got a decent SD player, I decided not to start replacing my SD movies on BR. The only repeat I have done so far is POTC. I just couldn't resist. And I still buy SD DVD's. I mean really for the price....I picked up Bourne Identity WS for like $7.99. The picture is "pretty good" on my HD pj thru by Bravo D1. Is it great? No, but I'm happy with it.

As more BR and HD DVD's come out, I think there will be a sub-market out there for nicer SD DVD players. Yes, you got the Oppo's, but I think more will come out in better quality to take advantage of the dropping prices of SD DVD's.

If a SD-DVD has a great transfer, it'll look just fine on a HDTV, especially if you're watching it on an upconverting player.

But once you've watched HD-DVDs or Blu-ray discs on the same TV, it'll be tough reverting back to SD-DVDs. Even crappy HD titles look better than nearly every SD disc.

All depends on the equipment.In fact, comparing comments like the contradictory stuff in this thread usually shows the level of equipment people have. It's almost as good as seeing it in person.

When did this happen? Was this a recent firmware update?

Many of my SD's look SO DAMN GOOD...I forget I'm not watching HD!

Then there are some, that look SO FRIGGIN' BAD, I refuse to be tortured and simply do not watch them on our HDTV.

(...but they still look fine on our 27" Sony, and so all is not lost. )

Yes, the most recent 1.8 update. I watched Thunderball last night and was blown away at how good it looks on the PS3.

I don't have any way of doing serious tests, but to my eye the PS3 is now a better upscaling player than my HD-A2.

I'm really happy I took the plunge & bought a 60GB PS3 back in January even though I had absolutely NO interest in any games for the system, and still don't. I'm sure the time will come when there are some games that I want, but I have no regrets with the system so far.

TallGuyMe, please clarify the original question.

SD DVD's never looked "lousy" to begin with if they were set up correctly. On an HD set with upconversion, they will look even better.

I can only assume you mean "lousy" as standard cable television channels look terrible compared to HD channels? If so, the answer is "No, not even close."

I recently got a 40 inch 1080p Samsung and I used to watch dvds on my 360 elite. That one upconverts but DVDs still didn't look that great. They all looked like they had some sort of haze over them. I just thought that's how SD-DVDs look on HDTV sets. Then the PS3 got updated and it upconverts so much better. That haze is gone and they all look normal and great.