Can anyone help me enlighten me on this topic. Does a HD-player play standard dvd titles without any problems and if it does, do they look better on a 40 inch widescreen tv. Is there any noticable difference between playing standard dvd's on a HD player and standard dvd player? Thanks in advance

Yes, the HD-DVD and BD players upscale the image. Really, this answer depends on your display unit.

Film,

This has been answered ad nauseum.

YES.

Yes, the Toshiba A-1 upconverts your existing (standard definition) DVDs and plays them without problem. You'll see some people call this "near HD quality". Well, it isn't really. But it's still a noticable improvement. It will definitely make your existing collection look better.

Note you will need an HDMI input on your TV.

Also note:
Many standard players have been doing this for a couple years. The Toshiba is good at it, but others have been, too. Whether there is an improvement depends on your current player and your TV as compared with the HD player.

If you have an inexpensive TV and a $40 DVD player, no doubt the A1 would be better.

But why bother getting a HD A1 with an inexpensive TV

Spiky's idea of inexpensive and your own may be very very different.

His is anything that costs less than 1 years salary.

Why do you need an HDMI?

But, whose salary?!

So you can up convert SD-DVDs to 1080i.

Trump.

HDMI or DVI is required for DVD upconversion. While component video can be used for HDTV and DVD at 480i or 480p, it is not used for DVD at HD resolutions. It's complicated, and the MPAA's fault.

If you have one of a very few specific older models of DVD upconverters, you can do upconversion over component.

Component can do 720p, correct?

Can, yes. Will not for DVD upconversion due to copy protection. Works just fine for BD, HD-DVD, HDTV, etc.

my hdtv only has component inputs, would something like a DVI to Component Video Adapter work to get regular dvds upscaled to 1080i on the toshiba.

There are plenty of small companies (Anchor Bay, etc)that will upconvert to 1080i thru component, not the big companies.

What kind of TV? You have to understand, if your TV displays in 1080i only, it is upconverting the DVD. It's just that players often do a slightly better job. Your setup using 480 through component shouldn't be bad. And if you have an older CRT-based RPTV, it likely has a native 480p output that should look awesome with DVD, no 1080i needed.

I think there are some DVI-component converters, but they are expensive. And hard to find. For instance, I believe the latest Iscan VP series do this (I know they convert from component to DVI/HDMI), but they start at $2K MSRP.

There is nothing on the market that will allow you to upscale thru component to DVI (if there is, they're not HPCP). A ISF calibrater on another forum is working on a device that if you component only, you'll have a DVI connection and will then be able to have DVI to HDMI. Then you'll be able to upscale all SD's.

Yes, but if you have an HDTV, you want to keep the Signal Digital the whole time. If you use DVI/HDMI, then the DVD Player will NOT do a Digital (DVD) to Analog (Component Cables, SVideo, RCA) conversion.

With the DVI/HDMI the pure Digital info hits the TV without the 5% to 10% loss of Video quality that comes from the D to A Conversion.