Curious about 1080p hdmi DVD player into 1080i LCD TV

[terrybear]

Hey just curous if there is anyone out there that could help me with this.

I got a philips divx dvd player with has composite 480i output but was noticing the pricing on the hdmi 1080p over hdmi units are coming down in price & was wondering if 1. its worth it to upgrade to it & 2. would there be any issues if I was to use one & connect it to my 1080i LCD HD tv thru HDMI ?

thanks :)

[mkjr]

just get blu ray player that does well at upconverting...

got my Sony BDP350 on sale via a PM of 199 on sale at sears...instead of 10% of the difference....the staff at FS gave me 10% off 199....for a price of 179....now that is a deal...

i would not pay more than 200 for a BD player and you should find that Sony does a great job at upconverting.

[Aske001]

All DVD players that support 1080p output over HDMI also support 1080i.

Likely you would notice a significant improvement going from composite to HDMI. You would want to experiment with 480p (the native DVD resolution) vs. 1080i to see whether the TV or the DVD player does a better job of scaling to 1080.

[ppl4golf]

Composite out is usually crappy, component out is pretty good generally if the TV is half decent at upscaling to the native resolution.

I have a Sony S550, it is pretty good with playing back DVDs but I wouldn't claim a night & day difference and it is not even close to Blu-ray. Certain movies especially animations can look really good as is on SD but the difference is still easy to spot even from a few feet.

Unless the current DVD player is broken, I won't spend too much on any DVD player (upconverting or not). You might as well pony up a little more for a Blu-ray player if you're planning on blowing more than $100.

[terrybear]

My current Philips DivX dvd player isn't broken, but at the same time my tv's got 2 hdmi jacks & since my rogers box is not viewing well over the hdmi i've had to move it to the composite HD connection.

I basicaly was thinking that I could go get the philips Divx hdmi player from walmart & then turn around & sell this unit then.

[stangela]

There are a few things you need to understand here.

1. Your LCD tv has a native resolution that is either 720p or 1080p. I assume it is 720p and that it can accept up to a 1080i resolution input signal. What you need to realize is that your tv can only display at 720p resolution. Any other signal, whether it is 480i or 1080i, needs to be scaled in order for it to display at the tv's native resolotion of 720p. If you send it a 480i signal, it will upscale it.

2. An upscaling DVD player will upscale the resolution of the DVD (480i) to 720p, 1080i, or 1080p, whichever way you choose. If you choose the DVD player to output at 1080i, your TV will still be required to scale that back to 720p. This double scaling of the picture may result in some artifacts or softness to the picture. Make sure your output on the upscaling DVD player (if you get one) matches the native resolution of your TV.

3. Since your TV is already upscaling the picture, why would you need an upscaling DVD player? The only reason would be that the scaler in the TV is inferior to the scaler in the DVD player. Chances are it would not even make a visible difference. Upscaling DVD players are generally a sham and do not do what you think they do.

4. The first thing you should do is to make sure you are using component cables. You refer to composite HD cables in your post, but there is no such thing. A composite cable is the yellow RCA type and Component cables are the Red Blue and Green RCA type. Component cables are superior for DVD players. This one simple step will make the most difference in picture quality than anything else.

5. If you want to spend a bit more money, buy a Blu-ray player. I would think most of them have better scalers than your TV and you may notice a slight increase in picture quality from DVD's and Blu-ray discs will be noticibly better.

Stan

[terrybear]

There are a few things you need to understand here.

1. Your LCD tv has a native resolution that is either 720p or 1080p. I assume it is 720p and that it can accept up to a 1080i resolution input signal. What you need to realize is that your tv can only display at 720p resolution. Any other signal, whether it is 480i or 1080i, needs to be scaled in order for it to display at the tv's native resolotion of 720p. If you send it a 480i signal, it will upscale it.

2. An upscaling DVD player will upscale the resolution of the DVD (480i) to 720p, 1080i, or 1080p, whichever way you choose. If you choose the DVD player to output at 1080i, your TV will still be required to scale that back to 720p. This double scaling of the picture may result in some artifacts or softness to the picture. Make sure your output on the upscaling DVD player (if you get one) matches the native resolution of your TV.

3. Since your TV is already upscaling the picture, why would you need an upscaling DVD player? The only reason would be that the scaler in the TV is inferior to the scaler in the DVD player. Chances are it would not even make a visible difference. Upscaling DVD players are generally a sham and do not do what you think they do.

4. The first thing you should do is to make sure you are using component cables. You refer to composite HD cables in your post, but there is no such thing. A composite cable is the yellow RCA type and Component cables are the Red Blue and Green RCA type. Component cables are superior for DVD players. This one simple step will make the most difference in picture quality than anything else.

5. If you want to spend a bit more money, buy a Blu-ray player. I would think most of them have better scalers than your TV and you may notice a slight increase in picture quality from DVD's and Blu-ray discs will be noticibly better.

Stan

my tv does up to 1080i natively.

[ppl4golf]

Stan made a great post and it's worth re-reading his points.

Feeding it with 1080i source is/was where a HDTV is considered half-decent or not.

A few years back (probably when you bought your TV), many HDTVs did a crappy job at deinterlacing 1080i signal and you might end up with '540p' picture. This is particular bad for 1080p panels.

IMHO, 720p/768p panels don't need any upconverting DVD player unless the TV takes 1080p SOURCES and scales down.

1080p panels benefit a little with decent upscaling players. If you have a 1080p panel, you might as well get a Blu-ray player. Whatever, you do, don't spend too much because the marginal improvement (if any) is really minimal.