I'm in the process of picking up a new tv that'll operate at "Full HD".

The guy at the store was also pushing this upconverting dvd player that was capable of upconverting old dvds to 1080p.

I saw some old threads and noticed that nobody was really impressed with the older models. I was curious if the technology had maybe caught up since then and that maybe the newer players could make a pretty good difference on the older dvds.

The dvd that was playing on the tv looked amazing, albeit didn't recognize the cartoon movie and I have no idea what it might have looked like beforehand.

Thanks for the input.

5/29/2007 9:17:50 PM

they used a cartoon so you couldn't tell they always look better.

5/29/2007 11:50:28 PM

Don't bother with it, if your TV is decent it will have a better scaler than some cheapo upconverting DVD player.

Even if the scaler in the DVD player is better, the difference will be minimal at best. Save your money.

5/30/2007 9:30:38 AM

Any progressive scan dvd player will upconvert nicely on a 720p or 1080p HDTV. Just make sure it's a progressive scan dvd player which most are these days, and you use the highest connection (usually component)
-Yeah and animated movies always look better no matter what the format.



[Edited on May 30, 2007 at 9:36 AM. Reason : .]

5/30/2007 9:33:23 AM

i'm sure people will balk at this (and probably with good reason), but i've been looking at the jWIN JD-VD519 ($60) because:

- plays DVD+R-R/RW, DivX (XviD), MP3, VCD, JPEG, MPEG-4, CD
- upconverts 1080p
- progressive scan
- HDMI (cable included)
- video out: s-video, composite, coax
- audio out: coax digital audio, 5.1 coax (i'd like to use it with my klipsch 5.1)
- front USB port, multi-card reader

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2973530&sku=J23-1006

to be honest, my key features include the XviD playback and 5.1 output, as i already HAVE the klipsch and they sound just fine without me needing to purchase another surround sound setup...also, i like the idea of having the USB port on the front so i can just hook up my external HD with mp3's and play them through my klipsch system

if this is a piece of crap (and it may be), does anyone have any other suggestions?

[Edited on May 30, 2007 at 10:35 AM. Reason : .]

5/30/2007 10:28:41 AM

sounds like a great deal, my friend uses something similar to that, and uses a usb jumpdrive all the time to watch downloaded content on his tv through the dvd player and it works great. Would you be hooking it up to an hdtv?

5/30/2007 10:38:58 AM

sadly, no

at least, not at this point...possibly in the near future i will be, which is why i figured it would be a good idea to get something that WILL upconvert to 1080p and use HDMI

5/30/2007 10:45:01 AM

yeah makes sense. But you'll enjoy the usb port. It's so handy to be able to stick something on there, and play it directly on the tv. Most of them work with external HD's too.

5/30/2007 10:46:22 AM

so whats the real benefit of these players? that they get rid of the side/top/bottom bars when playing SD DVDs on an HDTV? I assume there isn't any improvement in quality..that its only alters the resolution of the picture and doesn't actually enhance anything...right?

I read in another thread that most HDTVs can do the converting work which means you don't have a need for the upconverting player...but I don't see that option on my tv (55" Sony LCD Projection). I can stretch/zoom the picture but that distorts and chops the signal instead of actually changing the resolution. am i not looking in the right place?

7/24/2007 1:47:23 PM

I recently bought an open-box Samsung Upconverting DVD player from Circuit City. It was like $40.00 after taxes.

The difference is definately noticable. I played a DVD on my regular DVD player, and then connected the Upconverting DVD player with HDMI cable, and the difference was VERY noticable to me. The hardware used was a Samsung DLP HD TV, Samsung Upconverting DVD Player, and appropriate cables (don't know exact model numbers off the top of my head).

As a matter of fact, if you want to see the difference, PM me and you can come check it out. I'll hook up HDMI cable to upconverting DVD player and then compare it with regular DVD player and A/V cable.

[Edited on July 24, 2007 at 2:53 PM. Reason : works for me]

7/24/2007 2:44:18 PM

^^Upconverting DVD players usually perform bicubic interpolation on pixels. It's fast, and well understood, and easy to perform on hardware. Also, there's some 3:2 pulldown done on mastering the DVD to go from 24hz film to 59.94hz interlaced. The Upconverting DVD player tries to do all sorts of things to reverse this... but you can't avoid getting all sorts of artifacts from it.

Quote :

"Beyond a certain point, enlarging images is a fool's errand; you can't magically synthesize an infinite number of new pixels out of thin air. And interpolated pixels are never as good as real pizels. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000903.html"

7/24/2007 4:09:48 PM

i definitely noticed a difference when i hooked up my upconverting dvd player.

7/24/2007 4:57:24 PM

me too. nothing spectacular, but planet earth looks WAY cooler upconverted.

7/25/2007 1:14:22 AM

it looks way cooler in blu-ray

7/25/2007 10:28:42 AM

I got a Pioneer DV-400V-K - it upconverts to 1080p via HDMI, plays Xvid / DivX Ultra / Mp3s, and also has a USB drive it can read media from, either a thumbdrive or FAT formated external HD.

Im happy with it

7/25/2007 10:40:51 AM

Quote :

"it looks way cooler in blu-ray "

Yeah planet earth looks way cool in it's original 1080p. I think it was filmed completely in HD so the quality is limited to 1080p compared to 35mm, but it still looks great.

7/25/2007 10:58:14 AM

if anyone is interested in something similar to ^^, i got the jwin mentioned above and have been very happy with it...for $60, does all ^^ does, plus has 5.1 analog jacks in the back so you can hook up your multimedia system to it (my klipsch system sounds amazing)

7/28/2007 3:18:57 AM