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| Upscaling DVD players not all that great? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 17 2009, 04:13 PM (531 Views) | |
| sheath | Dec 17 2009, 04:13 PM Post #1 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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My father in law bought some Memorex "upscaling" DVD player for $40 at Sears and wanted me to be impressed by it. After seeing it, and messing around with it for a while, I convinced him to return it and buy a Samsung (dvd-1080p9) upscaling player. We did that today and the danged thing doesn't upscale with component, only HDMI (apparently), but still looks better than the Memorex player did even at 1080p. I've found a number of reviews online that say that component 480p output is actually better than upscaled HDMI on a decent LCD TV, because the TV has to upscale to its native resolution anyway. At any rate, I can definitely attest to the fact that this new player looks much better than the old one even though it is technically only outputting at 480p via component. I am basically advising my father in law not to buy HDMI cables at this point because it seams that the TVs upscaling will be better than the DVD player's. Does anybody else in this fine forum have any experience with this? |
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| Belpowerslave | Dec 17 2009, 09:22 PM Post #2 |
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Administrator
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Copy-protected DVDs cannot be upscaled over Component...has something to do with some bullshit about "digital only" conversion(probably for piracy issues). Anyway, if you have a non-copyrighted disc, it can be upscaled to 1080 over component...or if you have a copy of something(because the crack used to copy the disc removes any copyright data). As for why it looked better at 480p than the Memorex did at 1080p is probably due to the machine's upscaling chip. You see, though you can just put out a player that will simply make your 720X480 image display at 1920X1080, it won't do much for the picture...in fact, a lot of times it can make it actually look worse. Now, were you to have a player that has some sort of special upscaling chip(like my player's "REON" chip), the results can be unbelievable. I swear, some of the movies I upscale in my player, that fucking REON chip makes them almost look like HD movies. It could also be the movie itself...some just look like ass to begin with...and then you upscale it and it looks even worse. "Cats & Dogs", a favorite of mine, is a good example. Horrible, horrible DVD transfer. Looked horrible at 480i, looks horrible at 1080.
I disagree...unless it's a shitty player like that Memorex one. Even the 360, one of the *worst* DVD players on the planet, according to most benchmarks, does a decent job of upscaling movies and they definitely look better at 1080p than at 480p. Remember, though, you have to have an HDMI port on your system to achieve this results with regular DVDs.
Well, it terms of what one thinks looks better, it's all a matter of opinion I suppose...but I just couldn't allow someone I knew, with an HDTV, to buy a *new* DVD player that didn't upscale over an HDMI port... Honestly, if you can talk him in to it, make him buy this: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11600020 Just bought two, both for X-mas gifts, and I even opened one just so I could set it up as once they open it we'll immediately be watching stuff on it. Though not the best I've ever seen, the upscaling on the player is awesome. Here's the thing though: It also plays Divx video off of data CD or DVD. To just sort of see what it's limits were, I burned files of all kinds to a data DVD: Divx, Xvid, Mpeg2, etc. IT PLAYED THEM ALL! I, literally, couldn't believe it. This thing doesn't give a fuck, it'll play anything you through at it. It's almost like having an HTPC, you just have to switch discs from time to time(remember, any given movie at 700 megs, six of those will fit PER disc). You can put entire seasons of TV on a DVD-5, and whoever owns the player can sit there and watch through all of them...all at 1080p too. Apparently they also make a model that has a USB port, so you could just use a thumb drive or external drive to power it. $44.88, can be shipped(for free) to any Wal-Mart in the country. I am actually considering getting one for my grandma so I can just burn stuff to data DVD instead of video DVD. Instead of burning a season of TV across 6 to 7 video DVDs, I can burn the entire thing on one data DVD...and she can watch them just as easily as she does when I send her regular DVDs. It's something I'd give some thought to... Bel |
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| sheath | Dec 18 2009, 06:05 AM Post #3 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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Yeah, until I turned all of the "enhancement" settings off, that Memorex was actually fudging the image to cover up artifacts, it was nasty. This new Samsung is pretty nice, I guess I'll have him order an HDMI cable from Monoprice for $10 and be done with it. The stupid thing about that is that his Yamaha tuner doesn't do HDMI, so you still have to use optical or RCA audio, and then run the freaking HDMI cable to the TV which is never used for sound.
Well, I have to admit that this entire comparison is subjective. My in-laws are consumers, they thought the Memorex looked great, and they thought their Dish Network looked great. Their TV was doing more to help both than they knew, and after I spent yesterday adjusting settings, turning off automatic contrast and color change modes, and whatnot, it really does look great. Their Dish Network wasn't even outputting at 1080 when I arrived and they had no idea. As for the 360, I remember comparing it over component and VGA to the PS3 (which is supposedly teh best) and only noticing minor differences in the way the two players adjusted the black level and the way tints turned out. The 360 does some serious pre/post processing to DVDs. When I tried running this old DVD that helps you adjust all of your TV's settings on it the picture was incredibly dark when I came back out of the DVD. I had to hook up the PS2 (which skipped and froze throughout the disk) just to readjust everything. Also, when I play a regular DVD on my RPTV in my PS2, which skips and freezes on DVDs, I can see all kinds of artifacts and aliasing issues I cannot on the 360. My RPTV doesn't enhance things like this LG LCD screen does, it just displays whatever is output to it (like I imagine your Sony CRT does).
All of those features are available on this Samsung player as well. He had to return his old player for store credit at Sears because he threw away the box and av cables. ;) |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| Belpowerslave | Dec 18 2009, 03:27 PM Post #4 |
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Administrator
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Receivers that pass HDMI audio are still relatively new, and expensive. Right now, the best you can get for about $300 or less is on that will just pass video...which is virtually useless as you're seeing. Back when I had my receiver and 5.1 setup I went HDMI for the video and optical for the audio. Wasn't too bad...just couldn't do anything past Dolby Digital Plus(Dolby True HD, DTS-MA, etc. require the bandwidth that HDMI provides).
I'm not surprised. With comments like "I can't tell the difference between HD and regular" rampant, we're either dealing with blind people or they simply don't have their settings correct. There's NO WAY IN FUCK even someone with horrible vision could not tell the difference between SD and true HD. There's just no way. This is why I know that when people say stuff like that, they just don't have their shit set up right...
Well, the best the PS2 can do is 480p...and though that works wonders for games, it doesn't do a whole lot for DVDs. The 360 can upscale DVDs via VGA, so I don't doubt you saw a difference when you had it hooked up like that, instead of just component and getting 480p out of it. The PS3, I hear, has some sort of chip inside it used for upscaling, which is why they say it looks really nice when displayed at 720p or higher.
Gotta love it... Bel |
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6:44 PM Jul 10