720p to 1080i converter (1 Viewer)

[Rob_V]

I'm starting this thread in the video game hardware section because I'm asking with regard to my Xbox, but I'm sure it could go in one of the other forums as well.

My TV, like many, does 480i/p and 1080i. Many, MANY Xbox titles are 720p and are downsampled to 480p by my Xbox.

Does anyone know of any user-level hardware that can upsample 720p signals to 1080i so I can still enjoy HD with these titles?

I've searched high and low on the web and found nothing but high-end professional gear that is WAY too expensive for this purpose.

TIA,

Rob

 

[eric_shepearl]

Does anyone know of any user-level hardware that can upsample 720p signals to 1080i so I can still enjoy HD with these titles?

Converting 720p to 1080i introduces artefacts. You're interlacing natively progressive signals to begin with.

If I have a display that doesn't support 720p, I would stick with 480p, and 1080i, and be done with it. Of course, 720p is the best especially when it comes to video gaming, and motion pictures.. but interlacing, and cross-converting 720p to 1080i is not really a way to go for image quality.

 

[Rob_V]

Many ??
There are only few XBOX titles which support 720p currently.

www.hdtvpub.com/games/xbox/microsoft-xbox.cfm

More than 1080i, which is the only real HD I'm seeing from any games right now, and Dragon's Lair 3D SUCKS ...

And I realize that it would introduce artifacts, but it would still look better than 480p.

 

[Dave E H]

I'm not sure there is a good way of doing this. For this reason and due to advances in LCD, LCOS, and DLP TVs, I'm selling my 55" Mits now and getting something new. It sucks, but when PGR2 and Halo2 come out, I want 720p!

 

[eric_shepearl]

It sucks, but when PGR2 and Halo2 come out, I want 720p!

What's HALO2, and PGR2 got to do with 720p ??

 

[Trevor Harveaux]

What's HALO2, and PGR2 got to do with 720p ??

They are both supposedly to run in 720p. If they do, I will definitely be upgrading my HDTV....

 

[Dan B]

PGR 2 won't for sure (developer said there isn't enough memory)

 

[Jeff Kleist]

No user level equipment. I don't even want to think about how many zeros you're talking

 

[eric_shepearl]

They are both supposedly to run in 720p. If they do, I will definitely be upgrading my HDTV....

Another rumor, huh ?

If HALO2, and PGR2 run in 720p, I'll be very, very disappointed.

XBOX has two major limitations. Let's leave its GeForce3+ GPU, and Pentium3 733 CPU alone, and let's look at the memory bandwidth, and quantity.

64MB of unified memory with bandwidth of 6.4 GB/s. This is simply not enough to render DOA3, Apex, RSC level of quality at 720p nor 1080i.

For reference, some stages on UT2003 (PC version) requires about 128MB of texture memory at 1024x768 resolution, let alone higher resolutions. That is for video memory only, not counting system memory. Plus new GFX cards these days have roughly about 22.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

In case of XBOX,in 720p resolution, there are too many compromises on visual effects such as number of polygon counts, textures, viewing distance, number of frames per second...etc..etc..

Bottom line is that XBOX is not powerful enough to impress us at 720p, or 1080i resolutions.

Tell me any 720p/1080i title which are graphically impressive. WSB2k3 is my newest title which supports 720p. But it is not visually impressive at all. Surely resolution-wise, it is crisp, and shows far less jaggies than many 480p games. That's it. Surroudings are simple, textures on stadiums, and crowds are awful. It has nothing much to look at even in 720p mode apart from characters, and high resolution factor. Characters are not impressive either.

HALO2, and PGR2 footages from E3 shows quite impressive visuals. From this I can confidently say that they won't support 720p nor 1080i. A hardware with 64MB of total memory which has about 6.4 GB/s of bandwidth simply can't render them in resolutions anything higher than 480p.

Heck, they're even pushing hadware's limit in 480p.

 

[Dave F]

There is a thread with a similar topic over at Hometheaterspot.

If you really want to do it, the cheapest option would probably be running the image through a home theater pc that is running DScaler. You could get that up and running for well under $1000. It wouldn't be worth it for just a few games, but if you run eveything through it, it'd be pretty cool.

BTW: My tv converts 720p to 480p, and with Tony Hawk 4, the converted image is far superior to the 480p. Dunno why, but it is. I've heard the same from another HTF'er with the same set. To make matters even stranger, I saw no such difference between the 480p and converted 720p signals from Soul Calibur 2.

-Dave

 

[Dave E H]

What's HALO2, and PGR2 got to do with 720p ??

It's a rumor that's been around for a while. But, I can see it happening. For example, the Master Chief in Halo 2 has a lot less polygons, but I think it looks better than in the original (see OXM for pictures & details.) I can see them trying to make it work.

I don't know if they will get it to work, but since 720p support is just a whole lot more common, it's a compelling reason for ME to upgrade my TV.

Besides, I've had it 2.5 years... Got the upgrade-itis bad...

Hmmm. Maybe I'll get the new SV Sub to replace my 25-31PCi....

 

[Mark Hedges]

The number of HDTV's that have native support for 720P is EXTREMELY small. So I don't see why developers would spend a lot of time on 720P support.

Mark

 

[Rob_V]

BTW: My tv converts 720p to 480p, and with Tony Hawk 4, the converted image is far superior to the 480p. Dunno why, but it is. I've heard the same from another HTF'er with the same set. To make matters even stranger, I saw no such difference between the 480p and converted 720p signals from Soul Calibur 2.

Unfortuantly, my TV does not do this. I only get a black screen when sending 720p to it. Toshiba 57HX81.

:-(