Question: TV Built-In Upconverting (1 Viewer)

[Mijang]

I am thinking about purchasing a new upconverting DVD player. My only concern is whether it is really a necessity because I keep reading that an upconverting DVD player will only improve the video if the upconverting is better than what is built into your TV.

My television is a Sony 50" Grand WEGA™ SXRD Rear Projection HDTV, model KDS-50A2000. I have looked on the Sony website and in the instruction manual and have found no specifics on the built-in upconverting. And to be frank, even if I did, I'm not sure if I would even know if it were better than that of a potential new DVD player.

Does anyone know the specifics of the upconverting on my TV? The quality? Is it 1080i or 1080p? The DVD players I am considering are the Denon DVD-1730 and the Denon DVD-1930CI.

 

[Alon Goldberg]

Hi Mijang - your Sony A2000 has native 1080p resolution. This means that all signals will be upconverted to 1920x1080p. This set has very good video processing, which I believe will be superior to the Denon DVD-1730 and DVD-1930CI. That being said, the DVD-1930CI is still a very good DVD player. It's not likely that you will notice any significant difference with an upconverting player, unless you were considering a Denon DVD-2930CI or DVD3930CI.

But for a little more than the price of the 1930, you may even consider an HD-DVD Player.

 

[RAF]

Any 1080p TV will, by definition, upscale any incoming signal to 1080p so that the image can be displayed. In fact this is true for any digital display (the unit will upscale lesser images to the native resolution of the set - 720p to 720p, 768p to 768p, etc.). If it didn't it couldn't produce a picture.

That said, there is some truth to the statement that some scalers do a better job than others. I have no doubt that your TV has a good scaler and it will probably be fine for your use. The key here (and something I keep telling people to look for) is that the ideal situation would be for your set to offer an input that is equal to the native resolution of the display. i.e. A 1080p set should offer a 1080p input. In that way you can leave the scaling and other video processing to outside units if that is your choice - bypassing the internal scaling of the display. If a 1080p set only offers up to 1080i inputs then you must use the internal scaler of the set to produce a full 1080p picture. One certainty about technology is that it's always improving and by having inputs that equal the output resolution of your display you can always upgrade to a newer video processor - be it in a DVD player, an AVR or a standalone box. Without a direct input to your display's output you are locked into your display's scaling capabilities.

Finally, some TVs do a better job of scaling than others, but by having a direct connection option you can remove this variable from the equation. I hope that this puts it all into perspective.