Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Progressive scan or HD player as interim player?

Stephen Tu · 03-31-2008, 04:48 PM

This is an LCD based rear projection TV? Does it have DVI connector?

No player gives truly "better resolution" on non-HD DVDs. Fundamentally you are stuck with the detail contained in the pixels on the disc, which is only 720x480 for SD DVD. Either the set or an upconverting player is just using interpolation techniques to generate the extra pixels to fill the screen, since there are 1280x720 or 1366x768 pixels or whatever (depends on your actual model #) to fill, you don't get more detail w/o more pixels originally. For picture quality it is just a contest whether & how much better the DVD player can deinterlace/scale compared to the TV itself. Personally I would just use your old player until you get Blu-ray, as improvements with a new one will be subtle at best, very moderate compared to the jump to actual Blu-ray.

If you want higher resolution but not funds for Blu-ray yet (or waiting for the new players w/ profile 2.0 features) then get a cheap Toshiba HD DVD player & either find clearance bin HD DVDs or rent from Netflix/Blockbuster.com until they stop shipping them.

03-31-2008, 04:48 PM	#2 of 10
Stephen Tu Member Join Date: Apr 1999 Local Time: 05:05 AM Local Date: 10-13-2008 Posts: 1,049	Re: Progressive scan or HD player as interim player? This is an LCD based rear projection TV? Does it have DVI connector? No player gives truly "better resolution" on non-HD DVDs. Fundamentally you are stuck with the detail contained in the pixels on the disc, which is only 720x480 for SD DVD. Either the set or an upconverting player is just using interpolation techniques to generate the extra pixels to fill the screen, since there are 1280x720 or 1366x768 pixels or whatever (depends on your actual model #) to fill, you don't get more detail w/o more pixels originally. For picture quality it is just a contest whether & how much better the DVD player can deinterlace/scale compared to the TV itself. Personally I would just use your old player until you get Blu-ray, as improvements with a new one will be subtle at best, very moderate compared to the jump to actual Blu-ray. If you want higher resolution but not funds for Blu-ray yet (or waiting for the new players w/ profile 2.0 features) then get a cheap Toshiba HD DVD player & either find clearance bin HD DVDs or rent from Netflix/Blockbuster.com until they stop shipping them.