Direct TV SD to HD Upconvert

bnoel · 08-28-2007, 09:27 AM

Is there a way to upconvert/scale SD broadcasts to HD(ish) when using Direct TV? The SD broadcasts look absolutely horrible on my 104in screen.

I'm using an Epson 1080p Home Cinema Projector, PS3 for Blu-ray, and an Onkyo TX-SR705 paired with an Aperion 5.1 setup. Everything is HDMI 1.3.

I've heard of people using a PC to do the conversion but I haven't been able to determine which components I need and if it will work.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Jerome Grate · 08-28-2007, 10:58 AM

The one thing that comes to mind is I-Scan. I think the VP-30 scales everything to 1080p. Expensive, but one of the best in the market. Google Video Scalers and you'll get a few more to choose from.

LanceJ · 08-28-2007, 05:11 PM

Don't know if this is all of your problem, but I've read over and over how much many sat and cable broadcasters compress their digital signals, resulting in substandard images even on small monitors. So an upscaler, unless the one built into your projector really sucks, will just end up giving you upconverted junk.

Robert_J · 08-28-2007, 06:32 PM

You can magically add data back to the signal that is lost during compression. Either lower you expectations on the standard def signals or watch everything in HD.

-Robert

bnoel · 08-29-2007, 07:44 AM

I try to watch as much as possible in HP for obvious reasons, but the majority of TV is still SD. Even half of the football games this season will be SD which really sucks.

I was reading microsoft's product literature for MCE (media center edition) and it has scaling capabilities. I "think" a video capture card and/or hi-end video card is involved, but that is just a guess.

Thanks for the responses so far.

**HTF Ads**

Philip Hamm · 08-29-2007, 12:06 PM

You can get better scalers which may make some kind of improvement if the scaler in your Epson is total junk, but you'll never get anything even remotely close to HD quality out of SD.

Jeff Gatie · 08-29-2007, 12:28 PM

Especially when over-compressed, noisy and color crushed satellite is the source. The one bad thing about scaling is that although it will do very well (depending on the algorithm) with a good source, the very things that make it good with a good source can exacerbate a bad source. Garbage in -> Garbage out (and sometimes even worse than Garbage out).

Philip Hamm · 09-10-2007, 03:05 PM

One other thing - make sure your TV is calibrated. At least with the "THX optimode" on many discs, if not with something more sophisticated like "Digital Video Essentials" or at best, get an ISF calibration. Miscalibration can greatly exaggerate the problems with low def signals.

ChrisWiggles · 09-12-2007, 05:17 PM

You have a 1080p digital display, it's already being scaled up to that.