elmtree108

Upconverter question

I have an Onkyo home theater system that I bought in 2003. It has progressive scan but not a video converter. I am about to purchase my first HD TV and would like to be able to use the home theater to watch DVDs.

Question: Is it possible to plug my current home theater into an upconverter device that plugs into the TV rather than buy an entirely new (and expensive) home theater system? If so, what video converters are recommended or work well?

Thanks!
Mike

Stephen Tu

Re: Upconverter question

You don't need to buy an external video processor. Any HDTV fixed pixel device you buy has a built in VP that will upconvert to its own native resolution. Just find a TV with good reviews for handling 480i/480p content & you'll be fine.

External video processors, the good ones, cost thousands of dollars, and are targeted at people with money to burn, running huge screen front projector setups looking for the ultimate possible video quality, no compromises.

elmtree108

Re: Upconverter question

Thanks Stephen -

The TV that I am considering is the Toshiba REGZA 37HL67 37" 720p LCD HDTV. How would I find out whether it is good at handling 480i/480p content?

Also, won't I lose some of the clarity (and thrill) of watching a DVD if I use my current DVD player that doesn't upconvert? If I buy an upconverting DVD player, then I won't be able to use the sound system of my home theater.

Hal

Stephen Tu

Re: Upconverter question

Google for magazine/ tech site reviews, search this forum display section, avsforum LCD section, etc.


You shouldn't. All that happens is the TV upconverts instead of the player. They are both doing the same thing, creating however many pixels needed from the original 720x480. One or the other may use more sophisticated algorithms, and achieve slightly better result; TV can easily be better than the DVD player, only way to tell which is better is to try (often little visible difference). Upconversion in some DVD players can provide some smallish improvement for some people if their set doesn't have particularly great video processing, but really it is mostly a marketing tactic to try & convince everyone buying a new TV that they need to buy a new DVD player also, even though they don't really need one. You don't get true big jumps until you go to true high-def machines (Blu-ray/HD-DVD).

Also keep in mind that with a usu 768p LCD (check the "native res" of the displays, it's rarely 720p), they often don't accept their native resolution as input, and most DVD players won't match that resolution, so you can't bypass the TV's scaler in any case. Usually it's better to avoid multiple scaling operations.

What model # of home theater system? Many have maybe one digital input for external source. Likely at some point you will have to get a proper receiver though as your system expands.