480p -> 540p Upconversion: Toshiba? Hitachi? Panasonic? Sony? (1 Viewer)

[Brent Hutto]

I can find many references to Toshiba HD-ready monitors taking all incoming 480i and 480p signals and upconverting them to 540p. I understand that this implies an unavoidable softening of the high-frequency parts of the image.

Does the Hitachi 36UDX10S that I'm buying do the same thing? If so, how does this interact with the thing about using 810 lines rather than 1080 for "squeezed" anamorphic DVD's?

How about the Panasonic 36HX42 I was looking at last week?

How about the Sony Wega HD-ready sets (for instance 36XBR450)?

If my Hitachi does the upconvert, then wouldn't it be true that buying a progressive-scan RP62 to replace my RD31 is somewhat a waste of money since the quality of the image will be limited by the 540p upconversion anyway?

So do any HD-ready televisions actually change frequency and actually sweep the electron beam 480 (or 960) lines instead of 1080?

 

[Jan Strnad]

Go here for Michael TLV's updated report on the Toshiba 540p upconversion.
In short, it does soften the image, but only the very finest DVDs will output the resolution it takes to make the softening visible; and 480p input results in a much better picture than 480i.
Apparently, according to Michael, Hitachi still does 540p upconversion better than Toshiba.
IMO, in real life viewing of movies vs. real life viewing of Avia test patterns, the 540p upconversion is a non-issue, especially with the xxx82 sets (the new ones). I don't even consider it an issue with my 42H81.
Jan

 

[Juan_R]

If my Hitachi does the upconvert, then wouldn't it be true that buying a progressive-scan RP62 to replace my RD31 is somewhat a waste of money since the quality of the image will be limited by the 540p upconversion anyway?

You will still get a better picture with a progressive player. The P player will clean-up the noise and the colors will also be better. I went from an interlace player on my Toshiba 65HX81 to a progressive (RP-91) player and noticed a big difference in pic quality. You have to remember that the better the source signal the better the picture will get, even with the upconversion of 540P.