A simple question about upscaling (1 Viewer)

[andrew markworthy]

Is there in theory any difference between the upscaling capabilities of a SD disc in a HD or Blu-Ray player or in a SD player with upscaling? I've found that a SD disc looks way better upscaled in either my Toshiba HD player or my Playstation 3 than in my Denon SD player with upscaling. However, I just wonder if it's a feature of the particular models of players I've got.

 

[Jason Seaver]

[talking out my behind]

If the upscaling is done entirely in hardware, and they had the same chipset, they'd logically give the same results. However, I'm guessing that the CPU of the next-generation players is a lot more powerful than that of the SD player (the PS3 is famously hyperthyroid, at least), these players can do more software-based pattern recognition than the SD ones.

[/talking out my behind]

 

[Patrick Sun]

Also, some HDM players have better upscaling chips than others, so it's never a guarentee than HDM players will upconvert better than a SD DVD player with upconvert capabilities (like the highly regarded Oppo).

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Andrew,

I'm curious now. Which Denon SD player do you own? I have the 2910 (w/ Faroudja DCDi chip) myself though I haven't been able to make use of its upscaling capability since my current TV is just a tad too old to have HDMI input. Still, would be nice to know for future reference. Thanks.

_Man_

 

[andrew markworthy]

I've got the Denon 1920. The upscaling is far from bad. Indeed, I was really impressed with it - until I got an HD player.

Thanks for the input, guys. Looks like it is just down to specific models, and I would guess that as time goes on, upscaling will get better and better. And that means I'm now a lot more cheerful about 'what do I do with all my SD discs?'. The simple answer is - keep them. For a lot of movies that I only watch 'casually' or where HD would in any case reveal more errors than pleasures (e.g. anything sourced from old video tape like a lot of old TV series) the picture quality on an upscaled SD is more than adequate.