Any advantage to progressive DVD player? (1 Viewer)

[Eddie A]

My parents recently bought a 43" Hitachi RPTV, and I'm thinking about getting them a progressive-scan DVD player for Christmas. They're currently using an older, cheapie Toshiba model.

According to the manual, the Hitachi set has 3:2 pulldown support. So my question is, is there any benefit to buying them a progressive DVD player? Or would the TV set's line doubler give them similar quality from an interlaced DVD player using component inputs?

 

[Jack Briggs]

General experience suggests that the prog-scan output and 2:3 pulldown circuitry in DVD players perform better than a television's equivalent circuitry. However, I'm not familiar with the Hitachi's performance in those areas. If your parents are non-critical viewers, they may be happy with the set's internal line double and 2:3 pulldown. If it were me, however, I'd be tempted to buy a prog-scan player.

 

[Jeff Adams]

With Progressive scan players only costing a little more than interlaced, then I would definately go with progressive scan. Is that tv you bought them a widecreen model?

 

[Eddie A]

They actually bought the TV for themselves (at my urging, since the green gun on their old 41" Magnavox TV had gone out and the picture looked horrible). I was thinking about buying them a progressive DVD player since I thought it would be a nice complement to the new TV set, but based on what Jack said I doubt they'd notice the difference between a progressive DVD player and the non-progressive one they currently have. So I will begin my search for another gift.
The new Hitachi is a 4:3 HD-ready unit. It's very nice and makes me quite envious!
Thanks for the input, guys.

 

[Sach]

Hitachi's 3:2 is very good. I was in a similar situation last week when I was asked by my less critical uncle whether they should buy a new DVD player for their Hitachi 57 incher UWX20B widescreen HDTV. When I hooked up the Toshiba 3109 and started the 3:2, the images were really spectacular. They were amazed at the picture quality.

so instead of asking them to spend money on a new DVD player, I asked them to get a HDTV tuner.

 

[Eric Stuckey]

I just bought the SAME tv for myself last month.I LOVE it.I ask the wife for a PR-82 progress scan for christmas.Hope I get it.

 

[Brian Schucher]

Im pretty sure the Hitchi upconverts to 540P. If so, the 480p signal from progressive DVD will still be upconverted. However, since prog players have gotten so cheap you may as well..

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

OR if your budget allows and they don't have one yet, an OTA set-top box might be a good choice. They've got the TV, so why not get the HiDef tuner too? Of course, that's assuming they don't have one already.

_Man_

 

[Greg Kolinski]

I was in the same situation a month or so back,had just got a JVC 56 in RPTV, internal 3:2,upconverts to 1080,etc.I had been reading about progressive players for a while,even thought I had one ,Pioneer 434,oops.,and a old Toshiba 3108
The Toshiba was nice ,in 98 in was a terrific player.Problem was it was plagued by the firmware problems the older ones had,so i was switchin between the 434 and the Tosbiba .I was checking out the CC ad in the paper one day and they had a JVC XVS502SL on sale,$160 or ,real cheap.For that price it was worth trying,and MAN was there a difference,A LOT SHARPER picture, better color,etc.Im not really sure ,but seeing how the TV has ,3:2 etc ,I believe I got the major improvements just by, well,5 years of technology upgrades in DVD players.So my theory ,even if the TV is new and has all the latest stuff,if your DVD platyer is 4+ years old,you will probobly see an improvement.

 

[Kevin. W]

If your DVD player as well as the TV does the 3:2 conversion, do you have to disable one of them?

Kevin

 

[Neil Joseph]

Hmmm, I will have to upgrade this Christmas. I too have a Toshiba 3108 with firmware upgrade that is about 3-4 years old. Is the RP-82 the way to go? That seems to be the general concensus.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I'm reluctant to go w/ the RP82 (or CP72) because it doesn't do scaling/aspect ratio control to convert non-16x9 DVDs to 16x9. I have a lot of non-16x9 DVDs that look awful or barely watchable when zoomed to fill the width of my new Panny 53". I've resigned to maybe use physical mattes to cover up the grey side bars for 4x3 content instead of having the player put up black side bars since that would reduce concerns of "burn-in".

At this point, looks like I'll just hold out until the next generation of players and live w/ using the internal linedoubler on the Panny. Afterall, it's already better than what I saw on the old 32" w/out deinterlacing.

_Man_