Basic Image Quality Questions

Seems like a lot of people are just looking - will try and give you some answers:

1.) Do DVD players that upscale really improve quality, or is this just marketing?

The DVD media contains 480 lines of horizontal resolution...

Video DVD is 480p. Some DVD players will up-sample the DVD to 1080i or 1080p but the source material is only 480p. You can't make up resolution that isn't present in the source...

If you have a monitor that displays 1080 lines of resolution - either the monitor or the player will have to make up the difference from the source.

Sometimes the players are better at doing this job, and sometimes the display devices are better at it.


2.) How does 1920x1080p compare to 1280x720p in terms of quality?

Both 1080p and 720p are considered "high definition" formats. A lot of the perceived quality comes from the display and the seating distance away from the display. If your display is big enough, and you sit close enough to the display, you will be able to tell the difference between the two. It is most noticeable on diagonal lines in the picture. You will be able to see more of a stair stepping quality in a diagonal line on a 720 display then you will see on a 1080 display - if your display is big enough and you are sitting close to the screen. From a further distance, you won't be able to tell the difference.


3.) Is 1920x1080i noticeably lower quality than the two other settings listed above?

The 1080i stands for "interlaced" picture - where the scan skips every other line on pass 1, and fills them in on pass 2. There is the same amount of picture resolution between the interlaced and the progressive output - but the progressive does not do the 2 pass picture - instead starting from the top to bottom with every line. If there is fast enough motion, you may get a slight difference between the two, but normally you will not be able to tell.

 

I'll just toss in a short answer for #1.

Your TV is upscaling it anyway, so it comes down to which component does a better job. Unless you have a higher end Blu-Ray player like an Oppo or another exotic brand like Denon, there's probably no difference.