Do I need a progressive scan DVD player? (1 Viewer)

[JoeRiley]

At first, I was just planning on getting a progressive scan dvd player to go with my new HDTV within the next week or so... But for some reason I think I remember reading here that the TV itself has a de-interlacer or something of that nature, so now I'm confused as far as if I need a new progressive scan dvd player, instead of my normal one.

I have a Panny 53X53.
Thanks.

 

[JamesHl]

It does, but the deinterlacing chipset in the dvd player is generally better.

 

[Allan Jayne]

As the years go by, the de-interlacers built into TV sets have been getting better and better. So the improvement you get with a progressive DVD player just because of the "progressiveness" may be hardly noticeable.

Most HDTV sets actually display in 1080i only, standard video is (should be) de-interlaced and then scaled up to 1080i (actually 540p), progressive scan video is just scaled. If this is the case, the advantage of a progressive scan player is smaller still.

You see, just before the video exits the player and goes to the next device (TV or stand alone de-interlacer) it is converted to analog. With the de-interlacer built into the player the video stays digital between the player's MPEG decoder and the de-interlacer.

But the analog signal from the DVD player, progressive or not, is (should be) converted to digital just once upon entering the HDTV set. If progressive, it goes directly to the scaler. If not, it goes to the TV's de-interlacer but stays digital going on to the scaler.

In the above case, the video gets converted to analog and redigitized (the step that loses quality) the same number of times both with a progressive and regular DVD player so the progressive player no longer has an advantage in that respect.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/viddoubl.htm

 

[JoeRiley]

Thanks guys... so it won't be a big deal if I hold off on prog. scan dvd player for a couple weeks.