DVD UPCONVERSION (1 Viewer)

[Ravenwolfvoyage]

I have an LG upconverting DVD player and noticed that my LG TV is identifying a 480i signal being sent to it. The quality of the DVD picture isn't that impressive. I'm trying to view the DVD on an LG 42" HDTV. I read a lot of reviews on different upconverting DVD players and people are really impressed by the picture they are seeing? I tried hooking the DVD player to both the HDMI and component hookup but Ireally can't see much of a difference? I called LG customer service and the tech explained to me that the quality is dependant upon the quality of the DVD that I"m watching. He stated something that if the DVD was preformated at 480 quality that I might not see that much of a difference. I tried other DVD's and having the same results, even with newer DVD"s. Does this logic make any sense because it doesn't sound from what the tech told me that DVD"s can't upconvert beyond the native format. I guess I"m curious if you can really see a difference with upconverting DVD players since I haven't had a good experience with mine regardless of the positive reviews it got on a few sites.

 

[Jim Mcc]

What type of cable are you using with the DVD player? Because players can only upconvert over HDMI.

 

[JohnRice]

Your TV upconverts everything to its native resolution, so, despite all the marketing bs, as long as you connect with hdmi you probably won't see any difference unless maybe you use a higher end player, like one of the better Oppos.

 

[Ravenwolfvoyage]

Hi Jim, I tried using the HDMI cable to upconvert the native resolution with no success in the quality.

 

[Ravenwolfvoyage]

Hi John, That's kind of the spill the LG tech was giving me over the phone. I thought that the DVD upconversions would at least upconvert a 480 to 720, but if tthe upconverts are based on native resolutions then it's not going to deliver any more quality that a regular DVD player, right? I have read reviews on products including the one that I own where consumers are pleased with the quality of the picture but I haven't seen much of a difference in my experience. Is this just a marketing ploy? Don't get me wrong I have a Samsung Blu-Ray and a PS3 but I have an extensive collection of DVD's that I'd like to continue to enjoy. I'll look into the Oppos, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[JohnRice]

To explain more, your TV can only display one resolution. Either 720p or 1080p. So, the image has to be upconverted. If it isn't done before it reaches the TV, then the TV does it. So, does a cheap DVD player do a better job? Probably not. The absurd thing is people demand things and have no idea what they are. They insist on an upconverting player AND and upconverting receiver, when the upconversion only needs to be done once, but since the TV also does it, they end up with three components which can do it. Again, it only needs to be done once. Most components have cheap upconversion, except some of the more expensive player or outboard scalers.

 

[Ravenwolfvoyage]

Thanks for the explanation John. I don't think that the dvd player or the TV did any upconversion? I guess I should have done a little more research into TV models before making my purchase. I also read where some stereo components can upscale the video resolution which I didn't know about. I did some more research this morning and didn't realize that a regular dvd could be played on a blu-ray player? Actually the quality of the reception improved enough through the blu-ray that I can live with some of the minor splotches. It's not picture perfect but I'll probably not get a perfect reception unless I go to a higher end dvd upscaler. I appreciate the input John and Jim. I've learned a lot from visiting hometheaterforum!

 

[JohnRice]

I'll say it one more time. Your TV can only display one resolution. Period!! If the signal being fed to it is lower than that resolution, it upscales it. Period!!

 

[Dave Hahn]

Your TV upconverts everything to its native resolution, so, despite all the marketing bs, as long as you connect with hdmi you probably won't see any difference . . .

Unless you get an upconverting dvd player that lets you set the output resolution on the dvd player to match the native resolution of your display device.

unless maybe you use a higher end player, like one of the better Oppos.

Oppo dvd players allow you to do this; the ability to "pixel-map" can make a big difference. Same thing goes for your HD cable box. On initial setup, you want to set the output, 720p, 1080i, etc. to match the native resolution of your tv/projector.

 

[JohnRice]

Just another example of how people have so thoroughly drunk the marketing kool-aid that they are incapable of understanding that all LCD and Plasma TV do whatever upconverting is necessary. The point is, the TV will typically do as good or better a job as any set-top box or cheap player. Better players, like the better Oppos, can do a better job of upconverting, but whether you will see a difference depends on a lot of other factors. All of this is just proving my point. With cheap players or set-top boxes, as long as you use hdmi, there will probably be no difference.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Your TV can only display one resolution. Period!!

This is very true, and since most people don't understand it's worth driving home. But it also leaves out aspect that if both the player upconverts first the TV doesn't have to; so if the player does a better job of it then you do see a better picture. On the other hand, no algorithm/circuitry can perform miracles. The orginal data is 480; the only thing that's occuring is that the extra detail is being estimated. That will never be as good as watching a higher resolution media such as BR.

 

[Dave Hahn]

Just another example of how people have so thoroughly drunk the marketing kool-aid . . .

I haven't drunk any kool-aid; I do however, have a practial understanding of of matching the output of your source to that of your display device. Simply stated, the chip in the Oppo dvd player will do a better job upconverting the image than the chip in the LG hdtv. (As well, the HD cable boxes now being used by Comcast, Time Warner, etc. should also do a better job). No marketing BS there, just fact. The OP stated that his "LG TV is identifying a 480i signal being sent to it." and that "The quality of the DVD picture isn't that impressive." So, I suggested a possible fix, changing the output on the dvd player to the native resolution of his hdtv; say from 480i to 1080i or 1080p. This might be just the thing to improve the picture quality.

 

[Ravenwolfvoyage]

Thanks Dave. I ended up playing the dvd on my blu ray player. The TV was reading the signal at 1080i which produced a much better picture. It's not 1080i but it was bearable. Unfortunately, the LG DVD player that is supposed to upconvert had no option to increase the signal. The player was connected using an HDMI cable but had no more effect than a regular dvd player. The tech at LG basically said that the player that I had only feeds whatever resolution format that was embedded into the DVD that I was playing (nothing that a regular DVD player couldn't handle). I did not notice any kind of upscale from the TV either (Manufactured APR 2011) that would have made me thought that the TV was upscaling anything other than 480i. I think your theory worked because the blu ray seemed to do some kind of upconversion since its output was set at 1080p which resulted in a big difference in the unbearable picture quality that I had before.

 

[JohnRice]

Your TV can only display one resolution. Period!!

This is very true, and since most people don't understand it's worth driving home. But it also leaves out aspect that if both the player upconverts first the TV doesn't have to; so if the player does a better job of it then you do see a better picture. On the other hand, no algorithm/circuitry can perform miracles. The orginal data is 480; the only thing that's occuring is that the extra detail is being estimated. That will never be as good as watching a higher resolution media such as BR.

I agree. What I have read from reliable sources and observed myself on multiple occasions is that the upconverting in TVs is, in general, not distinguishable from that done by CHEAP players. The difference between component and hdmi connections is significantly more noticeable, in my experience. In fact, on my 42" Panasonic Plasma, upconverting with an Oppo (I forget the models, but I have 2) player is pretty difficult to discern vs. the upscaling of the TV. Of course, I would expect if I were to get a current Oppo BR player, with it's significantly better upscaling chip, that I should see at least some difference. My issue comes from when I see people with a $2-3K TV (not the situation in this particular thread) but insisting that a $50 upscaling DVD player MUST do better upscaling, when in reality they simply don't know that the TV does it anyway and in that case, most likely does it better.

 

[JohnRice]

I strongly suspect the improved pic quality the OP has achieved has very little to do with where the upscaling is done rather than with the fact the BR player being used now is simply a better player than the LG originally used.