HDMI connection w/o upscaling? (1 Viewer)

[StewartAmg]

I'm a little confused... I am buying a Mitsubishi WS-48515 which upscales to 1080i.
I would like to take advantage of the HDMI connection but the only DVD players I can find with that connection are upscaling units and I'm told it's better to let the TV do that.
Is there any advantage to using the HDMI connection over YPbPr?

 

[ChuckSolo]

Stewart, the HDMI connection is superior to component because it is a pure digital connection between the TV and player. Because your TV is CRT based, there is still come digital to analog conversion going on after the signal reaches the TV; the data stream between the TV and the player though is pure digital.

After looking at the specs on your TV, it looks like the TV converts a non-progressive DVD signal(480i) to a 480p progressive signal. The TV by itself, doesn't "upscale" the 480i signal to 1080i. In some cases it is better to let the TV do the progressive conversion, but it depends on which component, TV or player, has the better de-interlacing chip. Natively, it looks like your TV will display 1080i only when receiving HDTV signals, like mine does. It will however, display an "upscaled" 1080i signal from an upscaling DVD player when hooked up via the HDMI input. On my display, the upscaled 1080i image coming from my DVD player looks superior to the 480p progressive image so I usually watch all my DVDs in 1080i mode.

 

[StewartAmg]

Thanks for the quick reply Chuck, although now I'm even more confused.
The specs I was reading, at {h--p://inoax.com/vi-11443______.html} said
So I took that to mean the signal from the DVD player as well.

From what you say, an HDMI connection to an upscaling DVD player is exactly what this TV needs.
I just want to be sure I buy the right DVD player the first time.

 

[ChuckSolo]

What they are talking about is any signals coming into the integrated HDTV tuner will be upscaled by the HDTV tuner to 1080i. My Scientific Atlanta 8300HD cable box does the same thing. However, this is not going to be the case with an external device like a DVD player; if your TV has progressive signal conversion built in, and it looks like it does, then the 480i DVD signal would be processed into 480p by the TV. If you get a progressive scan DVD player, and enable the player's progressive scan capability, then the TV will allow the player to do the progressive processing since the TV will only process the signal if it senses a non-progressive signal source. Yes, your TV would definately benefit from using the HDMI connection. There are a number of upscaling players out on the market and some have limitations. I bought my player because on top of the ability to upscale, it also plays SACD discs and DVD-Audio discs as well. I won't attempt to recommend any upscaling players because I believe that recommendations just populate a thread like this with differing opinions and sometimes escalate and degenerate into a "this is better than this because..." type of flame war. Go out and test different players and see which one you like best.