Large Screen and No Progressive Scan (1 Viewer)

[StuartF]

I am considering taking the plunge and buying a large screen TV. I'm attracted to Sony's KF-42WE610 rear projection LCD and the Samsung HLN4365W or HLN437W DLP because of their relatively low profile and price, as well as some of the things that I have read about them.

The principal use I would make of a larger TV would be to watch DVDs. We live in a rural area and don't have cable. Our DVD player still works great but is a little older and does not have progressive scan.

How will DVDs played on my player look on these larger sets? Would buying a large screen be a waste without also upgrading the DVD? I don't really want to replace the DVD player if I don't have to, since it's working great.

Appreciate any thoughts, thanks.

 

[StuartF]

I am considering taking the plunge and buying a large screen TV. I'm attracted to Sony's KF-42WE610 rear projection LCD and the Samsung HLN4365W or HLN437W DLP because of their relatively low profile and price, as well as some of the things that I have read about them.

The principal use I would make of a larger TV would be to watch DVDs. We live in a rural area and don't have cable. Our DVD player still works great but is a little older and does not have progressive scan.

How will DVDs played on my player look on these larger sets? Would buying a large screen be a waste without also upgrading the DVD? I don't really want to replace the DVD player if I don't have to, since it's working great.

Appreciate any thoughts, thanks.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Stuart, it may be that the display's internal line doubler does a really good job of deinterlacing a 480i image from your current player, with the result being that you can enjoy a nice-enough 480p image without needing to get a new player. Enjoy that for the time being and get a new player when you are ready. Conventional wisdom has it that a prog-scan DVD player's deinterlacing circuits perform better than a display's -- but that's not a universal fact.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Stuart, it may be that the display's internal line doubler does a really good job of deinterlacing a 480i image from your current player, with the result being that you can enjoy a nice-enough 480p image without needing to get a new player. Enjoy that for the time being and get a new player when you are ready. Conventional wisdom has it that a prog-scan DVD player's deinterlacing circuits perform better than a display's -- but that's not a universal fact.

 

[StuartF]

Jack,

Thanks very much for the post. That's a very helpful reply.

 

[StuartF]

Jack,

Thanks very much for the post. That's a very helpful reply.

 

[Jeramy_K]

I don't have a progressive scan DVD player yet either. I have a 56" Panasonic RPTV and I use my older model Sony DVD/SACD player all the time. I have no complaints. However I have had the chance to borrow a friends progressive scan player and I do notice a big difference in picture quality.

Based on my experience I would say get the TV and maybe upgrade your DVD player later on if you decide to. Another option would be to take your DVD player with you and ask to connect it to the store demo so you can see first hand before you buy.

You might even get lucky and find a sale that gives a free progressive scan DVD player with the purchase of a new TV. It doesn't happen often but it has happened.

Good luck!

 

[Jeramy_K]

I don't have a progressive scan DVD player yet either. I have a 56" Panasonic RPTV and I use my older model Sony DVD/SACD player all the time. I have no complaints. However I have had the chance to borrow a friends progressive scan player and I do notice a big difference in picture quality.

Based on my experience I would say get the TV and maybe upgrade your DVD player later on if you decide to. Another option would be to take your DVD player with you and ask to connect it to the store demo so you can see first hand before you buy.

You might even get lucky and find a sale that gives a free progressive scan DVD player with the purchase of a new TV. It doesn't happen often but it has happened.

Good luck!

 

[StuartF]

Jeramy,

I'm getting more comfortable by the minute with the notion of taking the plunge! Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

 

[StuartF]

Jeramy,

I'm getting more comfortable by the minute with the notion of taking the plunge! Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

 

[Alan Wise]

Stuart,
In January I purchased a Sony KP-57WS510 HD-RPTV, and I too had an older non-progressive scan (interlaced) DVD player. As Jeramy stated, the picture was OK, and you can certainly get by with it. One week later I purchased a new DVD player, and the picture was much cleaner. The interlaced player seemed to have more jagged edges and lower resolution in the back ground of the scenes.

Good Luck, Al. Wise

 

[Alan Wise]

Stuart,
In January I purchased a Sony KP-57WS510 HD-RPTV, and I too had an older non-progressive scan (interlaced) DVD player. As Jeramy stated, the picture was OK, and you can certainly get by with it. One week later I purchased a new DVD player, and the picture was much cleaner. The interlaced player seemed to have more jagged edges and lower resolution in the back ground of the scenes.

Good Luck, Al. Wise

 

[StuartF]

Al,

Thanks for the help! Maybe that's what I'll do eventually, but it's nice to know that the picture won't be total garbage without upgrading.

 

[StuartF]

Al,

Thanks for the help! Maybe that's what I'll do eventually, but it's nice to know that the picture won't be total garbage without upgrading.

 

[Dave Milne]

Jack's comment is well taken...

You never really know which de-interlacer is going to be better until you try. I have a Sony 9000ES DVD player, which is a nice mid- to high-end unit ($1800. MSRP) that I expected to have a good de-interlacer. However, when I set it to progressive output, the picture looks significantly worse than in interlace mode. Apparently my Dwin "TranScanner 2" scaler (part of my front projection display system) does a better job of de-interlacing than the Sony.

 

[Dave Milne]

Jack's comment is well taken...

You never really know which de-interlacer is going to be better until you try. I have a Sony 9000ES DVD player, which is a nice mid- to high-end unit ($1800. MSRP) that I expected to have a good de-interlacer. However, when I set it to progressive output, the picture looks significantly worse than in interlace mode. Apparently my Dwin "TranScanner 2" scaler (part of my front projection display system) does a better job of de-interlacing than the Sony.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Stuart,

a non-progressive player will perform well with a set that has good de-interlacing and can display at 480p. Sonys like Al Wises work very well with non-progressive players to the extent that a progressive scan player purchase can be postponed if one has a good interlaced player.

His set is a crt based model which converts incoming 480i from and interlaced player to 480p and does it quite nicely. It can also display 1080i natively from an HD box, so it has 2 "native" scanrates--480p and 1080i.

The 2 models you are considering are an LCD based Sony and DLP based Samsungs. Both of these sets have only one native scanrate and that is 720p. A conversion from 480i to 480p is much less radical than the one these sets will have to perform, so your results may very well not be as good as those gotten with a crt based set that can do 480p.

I would suggest that when shopping for your new set, you make sure to see what the pq is like when displaying an incoming 480i signal like you'll be getting from your current dvd player, especially with fast moving scenes.
From what I've seen at most stores that carry both the Sony and Samsung, the Sony seems to do a nicer job with 480i signals than the Sammy.

If you're willing to consider a crt based set rather than a fixed pixel display you will get better performance with 480i sources if you choose a model that converts incoming 480i to 480p and not 540p.

 

[StuartF]

Steve,

Great information. That helps enormously. Thanks.

 

[Chris Cash]

I bought a WS 55511 55" widescreen Mitsubishi. I had the 200 disk dvd player from Sony. When I played it on my 27" it had a great picture. But the player wasn't even 480I. When I played it on my 55" I could tell a big difference. The picture was very grainy. I hated to sell the player because I had had it four year with no problems. But reluctantly I sold it to a friend of mine and bought a pioneer DV-667A. I recently went back and bought the 400 disk DVD player from Sony. I plan on using the pioneer only for DVD-A's, SACD's, and rental movies. The thing is you can settle with the player you have or spend just a little and get something better. The Pioneer 563A is only $140 and every review has raved about the picture quality. I love my 667A but missed having my DVD library at my finger tips.

~C.C.~

 

[StuartF]

CC

Food for thought, for sure. Mine's a changer and we use it as much (or more) for music as movies, and I hate to part with it when it is working so well.

I took a look at the Sammy I'm considering in a store yesterday, and they popped in Return of the King for me in a Sharp DVD player. I have to say I'm less than impressed with what I saw. Lots of fuzziness around the edges of people's heads and so on, overall graininess, etc., etc. The salesman admitted they had lousy cables. If they want to sell these things, they're going to have to learn to show them.

Thanks for the thoughts.