New DVD player connection- component or HDMI? (1 Viewer)

[Tim Martin]

First I want to say that I have lurked on this website for years and am truly appreciative of all of the folks that help each other out with various questions. This site actually helped me make a decision in regards to my new receiver and speaker purchase three years ago. I ended up with a Yamaha Rx-V795a and Klipsch speakers.

I just purchased a Sony 30" KV30HS420 TV. I went this route because of price, $70 over cost, and I have a Motorola DCT6412 III cable box from RCN which is a DVR and HD tuner. I only sit about 5-7 feet away from the TV so that's why I didn't get a monster TV.

Now down to my question. I want to purchase a new DVD player that is Progressive scan and with the ability to upconvert to 720/1080. In reading through a lot of these posts I am confused as to whether or not you can do this via component or if it has to be HDMI? I planned on using component for both the Cable box and the new DVD player but in looking at some of these posts I am under the impression that you won't get the 720/1080 signal unless you use the HDMI cable. I was looking into buying the Sony DVPNS70H DVD player @ $143ish from CC.

The TV I bought only has one HDMI input so either the Cable Box, which I watch more of, or the DVD will have to be component. Will I still get the proper signal to the TV if I use component in either case? Do I need to use HDMI in order to get the upconvert signal from the DVD player?

Thanks in advance.

T.

 

[John Garcia]

On a 30" CRT I don't think you are going to see a considerable difference. Not sure about upconversion with a CRT that size; it certainly won't be a night and day difference, though it may be worth it to you if you're after ultimate picture quality.

For just $199, the Oppo 971 has gotten some very good reviews.

 

[Tim Martin]

This scores well only in DVI output. It doesn't do the conversion via component.

From the link provided.
"As you can see from the Benchmark scores, the 971H is an outstanding budget DVD player. But I must advise you that the scores only pertain to the DVI output. This player's component outputs do not support progressive playback, only 480i, so we were not able to plot a video frequency response curve. I was quite surprised, because I've never seen this before. The DVI video board in the player houses the Genesis FLI-2310 video processing chip, so the component video connections cannot take advantage of it."

This does look like a good player but won't accommodate my needs. Thanks anyway.

T.

 

[Ronn.W]

Actually, it will. If you're looking for upconversion over HDMI, all you have to do is use a DVI>HDMI cable. If you order directly from Oppo, they will give you that cable.

As far as I know, there is only one player that upconverts over component, and I believe it only does it after you apply a remote control hack to open up that capability. If there are other players that upconvert via component, I'm sure others here will pipe up.

I'm of two minds about this. I agree with John, on a 30" screen you may not be able to see a big enough difference to worry about it. On the other hand, if you've got an open HDMI connection, you might as well use it.

 

[Jongyoon Lee]

Welcome to the forum!

If you sit only 5-7 feet away from analog CRT, I think you can definitely see the benefit of upconversion even on 30" screen. CRT, being analog, can naturally handle various resolutions and is more friendly to upconversion than fixed pixel digital display.

First you want to make sure the component input on your TV is indeed capable of HD resolution. It's possible that the HD input can be used on HDMI input only.

If both HDMI and component inputs can handle HD resolution, then it's just a toss up. You can just get the Sony DVD player and hook it up over HDMI, and connect cable STB via component.

Most DVD players only upconverts through HDMI, and that may be just fine for you. You get more connectivity options if you have a DVD player that can upconvert through both HDMI and component. Many, if not most, LG/Zenith and Samsung DVD players can be easily configured to upconvert over component. I have LG DVB418, and it looks great in 1080i upconverted resolution. Best of all, I bought mine for less than $100 on internet.