Please Recommend Processor(s) to Scale DVDs to 1080p. (1 Viewer)

[cineescape]

I need advice deciding between two schemes for deinterlacing and scaling 480 content to achieve the best results affordable on a late model 1080p 50" plasma TV. I decided against even the best Sony 48 or 55" OLED TVs as all TVs today are 4K, and however intelligent the algorithms in their processors are, scaling 480 to 4K is too likely to generate too many artifacts.

My collection of movies and TV series is sizable but only 30-odd movies and one TV series are on 1080p BD. The rest are on DVD, though pressed from Warners, Sony, Universal, Fox, CBS/Paramount, Studio Canal, et al.

Rather than my Oppo 95 or Pioneer LX500 players, I'd rather use the BD drive in the HTPC that I want to build-outputting the video via HDMI and the audio via USB to a DAC. The good news is I do no gaming, so I may not need a super powerful video card. But how much horsepower will I still need to make my DVDs look their best on a plasma?

I only know of two ways to do this. The first way is this expensive box, not that I have any experience using it. http://www.lumagen.com/testindex.php?module=radianceMini_details The second way is certainly far most popular: Use an HTPC with a suitably powerful graphics card and madVR software, or the Jinc utility which I believe is built into JRiver player. But while Jinc's learning curve might not be very steep most users say madVR can take you days or weeks to produce decent results. I don't mind putting in reasonable time to learn as much as I can so long as my efforts bear good looking fruit.

However, the big concern here is fan noise, power draw and/or heat emission. My HTPC build is way overdue but it also needs to be virtually (~ 80%) silent-and in a case no bigger than this. https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=233&area=en

But a madVR user said this silent card's too weak. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/gt-1030/specifications/ and to scale DVDs for a 1080p plasma-even when viewed 10 to 12 feet away-I'd at least need a card idling at 82 watts like this one.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/gtx-1650/

And the card's idling fan noise levels really aren't rated too well.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14270/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-review-feat-zotac/15

Same with this card. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15010/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-super-review-feat-evga/15

There is a fanless version of the 1650. https://www.a2kmedia.net/post/is-silent-gpu-any-good-palit-gtx-1650-kalmx

But that's assuming I wouldn't actually need some stronger and even noisier card for great looking DVDs on a 50" plasma @ 10 feet, using madVR or Jinc.

So is asking for low fan noise and stellar DVD to 1080p scaling from a video card pretty much asking for the impossible?

If so, then unless this less costly model would give exceptionally good results on my screen and viewing distance https://www.kramerav.com/us/product/vp-424c , would this processor produce indispensably better images?

Lumagen

BUT I'll be sending the audio to an external DAC via USB, so any problems syncing the video with the audio while the pc's playing the DVD via JRiver?

 

[smithbrad]

Sorry. I can't answer your questions, but I did find something missing from what I read above, which is: What is it that the Oppo 95 isn't doing right or that you think can be improved upon? I ask, because everything you are proposing has a cost and a lot of time investment to achieve what may not even provide any perceivable benefits over what you already have. I mean the Oppo 95 already has significant processing above and beyond the typical DVD/blu-ray player for SD content. In addition, a 50" screen isn't that large of a display to easily differentiate between the types of improvements you may be getting, unless you are sitting ultra-close.

I responded because I also want to get the most from my DVDs. While likely 50% of my movies are blu-ray, 90% of my TV collection of 200+ series are standard DVD. I have a 2K front projection system with a 92" screen. I'm still using my faithful Oppo BDP-83 as my primary player and have no issue with the results I am getting. My concern is more about when my Oppo finally dies and whether the higher-end 4K blu-ray players even prioritize SD content anymore, so while I haven't looked into the HTPC route I have considered the external video processor as an option. Based on the content I've collected, I'm with you in thinking that a 2K display is better than a 4K display when it comes to SD content.

Do you have a complaint about what you are currently seeing on your setup? Have you actually seen comparisons representing the types of benefits you could perceive on a similar setup? Possibly you are expecting too much. I know there is a lot of marketing around AI and the ability to make SD look almost like HD.

 

[YANG]

get a budget friendly Bluray player, set it to output video signal to 720p. that's more than enough to let any new TVs to do a second layer upscale to 1.4k image.
a straight double jump from player upscale to 1080p, follow by TV’s second layer upscale to fill up the screen automatically, worsen the DVD picture quality.

 

[cineescape]

get a budget friendly Bluray player, set it to output video signal to 720p. that's more than enough to let any new TVs to do a second layer upscale to 1.4k image.
a straight double jump from player upscale to 1080p, follow by TV’s second layer upscale to fill up the screen automatically, worsen the DVD picture quality.

Could I get the same upscaling quality results instead with a pc using the Jinc scaler in JRiver using this fanless card?
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/gt-1030/specifications/

OR another fanless card?

Or whatever sufficiently powerful but very low fan noise video card you could recommend for the task?

See someone here pursuing the same goal and who may have tried JRiver's Jinc but then went for the more GPU hogging (and fan noisier) madVR. https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=126951.0

 

[cineescape]

Like you and everyone I've chatted with at several leading forums, I'm have no problem with how the Oppo 95 handles DVD resolution. And I'd be viewing on a 50" screen from 10 to 11 feet.

But like you I'd rather avoid continually using my excellent hardwired Oppo 95 or Pioneer LX500 players which will eventually have limited service support. And as you point out such older players may do SD scaling better than newer players as the CE industry and consumers are rapidly streaming more and replacing their favorite titles on DVD with BDs. If so, then either a powerful hardwired scaler box or a software scaler (e.g. Jinc or madVR) and/or some combination of them AND the TV's scaler to perform "two or three step" scaling, as Yang seems to be recommending here, may be the best approach. But my other big concern is how powerful and noisy a video card will I therefore need to make my DVDs look their best on a plasma?

 

[smithbrad]

There is a good chance your Oppo will outlast your plasma and then you will be in the realm of a 4K display. When that happens, you may have more/better options than you have now. Hard to say what type of support will still be available for SD content in the future. In any case, best of luck. I hope it all works out.

 

[YANG]

Could I get the same upscaling quality results instead with a pc using the Jinc scaler in JRiver using this fanless card?
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/gt-1030/specifications/

OR another fanless card?

Or whatever sufficiently powerful but very low fan noise video card you could recommend for the task?

See someone here pursuing the same goal and who may have tried JRiver's Jinc but then went for the more GPU hogging (and fan noisier) madVR. https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=126951.0

pardon me for unable to advice further on HTPC as I'm not a user on that field... my initial reply was made base on your mentioning of 2 premium players and the plasma TV.

 

[Sega]

Me. I said the hell with it all.
I have a 4 K 55" TV. Two 4K Dvd players.
A 3D 4K DVD player. A LaserDisc player.
A VHS player hooked up to it. 500 DVD;s
100 VHS Tapes. 100 Laserdisc. And now picking up
4K DVD's. The dogs look at me funny now. She said.
I think we have overdone it.
What could go wrong?

 

[Bartman]

I find the video processing options (Standard, Theater, Bright) on my Sony BDP-S6700 Blu-ray player useful for changing the upscaled picture quality on my 4K OLED TV. These options are more convenient than changing TV settings to optimize picture quality. I believe the S1700 & S3700 players also have this option, if you don't need 4K.

 

[Ian-Fl]

I have a evga gt1030 with no fan just a heat sink and I'm playing ripped ultra Blu-ray with MadVR. I'm also playing videos at 4k, 60 hz with HDR and running WCS color profiles.
So if anyone tells you that card is not good enough It keeps on performing and isn't dropping any frames.

 

[cineescape]

I have a evga gt1030 with no fan just a heat sink and I'm playing ripped ultra Blu-ray with MadVR. I'm also playing videos at 4k, 60 hz with HDR and running WCS color profiles.
So if anyone tells you that card is not good enough It keeps on performing and isn't dropping any frames.

May I ask what make, model pc case? A big enough case could certainly reduce GPU temps enough to keep it fanless. And the CPU? However, doesn't MadVR rely more on the video card's GPU than on the CPU core count?

And what player? Media Player Classic? JRiver?

So you're ripping a 4K BD and storing it on your NAS? I've zero experience with madVR or even JRiver's JRVR scaling utility. But when you say that you ripped the 4K BD with madVR, does that software have a decrypting utility, or do you use something like AnyDVD HD for that?

But then when you do rip the 4K BD, does madVR provide any kind or compression-or do you add compression-which might reduce the workload for the gt1030 card during plays? Otherwise, that's pretty amazing, UNLESS scaling DVDs using madVR-even to just 1080p-which is what I want to do, would stress that GPU a whole lot more.

Indeed, would you care to run THAT test for me? The results could be a huge help for deciding on both the video card and the HTPC case size.