Question regarding RPTV progressive scan upconversion (1 Viewer)

[VinhT]

I'm currently selecting an RPTV and am a bit confused with the upconversion feature.

"NTSC-to-480p progressive-scan upconversion system improves picture quality with conventional sources."

Does this mean that I don't need a progressive scan DVD player? I get the impression that the upconversion feature basically does the same thing a progressive scan DVD player does.

If someone could give me more information about progressive scan upconversion I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Jim FC]

The upconversion feature you are asking about is meant to achieve the same thing that a progressive scan DVD player does, but it rarely looks as good as it would if you bought a prog-scan DVD player. Here's why:

The picture information on a DVD is recorded digitally (as a 1 or a 0) in an interlaced format, meaning that each frame of film is recorded as two fields, one including all the odd numbered lines, and one including all the evens.

What both a progressive-scan DVD player and a TV's internal line doubler/upconversion system/DRC does is this: they take the two opposing fields and combine them into one "progressive" image. This eliminates scan lines and makes a nice picture that looks way better than an interlaced one.

The difference between letting the DVD player do it and the TV do it is that the good DVD players will combine the fields while they are still digital information, and send that frame to the TV to be displayed. This results in much less lost information during the upconversion process. If the TV does it, the fields have already been converted to an analog signal and sent along the cables, so they have already lost some picture information by the time they're being combined into a single frame. Artifacting, or the addition of unintended video into the image, is the result.

Another reason progressive-scan DVD players look better is that you are forced to use component video cable to connect to the TV, rather than falling back to s-video as you can with a regular DVD player. This type of connection improves picture quality, particularly color vibrancy.

The TV's internal line doubler will upconvert everything you send into it (cable, satellite, Playstation, and DVD) to a 480p image, so make sure a TV you buy has a good one. But if you like watching DVDs, you'll still want a progressive-scan player. There are some TVs (Pioneer Elite, for example) in which the internal line doubler creates a superior picture to all but the most expensive progressive DVD player, but those are the exception. Hope this helps!