Toshiba 5970 Upconvert DVD player (1 Viewer)

[MichaelM]

Well, after trying two different LG 418 upconvert DVD players with my Sony 30" Widescreen HDTV with the HDMI input, I gave up and bought the Toshiba 5970. It too has the HDMI output and it comes with an HDMI cable (seems real cheap) so I figured with a new player and cable I should be able to find out where the problem is. Well, the first thing I did was connect it to the TV using the same cable i was using for the LG. And it worked fine. So I now know that the issue was with the LG (twice). Maybe it's just an incompatability issue with my TV or maybe it was just a bad lot. Who knows. So now the Toshiba seems to be working fine. I switched the resolution to 1080i and really didn't notice much, if any, difference. In fact, the picture may be slightly more grainy than it is using my trusty old Pioneer with S-Video at 480i (it's not a progressive scan DVD player). So I may not even keep it and just use my Pioneer until something better comes along. Honestly, the picture with my that machine is smoking. Even on my old standard Sony TV it always looked great. i think, right now anyway, especially if you don't have a fixed pixel tv, the whole upconvert thing is more hype than reality.

One question: everything I've read says you only get progressive scan if you use the component jacks, not from the HDMI. But the resolution options using HDMI are: 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. Aren't the 480p and 720p progressive scan by definition?

Thanks.

 

[Jerome Grate]

First, HDMI does pass progressive as well as upscaled video. And yes the p behind 480p & 720p is progressive. I'm not sure ab out the t.v., but if the t.v. is 4:3, you have to see if the t.v. has a 16:9 mode, that might be the problem.

 

[JohnnyG]

He says at the beginning that he has a Sony 30" widescreen, but I'm curious to know why you'd believe that a 4:3 display would be a possible reason for this?