Upconversion that offer 4:3 pillar box? (1 Viewer)

[John S]

I am going to try a 4:3 title tonight and see, but I played a non anamorphic widescreen the other night and had to use my players vertical zoom to get it to work correctly, so I am thinking I am pretty much hosed on true 4:3 material no?

But is there a player that offers 4:3 pillar boxing for 4:3 content on widescreen displays and upconverts to HD Res?

Maybe even DCDi to boot?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The Samsung HD upconversion player have an adjustment called "EZ View" that allows you to zoom and pillarbox non-anamorphic and 4:3 material. They market it as a "letter box eliminator", but for non-Joe Sixpacks it is a zoom and pillarbox to allow for OAR presentations.

 

[greg_t]

The Panny S97 uses the faroudja dcdi deinterlacer and upconverts over HDMI. It has a mode that will take 4x3 material and properly display it with black side bars on a 16x9 display. The faroudja chip does have macroblocking though if that bothers you.

 

[Ronn.W]

The Oppo automatically pillarboxes 4:3 material.

 

[John S]

I'm not sure how to handle them. I guess I should at least try the Svideo for them before ordering a new player. Putting it in 480p would be a good solution but, man is my player bad at 480p.


I'm a little surprised there is not a mode on the projector available at 1080i and 720p to deal with it as well but I can somewhat see the logic in that any such source should be able to figure that out itself. I mean that is exactly what the HD Sat box does.

 

[Allan Jayne]

720p and 1080i are 16:9-only formats with 4:3 material correctly presented with pillarboxing done at the source.

480p is both a 4:3 and a 16:9 source so a TV (or projector) without aspect ratio control for that is a bad buy. I am surprised that a DVD player can deliver a good quality 720p or 1080i upconversion while delivering a poor 480p output since the upconvrting player must convert from 480i (DVD native) to 480p before going to 720p or 1080i for the final output. And going from 480p to either 720p or 1080i in the TV is almost a no-brainer for good quality.

It is possible for 480i component video from the player to give a better picture after all is said and done, compared with 480p, in which case 480i is the best choice for that particular TV and DVD player combination. S-video is more complex because DVD is natively component. The Pb and Pr parts in that case are downconverted to produce S-video in the player (the Y stays the same) and upconverted to component in the TV.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[John S]

Well, DVD players are quirky these days. And mine is only good at 1080i on the component video. I do wish it had a pillar box mode as many do. I am avaluating what to do.


This may be a case where the cheapest route will be to just add a cheapie player to my system, just for 4:3 material.


I won't give up what my Zenith DVB-318 is giving me via component video on anamorphic widescreen, and even non anamorphiic widescreen using the vertical zoom funtion of the player.

I thought about replacing it, but after reading through the various threads on a couple of different forums about this issue or that issue with all the upconverting players. It seems logical, that if I am extremely happy with the player in all but 4:3, I better just stick with it.

I guess I could pillar box it myself with most decent external scalers aye? The dedicated 4:3 player seems the easiest and cheapest solution right now.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The Samsung players will also give HD through the component outs with a minor "modification" that is easily found on the net. It requires a $10 universal remote, Aiwa stereo codes, a rabbit's foot, eye of newt and ... Ooops, I've already said too much.

 

[John S]

To funny....


I don't even need the component video out anymore. Just so pleased with the Zenith Player feeding that to my 720p projector these days. I'd bank any other DVD player I get, there will be something I complain about even if overall it is better than the Zenith DVB-318.


I have decided to reserve my DVI digital HDCP connection for HD DVD if and when it ever really comes to fruition.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

The Sony DVP-NS70H will pillarbox 4/3 dvds, but will not do anything for non-anamorphic widescreen dvds. It does not use the Faroudja chip, so no macroblocking. It will only upconvert via HDMI however, not component. PQ is stunning and the price is under $150.

The Zenith DVB-318 won't pillarbox 4/3, but has an excellent infinitely variable zoom that can do vertical and horizontal zoom separately--ideal for non-anamorphic widescreen dvds.

 

[Allan Jayne]

Anything that makes a non-anamorphic widescreen picture fill the screen height is a zoom process no matter what trademark or name they give to the process.

 

[John S]

Yes, vertical zoom on the DVB-318, works great.

I did watch some last night as BB had some buy one get one free TV season sets going, I just put in the gawd awfull 480p. Wasn't that bad I suppose. I think I am going to get a DVD recorder, maybe I can double that player for use with 4:3 titles.

I need to experiment some more with all this too. I have not played with it as much as I would like.