Video upconversion- Is it worth it? (1 Viewer)

[KE1962]

Am in the market for a DVD recorder with which to record tv/satellite shows capture some VHS home movies and watch pre-recorded DVD movies. Some of the DVD recorders on the market have a feature called video upconversion, with which to convert the image on standard DVDs to near HD quality. Does this feature work well enough to justify paying extra money, or is it an unnecessary "bell and whistle" ? Thanks.

 

[Mort Corey]

It largely depends on the display. On a fixed pixel display, maybe to some degree; on a CRT type display....not so much.

Mort

 

[joseph westcott]

One should be far more concerned with DVD player core performance. Primarily mpeg decoding and deinterlacing. Most displays do the final scaling anyway since very few people own a display with a native resolution (1920 x 1080) or (1280 x 720).

I suggest you do some extensive reading on this site. Lots of great information on video performance.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...h&articles=all

Good Luck and let us know what you decide.

 

[eclipse99]

Kevin, I had the exact same question a week ago when my old DVD player died on me. I bought the Samsung DVD-HD860 and I didn't notice any difference until I switched out all of my cables with HDMI. The first movie I watched was Blood Diamond and the difference was noticeable. Not quite as great as a Blu-Ray DVD but I dont want to spend the money replacing all of my DVD's. Samsung does make a DVD recorder that's an upgrade from my DVD player but I don't have a need for DVD recording. But at least you will know that the "bell's and whistles" actually work. Good luck.

 

[waterline]

I bought a Toshiba HD-2A that has the upconversion. I am running the HDMI cables. The picture I am seeing is very much improved over the standard DVD. I am viewing on a Mitsubitchi 73831 DLP, HD 1080P TV. Even though the HD-2A does not run 1080P I get a great picture either format, HD or standard DVD.