watching DVD's in 1080i? (1 Viewer)

[DougGaertner]

My RPTV allows me to watch DVD's in either 520p or 1080i... what's better?

i have a progressive scan dvd player and it's hooked up with component video cables.

 

[John_RO]

Progressive scan will only send a 480p signal to your tv. The only way to provide it with a 1080i signal is via an upconverting dvd player. I have a Panasonic s77 upconverting dvd player hooked up through HDMI. From my experience, the progressive scan image looks softer and more film like while the upconverted 1080i image looks a bit sharper. It's really personal preference as to which is "better." Unless you want to buy a new DVD player, stick with the standard progressive signal. The benefits of upconverting are minimal (IMO, of course.)

 

[Reginald Trent]

I prefer the 480P look over 1080I upconversion because the 1080 always looked less detailed. I tried this with two players on four different HDTVs.

BTW I have a older Samsung player that states an output of (480)525P

 

[Allan Jayne]

Most CRT HDTV's display only in 1080i, a few display 1080i for HDTV and 960i for DVD and regular broadcasts. In both cases you are still getting the full (progressive) frames from the DVD player 480p output up on the screen with no dropping of lines.

If the TV displays only 1080i, somebody has to convert 480p to 1080i. If you found that 480p to the TV (and letting the TV do the 480p to 1080i) looks better that is because the TV's you looked at did a better job than the players that took it all the way to 1080i.

1080i out of a DVD player needs a better cable than 480p but by very little. (1080i broadcasts need a much better cable than 480p from a DVD player)

By the way, 480p and 525p mean the same thing.

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

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Since my Toshiba 56HM195 1080p DLP HDTV displays full detail from 1080i sources (some 1080p HDTV's don't based on objective tests), I set my Panasonic S77s to upconvert 1080i and it's visually superior to 480p, ... basically making a digitally transferred video DVD's (Star Wars Ep. 1-3; Spy Kid's; The Incredibles; etc.) look near High Definition!

I did try the different combinations when I first got my 56HM195 & S77s last week (I also have a Panasonic S29 480p - Component) and HDMI w/1080i comes out on top!

NOTES:
1) I did replaced the supplied HDMI Pansonic cable.
.... a) Eliminated the intermittent initial digital sound (via coax) drop out problems while viewing HDMI DVD's.

2) HDMI / 1081i (S77s)*: Video Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (see results below)
.... a) Compared & verified w/AVIA & original VE

3) Component / 480p (S29s)**: Video Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (see results below)
.... a) Compared & verified w/AVIA & original VE


DESC......... *HDMI... **COMP
Contrast..... 48......... 20
Brightness... 69......... 49
Color.......... 50......... 36
Tint........... -4......... -8
Sharpness.... 0.......... 0

Phil