Originally Posted by
last2board
Thank you. I suspected that was the case. One more thing, if we have a standard DVD and a player that upgrades (can't think of a good word) the signal to 1080p, how good would the picture be on a 60" Sony SXRD tv? Would it equal the pics we have from HD cable which I understand is not 1080p? (Cox Cable, Fairfax, VA -- if it makes a difference)
A good upscaling (not upsampling) DVD player will give a cleaner image than a non-upscaling DVD player, but it will not provide high-def resolution. It's simple math: a standard definition DVD frame contains 720 pixels horizontally and 480 pixels vertically, for a total of 345,600 pixels per frame. A 1080p frame contains 1,920 pixels horizontally by 1,080 pixels vertically, for a total of 2,073,600 pixels per frame, or 6 times more information. An upscaling DVD player interpolates between adjacent pixels to create a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel frame, which makes everything look clearer. However, it cannot create information that ws not there. Incidentally, I'd be surprised if your cable HD was 1080p. Virtually all cable and satellite HD is 1080i -- that's the same frame resolution, but divided up between two fields with interlaced lines (that's what the "i" in 1080i stands for), each containing half the information of the frame.
Originally Posted by
last2board
Another question: I started doing some reading on this subject today and read that the tv will do upsampling. Does a DVD player which is capable of upsampling enhance the upsampling done by the tv? Or is the upsampling done by the tv enough? Well, I assume you think the DVD player enhances it as you are using both.
The answer is: it depends. Some DVD players do an extraordinarily good job at upscaling, some are not so good. Similarly, some TVs upscale better than others. It depends on the combination of the player and the TV.
Originally Posted by
willyroo
Excellent advice - a good upscaling DVD player such as the Oppo 981HD will be a perfect stopgap for you until BD and HD-DVD resolves itself.
However, it doesn't look like the BluRay vs. HD war is going to resolve itself any time soon. However, if you shop carefully, you can find an HD DVD player for well under $200, and close to (and perhaps even better than) the price of a good upscaling standard definition DVD. I have a Sony BluRay player which cost me around $465. Because some movies I'd like to see are released in HD only, I also bought a Toshiba A3 HD DVD player from Tigerdirect for $169.