high definition upscaling..

[neatbik]

Ive seen a few freeview boxes and dvd recorders/players that will upscale to 1080 - obviously it wont be as good as true HD, but how close is it? cheers

[Tarmacsurfer]

I'm currently using a soft modded Xbox with XBMC to upscale through component to 720p on a 42" LCD. Pretty impressed by it (especially for a setup cost of less than £50), asuming that the stuff you're talking about is comparable then go for it. It's not a life changer, but the quality is noticably better.
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I'm immortal. Well, so far.

[True Blue]

I have an upscaling DVD player, which does 780p/1080i. Hard to say how close it is to the real thing as I'm still waiting on my Sky HD box. I does improve the picture a fair bit though.
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[syl]

A HDTV has to display the picture at it's native resolution (which may be 1024x768, 1280x720, 1366x768 or 1920x1024). If the DVD didn't upscale the output signal, the TV would upscale it anyway.

If your TV is new and has good firmware, you'll be wasting your money. If your TV isn't so good at upscaling, you might notice a small improvement.
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[True Blue]

[syl]

LCD and Plasma screens always output at their native resolution. HDTVs upscale (and/or downscale) the signal so that the screen is filled with the picture.

If it really did play at 576p* then there would be large black areas round the edge of the screen with a little picture in the middle.

https://hometheater.about.com/od/dvdbasics/qt/dvdhdtvscaling.htm

* DVD players via component generally output at 576i.
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[True Blue]

[True Blue]

[True Blue]

And this is with the upscaling DVD player.
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Past >>>> Honda NSR 125 >>>> Suzuki GSXR 600 K1 >>>> Suzuki GSXR 600 K4 >>>>Kawasaki Z1000 DAF >>>>Suzuki RMZ 250 >>>> Current >>>> KTM Superduke R 1290 >>>>

[syl]

I can't see the edges of the screen - does the first image go right to the edge? If so, it is being upscaled as DVD resolution is 720x576. Is the picture stretched or is the 720p picture chooped?
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[True Blue]

[syl]

[True Blue]

This display is the same regardless of what DVD I play. The white writing on the screen is not representitive of the resolution being received by the TV, it is the current display resolution ie 576p/50

[syl]

If one is showing you a letterbox picture and the other is showing a full screen, either the first is stretched or the second is being chopped. It should be fairly easy to work out which is happening. Either way, one of the upscale processors isn't very good so you're right to use the other. If it is showing the DVD as 576 lines but stretching the picture over the whole width of the screen rather than having black lines down each side as well, which is what you appear to be suggesting, then the one in the TV isn't as good as the one in the DVD player. If it's got black lines at the top/bottom and both sides, then it's not upscaling at all.

My understanding is that a DVD signal is 576i (standard PAL) and that can be carried over component. I thought that HDMI had to allow 576p (but not necessarily 576i). Some DVD players can convert interlaced to progressive.

I'm no expert in all of this, but have just spent all morning and some of yesterday researching new HDTVs as I owe myself one for getting a new job. Unfortunately I have to move house so there's probably no point in actually buying it until I move (which isn't proving to be very speedy).
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[True Blue]