Panasonic BD-30 v. Oppo upscaler DVD

[chasarms]

I am mostly disappointed with the PQ of DVD on my Panasonic plasma. (50" 1080p) I am curious if any one out there has a very good quality upscaling DVD player and can comment at all of it's performance against the BD-30 when playing DVDs.

Of course, I will buy BDs for every future title and probably even replace my DVD collection as the BD becomes available. But I have a significant collection of DVDs that I don't expect to become available on Blu for a long while.

I have read more negative than positive about the BD-30s ability to upconvert. What are the opinions of it verses a premium upscaler? Would it be worth it?

I am perfectly willing to accept that it is the nature of the DVD. I understand most of the science of resolution, bandwidth, etc.

[bootman]

Originally Posted by chasarms

I am mostly disappointed with the PQ of DVD on my Panasonic plasma. (50" 1080p) I am curious if any one out there has a very good quality upscaling DVD player and can comment at all of it's performance against the BD-30 when playing DVDs.

Of course, I will buy BDs for every future title and probably even replace my DVD collection as the BD becomes available. But I have a significant collection of DVDs that I don't expect to become available on Blu for a long while.

I have read more negative than positive about the BD-30s ability to upconvert. What are the opinions of it verses a premium upscaler? Would it be worth it?

I am perfectly willing to accept that it is the nature of the DVD. I understand most of the science of resolution, bandwidth, etc.

So you are not happy with the upscaling of the BD-30.
I have a pretty good scaler in my system. (DVDO VP20 with ABIT102) that does out perform the BD30.
But to be fair, it outperforms 99% of any stand alone.

Are you looking for something in that class? The OPPO, while very nice, only has a mid level scaler in it. (just well executed)

[chasarms]

Originally Posted by bootman

So you are not happy with the upscaling of the BD-30.

I don't know if this is the case or not. All I can say for certain is that I am unhappy with the look of MOST DVDs on my plasma. There are few that look pretty good actually, (the LOTR movies look very good), but most do not.


It may be that the BD-30 is a doing a poor job, or it may be that MOST DVDs are not going to look that great to my eyes played from any source.

I guess the jist of the question is does anyone have experiences that suggests that a DVD can look much better if played on something other than a BD-30?

Bootman,

Could you comment on the comps between the upscaling of your Panasonic versus your other piece of equipment? If it takes a $1,000 piece of equipment to get a significant improvement over the the BD-30, I think I am going to have to settle for what I have.

[Sonny]

Thats because upconverting just blows, plain & simple . creating lines of 'res' where there wasn't before is just a mind funk & nothing will ever look even remotely close to what you want or the manufacturers HiDef promises, but there are a handful of DVD's, mainly stuff like "The Rat Movie" that look "OK" but nothing special thats for sure.

[mightypen]

Originally Posted by chasarms

I guess the jist of the question is does anyone have experiences that suggests that a DVD can look much better if played on something other than a BD-30?
.

I have a bd30 and I have an A3, and I choose the A3 for all dvd upconverting. YMMV, of course, but I've personally found the bd30 to be an inferior upconverter to the A3. I have a samsung 50" 1080p dlp. If I didn't have the A3 would I go out and purchase a separate upconverter to sit besides the bd30-no, but when you run them side by side, the difference is noticeable, at least that is what my brain/eyes are telling me...

[Augustine864]

A friend has his PS3 over at the house the other week and I put regular DVD versions of Big Fish and The Bourne Ultimatum first in a DVD player and then in his PS3 to play on my Samsung 4671. Both looked surprisingly poor when played from the DVD player, but when in the PS3 they both looked great. Bourne Ultimatum even looked almost real HD to me.
Right now I have no bluray player of my own and am waiting on the BD50. I hope it makes regular DVDs look as good as the PS3 does. Watching regular DVDs on a reg DVD player right now is just bad.

[bootman]

Originally Posted by chasarms

Could you comment on the comps between the upscaling of your Panasonic versus your other piece of equipment? If it takes a $1,000 piece of equipment to get a significant improvement over the the BD-30, I think I am going to have to settle for what I have.

Then you will have to settle.
Since I still have 100's of SD-DVDs, a 60" 1080p display and still watch SD programming, the extra coin was worth it.
You don't need to spend $1000, but it certainly won't be cheaper than $600 or so for a decent scaler.

Yes, OPPO will do a better job than the BD-30 but will only help your DVDs.
(still have to spend about $230. You are almost 1/3 of the way there.)

Buy used, that way you can try it for well under full price.
Sell it if you think its not worth it and you can recoup most of your outlay.

[jj5206]

well i have a solution for you



actually Toshiba does with there Super Upconversion DVD Player!!!!!!!!




lol

[bootman]

Originally Posted by jj5206

well i have a solution for you



actually Toshiba does with there Super Upconversion DVD Player!!!!!!!!




lol

All kidding aside, the XA2 does a kick ass job of upconverting DVDs.
They did a good job with the Silicon Optix chip in that unit.
(about the only thing Toshiba did right in hindsight)
You might be able to find one cheap now too.
I know, blasphemy to even think about that here.

[bb::bd]

If you haven't applied the software upgrade yet, I would try that first:

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...d30/index.html


I think I was reading about a couple of bugs with the BD30, one concerning LFE, and another regarding an upscaling bug. Not sure if the update fixed both, check the BD30 thread at AVS.

[Thomasbeau]

My BD30 seems to do a great job of upscaling. I actually gave my Denon to my neighbor because the BD30 blew it away.

[chasarms]

Originally Posted by bb::bd

If you haven't applied the software upgrade yet, I would try that first:

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...d30/index.html


I think I was reading about a couple of bugs with the BD30, one concerning LFE, and another regarding an upscaling bug. Not sure if the update fixed both, check the BD30 thread at AVS.

I have upgraded to 1.6. It didn't change the performance with my display at all that I have noticed.

[hd-ed]

Originally Posted by Thomasbeau

My BD30 seems to do a great job of upscaling. I actually gave my Denon to my neighbor because the BD30 blew it away.

I am with you on this one. I know many say that the Panny blows for SD play but I honestly don't know what they are complaining about. This is a blu-ray player..it was made to play blu-rays...getting SD play is a bonus. I really am pleased with the quality of SD-DVD on it...for me it is not an issue.

[Irrob]

Hmmmm. To my eyes, my BD30 upscaler looks better than the PS3 on my Sony LCD.