Upconverting DVDs on a HTPC?

[tlmaclennan]

Hey guys, I realize this is Blu-ray.com but I thought I would ask...

Is it possible to upconvert DVDs on a HTPC? I would assume it would be a software based upconversion but maybe I'm wrong. I wasn't sure if you needed a special DVD or blu-ray drive to upconvert, or if there was even software out there to handle the task.

[essinger]

You get great DVD "upconverting" on a HTPC.

[tlmaclennan]

Ok, but that doesn't help at all.

[Rojas]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

Hey guys, I realize this is Blu-ray.com but I thought I would ask...

Is it possible to upconvert DVDs on a HTPC? I would assume it would be a software based upconversion but maybe I'm wrong. I wasn't sure if you needed a special DVD or blu-ray drive to upconvert, or if there was even software out there to handle the task.

(WinDVD 9 Plus) up converts DVD's very well it even has digital natural motion
as well as SRS for audio.

[essinger]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

Is it possible to upconvert DVDs on a HTPC?

Originally Posted by essinger

You get great DVD "upconverting" on a HTPC.

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

Ok, but that doesn't help at all.

I guess I really didn't understand your question then.

Just to be clear, PCs don't just do DVD upconverting -- they must do DVD upconverting to match their output resolution.

[tlmaclennan]

My question was can I use my HTPC to replace a standalone DVD player with upconversion technology? I know that on a PC, up conversions to 1080P are probably handled by software, like Rojas said WinDVD 9 Plus upconverts the DVD to 1080P. I just wanted to know if I had to use a special DVD or Blu-ray drive. I would assume any drive would work as long as it plays DVDs since upconversion on a PC is probably done with software.

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

My question was can I use my HTPC to replace a standalone DVD player with upconversion technology? I know that on a PC, up conversions to 1080P are probably handled by software, like Rojas said WinDVD 9 Plus upconverts the DVD to 1080P. I just wanted to know if I had to use a special DVD or Blu-ray drive. I would assume any drive would work as long as it plays DVDs since upconversion on a PC is probably done with software.

Scaling/upconversion can be done by the player software and/or the video card/driver.
nVidia does a pretty good job.
WinDVD 9 also has "All2HD" which enhances the picture pretty well.

[essinger]

Originally Posted by tlmaclennan

My question was can I use my HTPC to replace a standalone DVD player with upconversion technology? I know that on a PC, up conversions to 1080P are probably handled by software, like Rojas said WinDVD 9 Plus upconverts the DVD to 1080P. I just wanted to know if I had to use a special DVD or Blu-ray drive. I would assume any drive would work as long as it plays DVDs since upconversion on a PC is probably done with software.

Any DVD drive will work. Any DVD software will work. As long as your PC output is 1920x1080, and the DVD is playing fullscreen, the computer is going to "upconvert" (i.e. scale) the DVD output resolution to 1080p.

[hardcorefrokid]

I was wondering the same thing. Good stuff.

[Wolfy]

Originally Posted by essinger

Any DVD drive will work. Any DVD software will work. As long as your PC output is 1920x1080, and the DVD is playing fullscreen, the computer is going to "upconvert" (i.e. scale) the DVD output resolution to 1080p.

scale and upconvert are two different things.

[Rojas]

Originally Posted by Wolfy

scale and upconvert are two different things.

Big difference up convert looks almost like HD WinDVD 9 Plus does a
great job, download a demo, make sure you enable Trimension All2HD
option in the video tab

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli...1&tabview=tab1

[essinger]

Originally Posted by Wolfy

scale and upconvert are two different things.

Maybe you could elaborate on that some more. If you go to the upconverting wiki entry it is actually retitled "Video Scaling."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upconverting

[Wolfy]

From the wikepedia link you sent me:
A video scaler is a device for converting video signals from one size or resolution to another: usually "upscaling" or "upconverting" a video signal from a low resolution (e.g. standard definition) to one of higher resolution

Scaling would be taking the image and simply stretching it, or shrinking it, to fit the new resolution.

upconverting would be a process, which takes the image and actually changes the image to make it HD.
"Upscaling/Upconverting DVD players contain a scaler, which allows the user to convert lower resolution content into a signal that the display device will handle as high definition content. "-wikepedia under "video scaler" about 1/3 way down under "upscaling/upconvert DVD"
There isn't video scaling (well, there is, but not like you meant), there is video upscaling and video scalers.

So you see, they are two seperate things.

[Pyoko]

They're really the same thing. The basic idea is to resize ("scale", "convert") the image from a lower resolution to a higher, that's it. The quality of the result depends on the algorithm used.

Whether you then increase sharpness, contrast, motion fluidity etc. is really irrelevant. That's additional image processing and has little to do with the actual conversion from SD to HD (in terms of resolution). You could argue that some amount of processing is required for the word "upconversion" to be used, but the fact of the matter is that a DVD player that simply scaled the image output to 1080p and did nothing else would still be called an upconverting player.

[Wolfy]

I guess my observation, semantics aside, was to point out there are two ways to do it. That's all. Happy Happy Joy Joy