Ideal Component Squish Work-Around?

[Wernski]

Hi, gang, and thanks for any advice anyone of you can drop in advance. I've got an issue I'm sure a bunch of us have, at least those of us still hanging onto older format media. When I bought my latest 4k TV, I made sure it had plenty of input options for all of my players (including laserdisc, VCR, etc), but I didn't realize until I played around with it is that the component (i.e. the red, white and yellow RCA jacks) squish the information to 480i. Obviously laserdiscs and such are inherently lower quality than blu, but they don't have to be AS low as they're currently playing on my set that's devoted to crushing the signal. For example, my old DVD player should at least be outputting to 720, right? My TV just won't accept it.

It seems like a known issue with current TVs, and I've been aware my TV has been doing it since I bought it years ago, but I've just put off dealing with it. So I'm just wondering what you guys have found to be the best (in terms of PQ, price management, convenience with #s of inputs, etc) solution?

Do you guys use those RCA > HDMI adapters (example), and if so, how well do they work? One annoyance I've noticed with those is that they seem to need to be externally powered; i.e. another wall plug. But then there seem to be simpler ones that don't (example).

I've seen cables, too, that are literally RCA on one end and HDMI on the other (example)... but I'm not sure if those would even work?

Or have you found other solutions? What do you guys still hanging onto older formats do?

[David M]

The red, white and yellow RCA connectors are Composite, not component. That interface is limited to 480i (or 576i for PAL). Your display is operating correctly.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Wernski

For example, my old DVD player should at least be outputting to 720, right?

As David M posted.

NTSC DVDs are generally 480i or 480p. 720 would be the horizontal resolution.

Component to HDMI cables usually need some kind of conversion.

[TripleHBK]

Piggy backing on what others have said... it's possible that your older DVD player may have component outputs (Blue, Green, Red + Red/White for audio) but the max resolution that DVD will allow over component is 480p. Component itself is capable of displaying up to 1080p but copy protection digital rights management software in said players will down convert the signal to 1080i on old players made before 2013 and all the way down to 480p on anything made in the last 6 years.

[Wernski]

Okay, "composite" not "component." Let me try to be clearer.

When I hook my DVD player up to my current Sony set, my TV displays it as 480i SD (this is not my label; my TV specifically says "480i SD" when I use the Display button on the remote). When I hook the same player up to the same TV through HDMI it says "720p HD." And I can see the difference in the PQ. Even just the DVD player's menu screen is clearly lower res using the first method.

Hooking the same player up to my older Samsung TV, it displayed at the higher resolution - the one my current TV labels "720p" - whether I hook it up through one set of cables or the other.

The Sony TV is displaying a lower res picture for the same player output signal unless I use HDMI, right?

So now, sure, I can just use HDMI on my DVD player to get the higher res on that device... but my other players, like my laserdisc and VCR, naturally don't have an HDMI output option. That's why I was asking if anyone knew whether those converters I linked to might get my Sony TV to display at the "720" level rather than the "480?"

I think what TripleHBK said is right, or at least matches up with other stuff I've been reading online (like I said, it seems to be a known issue), that

copy protection digital rights management software in said players will down convert the signal to 1080i on old players made before 2013 and all the way down to 480p on anything made in the last 6 years.

But what I've found seems to show that it only does that with composite/ component signal, not HDMI output, even when it's from the same device. So I was hoping a converter would make the TV read it as HDMI and not "convert the signal down." But I don't have the money to go around ordering cables and converters on an optimistic guess, so I was wondering if anyone had experience or insight into this (from what chip said, I guess just the cable probably wouldn't do the trick)? Or had found another work-around? After all, anyone with older media and a newer TV must be dealing with this.

Thanks!