Upscaling issue

[shooter3295]

Originally Posted by gonk

Something is going to scale video when watching DVD's on an HDTV. If the player doesn't, the TV will have to (or a surround receiver with integral video processor, or a standalone video processor). Thus, the question isn't whether or not to have an upscaling DVD player - the question is which component in the signal path does the best job of scaling. In other cases, the player does the best.

MOST TV's on the market today do not UP SCALE. They may "stretch",... or otherwise modify the picture to fill the screen,... but that is not "up scaling" as a player with a specifically designed chip set does it.

Every BD player I've had or seen does up scale DVD's . Some do better jobs at it then others,... depending on the chip set and algorithm used to "up scale". That is what they are designed to do.

On the better players,... this produces an excellent picture,.... not BD,.... but WAY better than standard 480i or 480p DVD,.... and the difference is very noticeable as such.

BTW,.... most 720p TV's will also do 1080i,....even the small Sharp I use in the computer room does,..... it's usually just not advertised.

Many of us still have DVD libraries that we are unwilling to give up. Up scaling is not a waste of money,... it is a very valid solution to preserving that library. It will never replace BD,.... but it will be several years before BD ever replaces DVD. Cost factor of the Blu-Ray disc's ($30+ for BD versus $5-$15 for DVD) and a huge library of DVD's in homes are probably the main factors.