UPCONVERTING Standalone DVD Players

[Westcott]

I see DVD players advertised that UPCONVERT SDTV images to HDTV quality for playback on HDTV sets. Can readers on this forum who have seen these players used with an HD display please tell me:

1- How does a commercial DVD movie release look upconverted on one of these devices?

2- How do your home movies that are shot on a high end miniDV then edited and burned to standard resolution DVD look on these devices (played back on a 50 inch LCD or DLP rear projection HDTV display with 720 or 768 native resolution?

[Nelson9937955]

Zenith DVB318 is the one you want. I dont much about the dv part of it but as far as upconverting DVD's, if you have a big hi def tv, you will notice the diffrence. I have a 55 inch widescreen and the diffrence with upconversion and a regular progressive scan is almost like what it was going from VHS to DVD. The best your gonna get till the blu ray comes out.

[gshelley61]

I've been running a Bravo D1 upscaling DVI (digital video output) enabled DVD player hooked up to a Samsung DLP 46" HDTV for nearly two years. It looks fantastic... however, the better the encoding is on the DVD, the better the upscaled image looks. I just watched The Incredibles last night and it looked really great. The Lord of the Rings DVD's look awesome on this type of setup, too. Of course, the upscaled image (in my case, 1280x720p) is not really "HD" since it is created from a 720x480i source - but it looks pretty darn good.

Home made DVD's from low resolution sources like VHS and 8mm don't look nearly as good (as you can imagine). DVD's made from MiniDV and Digital8 camcorder tapes look much better, but are limited by the relatively cheap optics in consumer cameras. Still, if you have a fixed pixel HDTV, an upscaling DVD player can make a very noticeable difference.

[Westcott]

Thanks guys -

I should also have asked if these upconverter DVD players play the DVDs in interlace or progressive mode.

[gshelley61]

Thanks guys -

I should also have asked if these upconverter DVD players play the DVDs in interlace or progressive mode.

In the DVI output mode, mine can be set to 1280x720 progressive or 1920x1080 interlaced (the two ATSC high definition standards), as well as 720x480 progressive. It also has a "hidden" menu that allows for custom resolutions.