Convert HDMI back to component to preserve upscaling?

[litmus]

Greetings Videohelp gurus!

I'm wondering if you can help me with the following quandry.

On my entertainment system I have 2 DVD players and one digital HD satellite box.

The first DVD player is a Playstation 3 for Blu-Ray. The second is a Sony DVP-NC85H upscaling 5-disk changer for my SD content.

My HDTV has four HD capable inputs: one HDMI, one DVI, and two component.

Originally I had planned to run the Playstation 3 and the DVP-NC85H both into the HDMI port via a HDMI switcher, and the satellite box into the DVI input. BUT what I'm seeing is that the SD content from my DVP-NC85H does not look good using the picture settings I use for watching Blu-Ray.

My television (a Westinghouse 42") supports different picture settings for each input so ideally what I would like to do is move the DVP-NC85H over to one of the component inputs, however there are two issues there: 1. Picture quality is poor compared to HDMI upscaling 2. Picture is actually truncated versus HDMI (widescreen content has a great deal of information missing around the borders)

If I'm going to move one of the devices over to component input I'd rather it be the DVP-NC85H since it's only upscaled standard def content (not true HD). To do this and retain the upscaling however it seems I would need to output to HDMI first and then input that back into the component somehow.

Is it possible to output HDMI and then input that back in as component? Is there any kind of converter available that can do this?

I see there are DVI to component adapter available, but if I understand correctly I can't use these?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[edDV]

It wouldn't work even if it could be done.

What you are seeing with loss around the edges is overscan. Most analog component and HDMI inputs have overscan. Most "PC/Game" ports (usually VGA) don't overscan and some TV makers allow turing off overscan on the HDMI port (e.g. Samsung's "Just Scan" feature).

So you are stuck with switching inputs to the HDMI port and/or buying a DVD player that upscales* to analog component output (like my $40 JVC XV-N650 and others).

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


* only for non-protected DVD discs.

[litmus]

So you're saying the truncation is occurring in my TV and not in the DVD player itself?

So basically that would mean that anything I connect to the component inputs is going to be truncated. That sucks. I may as well not even have the inputs available.

I guess I will have to use an HDMI switcher and manually set contrast/brightness every time I switch from watching blu-ray to watching standard def. Which also sucks.

I can see whats going to happen- eventually I'm going to stop using the 5 disc changer altogether because the hassle of switching the picture settings will be too much of an annoyance.

Hooray for expensive paperweights.

edit:
What about using an HDMI to DVI cable and then running that through a DVI to VGA converter? I do have a VGA port available.

Can I get decent PQ through a VGA port?

[edDV]

So you're saying the truncation is occurring in my TV and not in the DVD player itself?

So basically that would mean that anything I connect to the component inputs is going to be truncated. That sucks. I may as well not even have the inputs available.

I guess I will have to use an HDMI switcher and manually set contrast/brightness every time I switch from watching blu-ray to watching standard def. Which also sucks.

I can see whats going to happen- eventually I'm going to stop using the 5 disc changer altogether because the hassle of switching the picture settings will be too much of an annoyance.

Hooray for expensive paperweights.

edit:
What about using an HDMI to DVI cable and then running that through a DVI to VGA converter? I do have a VGA port available.

Can I get decent PQ through a VGA port?

Industry practice is to assume at least 5% overscan when producing material and another 5-10% for graphics or titles.

I don't understand the contrast/brightness changes going from Blu-Ray to standard def. That also indicates a preparation or levels calibration issue.

[litmus]

I don't understand the contrast/brightness changes going from Blu-Ray to standard def. That also indicates a preparation or levels calibration issue.

Basically my blu-ray content seems to look best (to me) at brightness 50 contrast 57 setting, whereas my standard def content looks better at about brightness 47 contrast 62.

If I use the standard def settings for blu-ray, a great deal of the detail in the image is washed out by the high contrast value. Also black level is too black.

If I use the blu-ray settings on my standard def, the black level is noticeably washed out. Also any flaws in the image are much more apparent (pixelization, grain).

edit:
Wait, wait. I do have a filter setting in the DVP-NC85H which affects brightness and contrast. It is turned on right now. I'll bet if I change the filter to some other preset (or disable entirely) I can get something compatible with the blu-ray settings.

Strange I didn't think of this sooner.

[edDV]

[quote="litmus"]

edit:
Wait, wait. I do have a filter setting in the DVP-NC85H which affects brightness and contrast. It is turned on right now. I'll bet if I change the filter to some other preset (or disable entirely) I can get something compatible with the blu-ray settings.

Strange I didn't think of this sooner.

The anal but effective way to do this with a properly recorded SMPTE color bar (or THX optimizer) from DVD. All inputs should be adjusted to match levels to the TV tuner or cable box which usually can't be adjusted. If you do this right there won't be large levels shifts as you switch TV inputs.

Some HDTV sets allow picture adjustment by input which helps. The one I have here doesn't. I'm lucky to get a good match from my Canopus ADVC-100 (7.5 IRE setting) to my Motorola HD Cable box at the TV. I play the computer IEEE-1394 out or camcorder through the ADVC to the TV. I adjust my analog component Pioneer DVD player output levels to match. The JVC DVD player seems to match OK over HDMI or analog component without adjustment.