Ok sorry left out, blu ray or just upconverter dvd

[atom1]

Ok, sorry I wrote my question to fast on previous post. I just got a lcd tv and a small collection of dvd's but still look at them. My old dvd player does not make dvd's look good on my new tv.
So do I get a current blu ray player, or get a up converting dvd player? I am asking because I kinda of feel that maybe in 2010 there will be better pricing options and the blu ray manufacture will correct some of the mistakes they have on players now?

[fritzi93]

So, how big is the new HDTV? JMO, but if it's ~32 inches or so, there won't be a tremendous difference between upconverted DVD and Blu-Ray at recommended viewing distance. The bigger the TV, the more noticeable the difference.

I have a cheap Philips upconverting player. The picture quality was quite an improvement over the old DVD set-top player, on both a 42" Vizio plasma and a Philips 120Hz 47" lcd. Lots of members here will tell you that a first-rate TV will upconvert just as well. My TVs evidently don't. :P

I recently got a Sony BDP-S360 Blu-Ray player. It upconverts as well or better than the Philips. Blu-Ray playback, however, is a step up at least as great as going from 480 i/p to upconverted DVD (I always set the Philips to 720p).

Dunno what to tell you. [shrugs] You can buy a cheap (~$40) Philips upconverting player from, say, Wal-Mart *now* or apply that money to a BD player. You can get a cheap Magnavox BD player for about a hundred bucks at Wal-Mart that can upconvert to 1080p, per the specs. My Sony was $250, I got it specifically for its ability to play AVCHD. Personally, when I get another BD player, the Philips set-top DVD player is out the door.

Good luck. I expect there will be varying opinions on this.

[jagabo]

My old dvd player does not make dvd's look good on my new tv.
So do I get a current blu ray player, or get a up converting dvd player?

How is the player hooked up to the HDTV? If you are using composite you may get much better results with HDMI.

And as fritzi93 brought up, how big is the TV and how far away do you sit from it?

[jman98]

It's a good question, but fritizi93 is right that there are differing opinions. I have an old Philips DVP-643 connected via component (NOT composite - be careful here) to a Samsung HDTV that can do 1080p natively. My TV is about 42 inches in size and it looks great. The DVP-642 is frankly a piece of crap and it can't send out anything beyond 480p to the TV, so my TV has to upconvert what it gets from this player to 1080p. It still looks great. If you have a first rate TV, yes, it probably can upconvert as well or better than some players. I get even better results from a BluRay and media player connected via HDMI to the TV. Note though that if you sit close to the TV that you can see flaws in just about everything that plays on it.

Yes, prices will probably drop on BluRay players if you wait, but I'm not sure what these "flaws" are that you reference. Could you elaborate on that?

Finally, it might be worth noting that on of the things I learned when I got my TV is that it's all about the connections. High quality connections give good results. Low quality connections do not. High quality connections include:
HDMI
DVI
Component

Low quality connections include:
Composite
S-Video
old style coax as used in the USA for cable TV

One final piece of advice. Some people insist on watching everything in 16:9. If you take any 4:3 video and watch it in 16:9, it will look worse. I use a button on my remote control to change my TV between 4:3 and 16:9 as necessary. I watch 4:3 in 4:3 and 16:9 in 16:9.

[atom1]

You guys asked what tv, sony 46s5100, I like and for the money or price pd it is a good set. So I saved money and went out and got a panny bd 60 blu ray, cause I was thinking, eventually I will want to see a blu ray movie and it will upscale my regular dvd's. As for problems on the blu ray rental i rented, the sound drop off some of them. I had to eject movie clean it and put it back in and it worked. On some of my regular dvd there was sound loss and some freezing.
I have been told some of these issues are from the disc itself. So that is what I meant by issues being worked out by manufacturers.

I am thinking maybe in 2010 some issues like that will be fixed, since blu ray is gaining in small popualarity?

[filmboss80]

Blu-ray sales have generally been ho-hum, and with this economy, may never meet original expectations. It may end up going the way of the Laserdisc.

Your guess is as good as anyone's. You'll just have to decide for yourself.