DVD player that upscales to 1080i

[djmattyb]

Does anyone have a DVD player that upscales to 1080i? Does it make a difference? I was also wondering if there is someone out there who knows where I can see screenshots of upscaled DVD's. Maybe even compare the screenshot to the original 720x480 image. Now that I am the proud owner of a plasma television, these are the kinds of things I need to look into.

- Matt

[The village idiot]

The only thing I know of (which is not all inclusive of all stand alones) is one of the HDTV tuner cards for your computer. I know the MyHD MDP-100 and newer models will do what you need. There must be atleast one stand alone DVD player that will do this too, I just can't point a finger towards it.

[autodidact]

There is only one player that I've read about and that is the Samsung DVD-HD931. It upconverts a standard DVD signal to both 720p and 1080i and has a DVI output. It goes for around $270. Unfortunately I have no experience with it so I can't comment on it. Hopefully someone else can furnish some comparative information.

[Roundabout]

The LiteOn LVD-2001 upscales to 1080i. As far as seeing any pictures, try asking "absolutic" about it. He likes this feature, knows a lot about it and uses it often. He'd be the person to ask about this particular feature of the LVD-2001. He's posting often in the LVD-2002 thread below this one.

[absolutic]

Thanks Roundabout, I do recommend Liteon 2001 for the 1080i upconversion.

Please note that there is an increasing number of players that upcovert through DVI or HDMI. Of course, you need a HDTV with DVI input. A number of players by Samsung, LG, Denon and others have this feature.

There is only a finite number of players that uconvert through component outputs. This is tricky because the Entertainment industry really does not want you to see movies upconverted to 1080i through component outputs. Yet they don't mind if you watch the upconverted picture through DVI because you allegedly cannot copy a movie through DVI (does it even make sense?). In any case, to be able to upconvert the picture to 1080i, your player must be able to TURN THE MACROVISION OFF. Macrovision protects the player from displaying the upconverted picture.

There are a number of players that do it and you can turn the Macrovision off. Liteon 2001 has a very easy way to turn it off, perphaps, that is why it was discontinued so rapidly. Another player that allegedly do the trick currently available is MECOTEK (often available on EBAY). There is also MOMITSU 880 that does it.

There is another player by Samsung (in the $500 range) which does it.

Final note: Your question is about upscaling to 1080i. Many players that upscale fine to 1080i do a lousy job upscaling to 720p. For example, many users do not like the 720p picture produced by the Liteon 2001. I cannot speak one way of the other because my TV only has 1080i, no 720p. If you have a plasma or a projector that supports 720p resolution, I've heard that Momitsu 880 player does a great job.

[Ste]

djmattyb, you say you just got a plasma TV, but is it a EDTV monitor or an HDTV monitor? EDTV monitors can accept a 1080i or 720p signal, but it rescales anything to 480p. So an upconversion DVD player would be useless in this case because after you upconvert in the DVD player, the TV would downconvert back to 480. But, you can also use the DVI on these players to ouput directly to 480p, which is great because this eliminates the use of the players' DAC (digital to analog conversion) when going through component video. The DAC on players is what usually determines good picture quality but if you bypass this step, then you're looking at picture up to par with thousand dollar progressive scan DVD players with expensive DACs.

[Bob W]

I have the Bravo D1 DVI enabled DVD player which scales up to 1080i http://www.vinc.com/product.asp?id=31&PID=21 . The picture quality at 720P on my 43 inch DLP HDTV is nothing short of fantastic. As a bonus the player also plays mpeg4 and all this for a mere $200.

[BJ_M]

i have two samsung 931's -- very good picture ... i use them with dlp video projectors ...

[djmattyb]

Hi, I suppose I should have said what TV I have. Its a Panasonic TH-42PHD6UY. The resolution is better than EDTV but not quite full HDTV. It's 1024 x 768. I made sure it was better than EDTV when I bought it. Thanks for asking!



Thank you everyone for your great input. I'm going to look into the Bravo D1 player. If it doesn't do what I want, I think I'll just have to wait. I think DVD players that scale to 1080i via DVI aren't very popular yet.

[absolutic]

there is also Bravo D2 which either just came out or about to come out. Look at both D1 and D2.

[jbenj01]

Check out the Momitsu V880.. I bought mine from www.hivizone.com. Pricey, but worth it, IMO.

Edit: It's also a multi-system player, i.e., PAL and NTSC.. with easy region-free hack via menu..

[timmmay]

i have the samsung hd931... been using it with a plasma panasonic th-42px20up. i have it set to 1080i, the picture is better than a regular 480p but not amazing compared to 1080i or 720p. you can still tell that it's not a true hdtv resolution. do a lot of research before buying since most, if not all, of so called hdtv dvd players have lots of bugs. with the hd931 i found that the remote really svcks, i get audio sync problems sometimes, and some people find the pictures too sharp.

hopefully, the next generations are better. i heard samsung's coming out this year with a universal player (dvi, dvd-v, dvd-a, sacd). it might be worth the wait.