Quality loss with conversion?

[Danives]

Hi, Im very new to the whole world of HD. Have recently bought a Sony Bravia HDTV that will show 720p, and purchased a DVD player that is capable of upscaling to 720p/1080i. However the DVD player will play only DivX and MPEG-4 files (as well as normal DVDs etc.). I currently have a mkv file on my computer that has been encoded with x264, and what I would like to know is that if I convert this 720p file to DivX or MPEG-4, is there going to be picture loss, or will the HD quality remain the same? Am just trying to work out the best way to get this file to run on my TV without hooking it upto the computer which is just too far away to consider it. Thanks

Dan

[Baldrick]

What dvd player? MOST divx dvd players can't play HD 720p divx/xvid/mpeg4.

[Danives]

It is a Toshiba SD360E (Multi Region Capable / DivX / HDMI / Upscaler / DVD Player)

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/933748/-/Product.html?searchstring=Tosh...searchsource=0

Could this not play it? Or am I misunderstanding HDMI? I already have it and know it has a HD connection in the back...

Cheers. Dan

[Baldrick]

It can upscale standard video to 720/1080 but it can't play any 720p video.

[Danives]

So would I have to purchase a HD DVD player in order to view the downloaded files on my TV? Damn, I thought this DVD player did 720p because of what it said...

[Baldrick]

Some few dvd players supports it, https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers?DVDname=&Search=Search&dvdportable=&dvdchanger=&dv...Submit2=Search

Best would to buy/build a HTPC or connect your current computer to the TV.

[edDV]

Wait another year or buy one of the Sigma Designs EM8620L chipset players. These will play certain MPeg4 files but not HD/BD commercial DVD.
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/Products/EM8620L/EM8620L_series.html

An upscaling player like the Toshiba is intended to play normal 720x576 DVD resampled up to 1280x720p or 1920x1080i.

The process is much like your computer display card upscaling 1x size DVD to your screen resolution using "Full Size" mode. Your HDTV is also capable of doing this so it becomes a choice of the TV upscaler vs the player upscaler.

Since your Sony Bravia has a 1366x768 native display, you end up having two resamples when using the Toshiba player. The player upscales 720x576 to 1280x720p, then the Bravia needs to upscale 1280x720p to 1366x768p. If you just present 720x576p to the Bravia, it will do a one step upscale to 1366x768.

[Danives]

Thanks for the help guys, will look into other avenues. May go down the route of setting up a HTPC, as otherwise I have a HD TV and no way of showing anything in HD! Cheers again

Dan