questions on popcorn hour tv playback

[arconreef]

I am going to buy a popcorn hour A-200. My question is, how good is the down-scaling on the popcorn hour? My TV has a 1080i res display. Should I play my 1080p videos at 720p or 1080i?

What if a 720p video is played on a 1080i screen? will the video be displayed at 720i?

[jagabo]

I am going to buy a popcorn hour A-200. My question is, how good is the down-scaling on the popcorn hour? My TV has a 1080i res display. Should I play my 1080p videos at 720p or 1080i?

1080p to 1080i isn't downscaling. Leaving the popcorn hour's output at 1080i is likely to give you the best picture if your TV can't handle 1080p input. You won't know for sure until you try though.

What if a 720p video is played on a 1080i screen? will the video be displayed at 720i?

No matter what you feed it, your TV will display the incoming signal at whatever its native resolution is. Unless your HDTV is a CRT it's probably progressive, not interlaced. My guess is it's a "720p" display with a native resolution around 1024x768 to 1366x768. What model HDTV do you have?

[arconreef]

My tv is a 30" JVC crt and the model number is AV-30W777.

http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product.jsp?modelId=MODL027804&pathId=74&page=2&archive=true

[jagabo]

That HDTV uses a CRT. Setting the Popcorn Hour to output 1080i will probably get you a slightly sharper picture with 1080i and 1080p video.

I think the Popcorn Hour also supports automatic scan rate switching. Ie, it can output a 720p signal with 720p sources, and 1080i signal for 1080i/p sources. That may work best.

[arconreef]

That just about answered my earlier questions. I have just one more Popcorn Hour specific question. Does it upscale 480p to 720p/1080i, or 720p to 1080i? Or does it just leave it as it is? If it doesn't upscale it, are there any software programs that will re-encode (or is there another way to upscale it?) the video file so that it is upscaled?

[edDV]

That just about answered my earlier questions. I have just one more Popcorn Hour specific question. Does it upscale 480p to 720p/1080i, or 720p to 1080i? Or does it just leave it as it is? If it doesn't upscale it, are there any software programs that will re-encode (or is there another way to upscale it?) the video file so that it is upscaled?

Your TV is 1080i native. Any HD signal presented to it over HDMI or analog component will be converted to 1080i.

I can't answer specific questions about the Popcorn Hour A200 but these units usually allow setting an output format (e.g. 1080i) and then convert everything to that format. Some similar devices can be set to pass input 480p/720p or 1080i in native format so that the TV does the rescale. I don't know if the Popcorn Hour has that feature.

[jagabo]

All media players I know of have the ability upscale or downscale if they are set to output a specific resolution. Some also have the ability to dynamically switch the output to the format of the file that's being played. So a 1080i file will be output as 1080i, a 720p file will be output as 720p, a 480p file output as 480p (then the TV does the upscaling or downscaling). I believe the Popcorn Hour has the option to dynamically change the format.

[arconreef]

So which do you think would do a better job of upscaling to 1080i? The HDTV or the Popcorn Hour?

[jagabo]

You'll have to try for yourself.