Looking for DVD Player with excellent upconverting - suggestions

[EAO]

Just beginning this 'hunt'. Will go over to 'DVD Player' lists and do some research but in lieu of that...

What have people experienced with these upconverting players?

I suppose that you'd only see a difference playing them on an edtv or hdtv - right?

Is there one hardware brand or hardware component that is upcoverts better than others? Or if it's software driven what should I be certain the upconverting player uses?

UPDATE: Read the DVD PLayer list. No glowing reviews - like I was hoping for. In fact these players seem much more picky than standard DVD players (sigh).

[BJ_M]

OPPO OPDV971H 720p/1080i Upconverting HDTV-Ready DVD Player

[edDV]

All HDTV sets have built in upconversion to the native resolution of the display. A progressive DVD player outputs 480p at 59.94 frames per second to the HDTV.

Some may see a benefit in a HDMI connection at 480p over the YPbPr.

If you go 720p or 1080i out, the HDTV still has to resize to the native resolution of the display. In the case of 1080i the TV also needs to deinterlace or IVTC.

In other words, your mileage will vary depending the display technology of the HDTV and on how good or crappy your HDTV handles resizing and deinterlace. The best argument for rescaling in the player would be to output 720p to a natively 720p LCD display.

There are some native 1080i DLP displays. That may be another special case.

If you buy an upscaling DVD player, you are assuming your HDTV is crappy and the player can do a better job.

[dwisniski]

Get the OPPO. 1080i upscaled looks great, and the player plays anything I throw at it!

[edDV]

Get the OPPO. 1080i upscaled looks great, and the player plays anything I throw at it!

What are you watching it on?
HDTV Model Number?

[dwisniski]

Panasonic PT AE900U.

[handyguy]

Left column, dvd players....

Say, dvds are set at 480i. Converting them say to 1080, is just stretching what data there is, not creating new data.

[Krispy Kritter]

Left column, dvd players....

Say, dvds are set at 480i. Converting them say to 1080, is just stretching what data there is, not creating new data.

This topic has been covered before...with illustrations...and with the right hardware doing the upconversion you can see a big difference.

[manono]

Panasonic PT AE900U.

If the native res of that projector is 1280x720, then why on earth are you outputting 1080i from your Oppo? Kind of defeats the purpose of 1:1 pixel mapping, dontcha think? You're resizing twice.

Another vote for the Oppo, this time 720p over DVI to a 1280x720 DLP, the Samsung HLN4365W.

[edDV]

Panasonic PT AE900U.

The Panasonic PT AE900U is a LCD projector with 1280x720 progressive native screen resolution. As such it is a perfect candidate for use with an external DVD scaler like the OPPO OPDV971H when it is outputting upscaled 720p.

But the Panasonic PT AE900U also has good internal scaling, deinterlacing and IVTC processing according to this review http://www.projectorcentral.com/panasonic_ae900.htm

"Deinterlacing and scaling is accomplished with proprietary Panasonic video processing electronics. Deinterlacing of standard definition component video is good, and 3:2 pulldown compensation excellent. As with the AE700, picture stability was rock solid when using interlaced input from the DVD player. Results may vary based upon the DVD player you use, so try it both ways and go with the set up that looks the best to you.

One of the strengths of the AE900 is its HDTV performance. The 1280x720 panels are made to display HDTV 720p in native format. When feeding the unit a 720p signal, the AE900 produces a brilliant, richly saturated image. Those who are going for the best possible NFL football display will be pleased with what the AE900 can do with football broadcasts coming in on 720p HD signals. Furthermore, HDTV 1080i is remarkably tight on the AE900--the signal was compressed so cleanly into the 720p matrix that it was difficult to tell whether 720p or 1080i was in use."

So, what they are saying as far as DVD playback is concerned, the AE900 will perform well with any of the following connections.

- 720x480p/59.94fps (Progressive 480p) will be scaled in the AE900 to 1280x720 native progressive resolution and displayed at 59.94fps.

- 720x480i/29.97fps with pulldown (Interlace 480i mode) will trigger IVTC (reverse pulldown) to 23.976 fps progressive and then be scaled and frame repeated 3:2 in the AE900 to 1280x720 native progressive resolution and display at 59.94fps.

- 720x480i/29.97fps no pulldown (Interlace 480i mode) will trigger the internal hardware adaptive deinterlacer in the AE900 to convert (line double) 480i/29.97fps to 480p/59.94fps progressive and then scale to 1280x720 native progressive resolution and display at 59.94fps.

The OPPO OPDV971H will output 480i/29.97fps (with or without pulldown) or 480p/59.94fps progressive over analog YPbPr like a conventional DVD player so the AE900 projector can do the above processing. It can also do the following:

- output 480p or 480i over the digital HDMI (or DVI) connection thus eliminating the D/A to YPbPr to A/D steps used with a conventional player. This alone may be a significant benefit especially with lower priced HDTV sets that use cheap analog processing.

- Scale 720x480p/59.94fps to 1280x720p/59.94fps and output over HDMI/DVI to the HDTV. In this case, there may be benefit to using the OPPO's scaler because it allows use of the digital HDMI/DVI connection rather than the analog YPbPr connection and the AE900 can directly display 1280x720p/59.94fps without further scaling. Other sets will accept the 720p input but must then rescale to some other HDTV native resolution.

- Scale 720x480i/29.97fps (with pulldown) to 1920x1080i/29.97fps and output to the HDTV. This is not an optimal mode for the AE900 because it forces the AE900 to IVTC from the interlaced field stream in realtime. This is more prone to error than reading progressive data directly from the DVD. Further the AE900 would have to downscale the previously upscaled 1920x1080 fields to create the 1280x720p/59.94fps native progressive display.

- Scale 720x480i/29.97fps (without pulldown) to 1920x1080i and output to the HDTV. This also is not an optimal mode for the AE900 because it forces the AE900 to realtime deinterlace (line double) to 1920x1280p/59.94fps and then scale that down 1280x720p/59.94fps. The line doubling step is lossy and will add interpolation artifacts that wouldn't result from a 480p or 720p input.

Therefore, for the AE900 case, optimal results will be expected from either 480p or 720p OPPO DVD player output over HDMI/DVI. The 480p output will use the AE900's scaler, the 720p output will use the OPPO's scaler. May the best scaler win!

Results would/could differ for a different HDTV display technology.

Ref: http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm

[dwisniski]

Look, I've had this argument already at avsforum.com, even though the native resolution is 720p, and whatever other fancy technical details you wish to throw in there, my eyes tell me the best output comparing 480i to 480p to 720p to 1080i, 1080i wins hands down, even on fast motion and panning scenes. I don't go by what the'experts' say just because they are crowned thus, I go by results. If that doesn't sound 'logical' to you, you don't have accept it, I'm just telling you what works for me, and for the record, my projector has been properly calibrated.

[edDV]

Well enjoy yourself then.

Steve Jobs is also telling us that ipodhifi sounds better than his high end stereo system. He can't explain why either.

http://www.apple.com/ipodhifi/

[Cornucopia]

OMG! What a joke!

3" tweeters (TWO! for stereo!), 5" woofer, tuned ports/bass reflex
coupled with "Class D" amplifier. which says nothing of the switching or post filtering.

"Real high quality stuff" there...

You gotta remember, Jobs is probably in his '60s now, so his HF hearing has probably already gone to crap.

Scott

[festmaster]

The original question is what is a good brand of upconverting DVD player, and my reply is that your should try to buy the same brand as your HDTV. My primary reason is that your HDTV probably came with a multi-component remote control and by buying that same brand of DVD player you will be assured that the multi-component remote will access ALL of the features of your DVD player. There really are no no-name brands of HDTV yet so it can be argued that those brands all put out decent DVD players.

I have kicked myself for 6 months that I bought a Toshiba upscaling DVD player to go with my Samsung DLP. The Samsung remote can be programmed to work with a Toshiba player and it works for all buttons except two. That is enough to require that I keep the Toshiba remote out at all times. I could solve the problem by buying a decent learning remote for $100 or getting the Samsung upscaling DVD player for $80. Save yourself the lesson and buy by brand.

[edDV]

Good point.

[BJ_M]

the panasonic has a programmable remote i believe - so its a moot point