Upscaling / Upconverting Video for HTPC

[idsane]

Hi all,

I have looked around a lot but cannot seem to find an answer to this: Is there any software out there (or hardware: video cards) that will upscale a DVD (720 x 480) to HD (1920 x 1080) for an HTPC? The only thing I can seem to find is ffdshow which works with mediaportal but really scarfs up the CPU.

I found other people saying that whatever your video card is set to, video automatically upscales to this. I don't think this is true b/c no matter what I set my screen resolution to (800 x 600 or 1920 x 1080), the video always looks the same and on screen displays for various programs all read 720 x 480.

I can't believe a PC is not able to do what a $50 upconverting DVD player is able to do but so far this seems the case!

[hulinning]

I am not sure that the video card will upscale the signal before it send to my HDTV or not but I always set my video card to match my 61 inches HDTV resolution which is 720p in this case and I also use full hd screen mode.

Do not trust on the cheap upscaling dvd to 720p/1080i/1080p. I got Phillip dvp-5960 and I use it hdmi output to send out an upscaling signal to my HDTV and it looks worse in dark screen. Why? Because my HDTV will not try to upscale again if my hdmi input is already scaled to the native resolution.

You probably do not see the different if your hdtv screen size is small enough.

I try networkable dvd player from Ziova cs-505 and its hdmi otuput is much better. I compare the output from my htpc and Ziova cs-505, the video quality is the same in both when using hdmi.

By the way, I use ATI Radeon HD 2600XT and I use monoprice 5x1 HDMI switch ($50 www.monoprice.com)to support multiple hdmi sources.


Thanks

[jagabo]

I found other people saying that whatever your video card is set to, video automatically upscales to this. I don't think this is true b/c no matter what I set my screen resolution to (800 x 600 or 1920 x 1080), the video always looks the same and on screen displays for various programs all read 720 x 480.

The programs are reporting the source video size. Whenever you play a video at something other than it's native size you are using some kind of upscaling or downscaling. There is no magic that will create the detail of HD video from an SD source.

Upscaling vs HD:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/autumn_2007_video_shootout/


Some codecs include deblocking options to reduce macroblocking that comes from high compression (Xvid and Divx have this option, for example). Your graphics card probably has some sharpening (aka edge enhancement) and noise reduction features. Use these sparingly though. You can easily make the picture worse.

There are "super resolution" techniques which can generate sharper edges with fewer aliasing artifacts by combining information from several frames. Look into "Super Resolution" filters. For example:

http://www.thedeemon.com/VideoEnhancer/
http://www.toolfarm.com/plugins/index.php/The_Deemon_SuperResolution#How_it_works

Upscaling from 720x480 to 1920x1080 will generate large files and take a lot of time.

[idsane]

Thats a great article for comparing qualities. I know I don't want to convert to an HD source anytime soon, and want to extend the life of my huge DVD collection. I also want to use my HTPC instead of buying another DVD player. So, is there any way to upsample the image from my HTPC like an upscaling DVD player does (in real time, not by converting files before playback), before the signal gets to my HDTV?

[jagabo]

Just play your DVDs in full screen mode. They will be upscaled from 720x480 to whatever your current resolution is.

[yoda313]

Yes no reencoding needed. Dvds look great on my hdtv through my dvi-hdmi cable. I use powerdvd ultra for my bluray and dvd movies. I'm sure windows media center is also good enough for dvd playback. As long as your pc is already showing at your tvs native resolution than so will your videos. Of course internet video in the vcd range won't look that hot. But anything 720x480 and up will look very good assuming it was encoded properly - but commercial discs are usually pretty good.

[edDV]

What is your TV?

Set your display card for your computer monitor native resolution. Set your TV out (VGA or DVI-D) to your HDTV native resolution and the display card does the upscale.

Feed the TV 720x480p and it will upscale to native resolution for you.

[idsane]

Thanks all

[RdM642]

You might want to take a look at this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=719041

[mgithens]

also, don't convert to 1080p for your 720p... the less processing the better...

but for the record, all HTPC are automatically scaling the video/image to fit the display.