does BR/HDDVD look better than DVD on non 1080p TV?

[Rudyard]

I keep being asked if blue ray (and I assume it will be the same for hd dvd) will look better than DVD on a SD TV.

Both blue ray are being played through a PS3 and onto tvs with 1366x768 resolution.

Now as I undertsand it BR (i wont keep typing 'and HD DVD' but mean that aswell!) movies are encoded at 1080P so the TV will rescale it to 1366x768 if it recieves a 1080p signal yeah??

However on 1 PS3 I actually saw It would only show up on the TV if set to 576p from the PS3 so im guessing the signal is downconverted in the PS3 and sent to the TV (is this normal for PS3 movie playback as games work in higher res but movies only at 576p).

Anyway since that is the same resolution as DVD im wondering if it is actually any better in that setup (I realise 1080p TV will look much better).

The BR still looked good, but just like a nice DVD to me (such as a star wars or something).

But is BR not only a higher resolution but also higher bit rate and so whilst resolution may be downscaled there is still more info in the picture due to higher bit rate?

The other bloke I know with one craps on about how much better the BR movies look than DVD but he in particular is the type of bloke that whatever he has is best if you know someone like that!

So anyway I thought I would just find out technically if its better or the same only because what ive seen looks just like DVD to me (again im talking on a non 1080p tv).

[edDV]

The answer is ... It depends.

Generally the highest quality source will look better when downscaled to SD but that is exactly what is done for normal DVD production. The downscale happens before encoding the 576p DVD.

In the case of BD/HD DVD, the downscale happens in the player to 576i/p or 1080p/1080i/720p is sent to the TV and the TV performs the downscale.

So there are three ways to get from 1080p to 576i/p and among the three, the most sophisticated equipment is used to make a good commercial DVD.

This all assumes the source in all three cases is a good 1080p master. If a DVD is made from a lower quality master, the BD/HD downscale will look better.

[RabidDog]

tvs with 1366x768 resolution. are not a SD TV. ???

[Krispy Kritter]

And it depends on the TV. Not all TV's are equal (even if they have the same specs).

Also, unless your TV has a HDMI input, I suspect HDCP is limiting the output resolution of the movies on the PS3.