Upconversion via DVD Player vs. Receiver??

[Thai]

Hey all,

My DVD player is a Sony and my TV is a Sony (capable of up to 1080p). Connections are all via HDMI. I care only about DVD movies (480).

Sony DVD progressive scan player has 720p/1080i Upscaling of Video and 12 Bit Video DAC with 108Mhz processing.

My Denon receiver can also upscale (720p/1080i) but has 12 Bit/216Mhz Video DAC. Thus, my Denon's DAC is superior to my Sony DVD player (at least by numbers).

My brother tells me that upscaling may not involve DAC at all (since there is no analog conversion needed).

QUESTION #1: Should i let my Denon receiver do the upconversion (has superior DAC) or should i let my Sony DVD progressive scan player??

At the moment, i am favoring the Sony DVD player because this is all it has to do while the receiver has a lot of other functions to take care of.

QUESTION #2: If i let my DVD player handle the upconversion, then i should just pick "THROUGH" on my receiver, right??

"Through" means that the signal that my Denon receives will pass thru it without any further upconversion. I cannot imagine what good is it to upconvert twice to the same resolution.

QUESTION #3: I using my HT system to watch DVDs only (rarely TV). Should i set the resolution to 720p or 1080i?? I want the best, smoothest picture quality.

My salesman told me to set it to 1080i since it is the highest resolution for DVD movies. My brother told me to set it to 720p because you do not want to upconvert and then interlace...too much processing since DVD player is progressive to begin with (480p)...thus, stick with 720p.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cherian]

I would set it for 720P rather that 1080i. A progressive scan is going to give you much smoother motion. If you are over 14 years of age and sitting more that 3 ft from the TV you eye cannot resolve the difference between 1080 and 720. So go with progressive scan over interlace.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[no6thgear]

Ive seen VERY good results, high quality component output. If your tv has a good scaler in it, you dont need upconversion. Try out 480p through component and try scaler in tv for ha ha's. A high quality 480p player matched to a tv with good scaler is superior to something with an upconvert. All depends on scaler, atleast thats what ive been taught.

 

[Thai]

I don't think my Sony flatplanel upconverts anything. It just can accept 1080p input.

 

[JonFo]

This really has to do with two things: Which device de-interlaces better than the other, and which one scales better. Some will do one better than the other, some will both well.

I suggest you get the Digital Vide Essential adjustment disc and run through the test with the various configs and see which ones look better to you.

Just from the numbers, it will be very hard to tell what will actually look best.
BTW- Since your display is a full 1080p display, feed it 1080i or 1080p from sources that generate that (HD Sat, HD-DVD / BR). Upconversion from Receiver should be set to 1080i and used for S-Video or other ‘legacy’ video formats. But even then, I recommend you connect the SD source to your TV and see if it upconverts with fewer artifacts. That XBR3 Bravia has a decent scaler.If you feed it 720, you're guaranteeing with will *always* have to scale. Which would be a waste on HD Sat or HD-DVD.

 

[Thai]

Ok...after reviewing the specs on my Sony TV, i do believe that my TV upconverts standard definition to 1080p!!:rocker: In addition, i have been reading (again) reviews of my receiver...it turns out that my receiver does indeed do a pretty good job at upconverting.

Therefore, i am setting my DVD player at 480p...then letting my receiver pass "THROUGH"...AND, finally, my TV will upconvert to 1080p.

Anyone have comments on this?

 

[IWalker]

test it out different ways. see what you liek the best. Use a test disk to do so.

Sounds fine in theory though....but I question whether or not the TV actually upconverts...that sounds a tad strange to me...but maybe I'm behind the times.

 

[Thai]

test it out different ways. see what you liek the best. Use a test disk to do so.

Sounds fine in theory though....but I question whether or not the TV actually upconverts...that sounds a tad strange to me...but maybe I'm behind the times.

Ok, i called Sony directly. My TV does not upconvert from 480p to 1080p. However, if i set my DVD player to 1080i, then my TV will make it 1080p if i use "DRC-Mode 2" on my TV.

Quote from Sonystyle:
"BRAVIA Engine™ PRO Full Digital Video Processor Sony improved on the great benefits of the BRAVIA Engine™ by adding a picture quality enhancement circuit called Digital Reality Creation Multi-function v2.5. DRC-MFv2.5 now has the added ability to process interlace and progressive video signals and because it has twice the processing power of previous DRC-MF circuits, it can do its processing and output them to 1080p. (Native 1080p input signals are not processed through DRC-MFv2.5.) Add to this the crisp details, outstanding contrast, eye popping colors, and dramatically reduced digital artifacts that DRC-MF circuitry is known for."

Thus, i will try between upconverting with my DVD player to 1080i or letting my receiver do it to 1080i...THEN let my TV make it 1080p. My preference at this time is setting my DVD player to 480p...then upconverting to 1080i with my receiver...and finally letting my TV make it 1080p.

 

[Charliemike]

Here's what I understand:

If you have a Plasma that does 1366x768, then 1080i is better for no other reason than 720p would be upscaled twice by the time it hits your eyes (480p to 720 to 768). That is, of course, unless you have a device that can output natively at x768p which I think only HTPCs do that on a widely available basis.

It would be nice with all the plasmas on the market if someone would natively output their device in 1366x768 (seems the common 50"+ resolution) versus 1280x720.

Can we tell the difference between 720p and 1080i? Some would argue no, but I do feel like there's a difference between CBS's 1080i NFL coverage and Fox's 720p. Fox feels a little matted compared to CBS.

I don't have an upconverting DVD player yet. I would like to get one as my DVD changer, while convenient, really starts to show its weaknesses on a display device over 480p in some movies.

Ideally, I'd love a HD-DVD player too but that's going to wait. I'm not going to throw money into a format that isn't going to be around for sure. The $199 HD-DVD add-on for the XBox360 looks great in theory but with no digital out through the XB360 itself I'm not sure I'm going to do that either. As it turns out the HD cable that goes with the 360 has an optical out. I should know better to RTFM

Supposedly the next XBox will have HDMI for true 1080p which would be nice.

Anyway, back to the original point. With a 1080p display you really want to try to get the outputted resolution as close to whatever resolution the TV will output. I run my cable box at 1080i so that it's down-converted rather than upconverted. In the absence of a 1080p feed, I still say a 1080i picture is worth using v. 720p.

My Denon 2307CI will do upconversion and from what I've read so will my plasma. Which upconverter is best? Hell, I've got a HD DVR, my receiver, and my plasma that the picture has to travel through before I see it. I still think it's best to start with the best image and let it be down-converted rather than upconverted at any point.

Does this help? I dunno. I hope it gave some food for thought if nothing else.

 

[Thai]

Thanks for the replies!! I will try what i said above...with receiver upscaling to 1080i and then letting my TV finish it off with 1080p-like picture.