progressive scan vs. upconversion DVD players

lawdood

lawdood

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I picked up a 32" LCD TV over the weekend and LOVE the high def functionality (watching football this weekend kicked serious ass) however when I popped a DVD into my 2 year old progressive scan Sony DVD player I was dissappointed at how bad the picture looked. After playing around with the DVD player I found that the progressive scan wasn't turned on so switched that on and the picture is somewhat better but nowhere near as clear as it was on my old CRT SDTV.

My question is, how much better are one of the upconverting DVD players? Is it a big difference in quality over progressive scan? If so, can anyone recommend a good one under $100? Or should I just give my PS3 a try?
 
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Big difference, PS3 with firmware updates you should be able to see some great results. No point in buying an upconverting player under $100 if you own a ps3. If your willing to spend $200 buy an oppo.
 
[quote name='brendan424']Big difference, PS3 with firmware updates you should be able to see some great results. No point in buying an upconverting player under $100 if you own a ps3. If your willing to spend $200 buy an oppo.[/QUOTE]

I've got the 970 model and it's great. No 1080p is about the only drawback, but I don't even have a 1080p set. And it's only $150 shipped free from Amazon.com.

MjC
 
Upconversion is great if you don't want to invest in a new hdplayer or new hd/blu ray movie collection. The picture quality is much improved depending on the player you get.
 
If you have a PS3 then just use that to upconvert - as long as your connected through HDMI. It goes up to 1080p and at least you won't need to separate players for Blu-ray and DVD movies, saves some shelf space. I think it's supposed to be 70% better or something - it's definitely noticeably better than just plain old prog scan.
 
PS3 seems to upconvert most films to 1080i(no 1080p on my tv). The only thing I don't like about the ps3 as a dvd and blu-ray player is that it won't let you force stretch the image to full screen. Some people say it isn't worth stretching the image to get an extra 4 inches or so, because it distorts the image. However, I have become accustomed to VLC and Media Player Classic settings which allow me to change the aspect ratio to fit my 16 x 10 lcd. To each his own...I just wish they'd include that in an update for those who appreciate the option.
 
Thx for the input so far guys, I had read that the PS3 did upscaling but hadn't tried watching any regular DVD's on it yet. I guess I'm one of those knuckleheads who didn't really want to use it as an everyday DVD player, but then again, it's not like I have some huge collection of games or Blu-Ray's to use on it so I might as well use it as my standard DVD player for now and get some use out of my investment.

I have just read a few reviews and such from people saying that their upconversion DVD players weren't really that great an improvement over their old progressive scan players so I was a little hesitant to jump into one but since i have one already sitting here, I might as well try it out.

Are the Oppo's really a huge improvement over the PS3 as far as upconverting? Would it be worth the additional $$$ to pick up one of those down the line?
 
[quote name='norkusa']I just bought a Philips DVP 5982 for $59 at Sam's Club. It's probably the best upconversion player you'll find for under $100. Even does 1080p too. Play's divx + has a USB input on the front of it, so you can load movies & pics to a flash drive and just plug it in instead of having to burn to disc:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers/philips-dvp-5982/8185[/QUOTE]

Can you use a USB hard drive with it ?
 
[quote name='Richlough']Can you use a USB hard drive with it ?[/QUOTE]

I haven't tried but someone on the AVS Forums said that you can use one as long as it's formated as FAT16 or 32.
 
Unless I'm confused, or you're just refering to players themselves by these names, aren't "progressive scan" and "upscaling" two completely seperate things? Can an upscaling dvd player not also do progressive scan potentially?

Also since it is a high def tv, anything sd will be upscaled by your tv if the dvd player isn't doing it. So it depends on how well your tv converts the image in comparison to the dvd player. If you have a ps3 though that should be more than sufficient...I can't imaging anything else being that great of an improvement no matter how much you're spending.

Someone please correct me if i'm wrong in any way.
 
A non-progressive scan DVD player outputs in 480i only.

A progressive scan DVD player outputs in 480i and 480p.

An upscaling DVD player outputs in 480i, 480p, and some combination of 720p, 1080i and/or 1080p. Some also cater to some rare resolutions like 546i/p (mostly for projectors).

That is the very definition of each player. Nothing else can be generalized. Upscaling players do not necessarily improve quality. Most do, but that's not part of the "upscaling" requirement. Likewise, not all progressive scan DVD players will output a better picture than a non-progressive scan. The only thing insured, one over the other, is the resolution that will be output.

It should also be kept in mind that all fixed-pixel HDTVs have built-in "upscalers", exactly like the software in an upscaling DVD player. Fixed-pixel TVs (LCD, plasma, DLP, LCoS) will "upscale" any source below their native resolution, and likewise, downscale any source above their native resolution.

With all of that said, the short and sweet answer is that the PS3 offers very high quality DVD playback, better than any player you will find below $200.
 
He was asking whether or not an upscaling DVD player would be worth it versus a standard progressive (480p) DVD player. And of course, the answer is yes.
 
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