HD conversion DVD Player?

smokey982

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 7, 2005
2,050
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Cleveland, TN (Chattanooga Market)
I was wondering how many have purchased a HD conversion DVD player. I have been considering buying one for Christmas, but I'm not sure if it's worth the purchase. Does anyone know if you can see a drastic improvement in picture quality? Are they worth the investment?
 
If you have a decent progressive scan DVD now, I would skip it and wait another 6 - 9 mos for the real stuff; HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

If you don't already have a player, for $70 - $100 more than a good progressive scan, you can get you a good upconverting player.

I think a better determination would be to make sure your new player is the most compatible with all the disc types and formats, not if it will upconvert a 480p disc to simulate HD.

*CD (Audio)
*CD-R
*CD-RW
*DVD Video
*DVD+R DL (DVD+R9)
*DVD-R DL (DVD-R9)
*DVD+R
*DVD+RW
*DVD-R
*DVD-RW
*HDCD
*Picture CD (JPEG)
*SVCD
*VCD
 
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I have a Snazio SZ-1350 which plays all kind of SD and HD, MPEG4s and VMWHD as well (up to 1080i - it plays back 1080p movies but the max output format is 1080i) as everything else you can name (Xvid too), it has wireless (54Mbit) and wired (100Mbit) networking (internet, playing files off of your PC or NAS etc), USB 2.0 port for DAS, region-free and upconverts SD DVDs over component AND DVI (CSS discs too) to HD, built-in webbrowser, online radio, iTunes and other playlist support, picture viewer, everything you can ask for... goes around $350.
 
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charper1 said:
If you have a decent progressive scan DVD now, I would skip it and wait another 6 - 9 mos for the real stuff; HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

If you don't already have a player, for $70 - $100 more than a good progressive scan, you can get you a good upconverting player.

I think a better determination would be to make sure your new player is the most compatible with all the disc types and formats, not if it will upconvert a 480p disc to simulate HD.

*CD (Audio)
*CD-R
*CD-RW
*DVD Video
*DVD+R DL (DVD+R9)
*DVD-R DL (DVD-R9)
*DVD+R
*DVD+RW
*DVD-R
*DVD-RW
*HDCD
*Picture CD (JPEG)
*SVCD
*VCD

HDDVD or BR are expected to be around $800 cheapest for most of the next year, so waiting for them seems to me a weird decision when we're talking about upconverting DVD players only with some possible HD capability.
 
charper1 said:
If you have a decent progressive scan DVD now, I would skip it and wait another 6 - 9 mos for the real stuff; HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

If you don't already have a player, for $70 - $100 more than a good progressive scan, you can get you a good upconverting player.

I think a better determination would be to make sure your new player is the most compatible with all the disc types and formats, not if it will upconvert a 480p disc to simulate HD.

DVD's are all in 480i format. Progressive Scan converts them or more correctly, de-interlaces them to 480p.

In my book, upconverting DVD players are well worth the money. But, be sure to research the one you intend to buy on the web for reviews and comments. There are some lemons. I've had an upconverting Samsung for 2-1/2 years now and I love it. Good DVDs w/ high bit rates (e.g., Megabit DVDs) come across as sharp as any movies shown on HDNet Movies (HDNMV). A good example is Starship Troopers in Megabit form.
 
Carl B said:
DVD's are all in 480i format. Progressive Scan converts them or more correctly, de-interlaces them to 480p.

I hope this was just a typo.

Glossary of Terms
DVD TERMS

Anamorphic: The process of compressing widescreen images to fit into a standard 4:3 television screen size. The images are then expanded for viewing in their original format on a widescreen display device. To fill a widescreen TV, a non-anamorphic DVD must be expanded, resulting in loss of resolution and detail. A DVD that is anamorphic, or "enhanced for 16:9," delivers 33 percent more resolution than regular letterboxed transfers and does not need to be expanded on a widescreen set. An anamorphic DVD generally appears clearer letterboxed on a standard 4:3 TV because it does contain greater resolution.

Aspect Ratio: The relationship of width to height in a television set. Traditional Color Television product features a 4:3 aspect ratio. Widescreen and future HDTV products will incorporate a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Audio input: Jack(s) on the rear of a component, such as a receiver, or amplifier, or a recorder that connects using cables to the audio output of a source device (CD player, VCR, tape deck, etc).

A/V input: Jack(s) that connects to another component's output. Usually found on receivers, amplifiers, preamps, TVs, VCRs and other products.

A/V output: Jack(s) that connects to another component's input. Usually found on receivers, amplifiers, preamps TV’s VCRs and other products.

Component video: Elements that make up a video signal: luminance, which represents brightness in the image, and separate red and blue signals (expressed as either Y R-Y B-Y or Y Pb Pr). Component video signals are superior to composite and S-video images because of improved color purity, superior color detail, and a reduction in color noise and NTSC artifacts.

Composite video: The video signal combining luminance and chrominance, the burst signal and sync data (horizontal and vertical). A direct video connection using an RCA-type plug and jack; its signal quality is better than the RF type of connection but inferior to S-video and component video.

DTS (Digital Theater Systems): Film and video surround system that incorporates 5.1 channels. It can be built into an A/V receiver or A/V preamp, or purchased as a separate surround processor. DTS is well supported by hardware makers but not by software companies. Their process is available on only a few DVD and CD titles. Proponents believe the sound quality is superior to Dolby Digital, the most common source of surround sound.

IEEE 1394 DV input: High-speed digital video and data interface technology adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; For connecting digital television and computers to various components and peripherals, such as Digital VHS, set-top HDTV tuner boxes and digital video camcorders and DVD recorders.

S-video (Y/C): Higher quality video input and output than composite video connection that segregates chrominance and luminance signals for optimum reproduction from high-quality video sources such as SVHS, Hi8 and DVD players. Not as good as component video, but more common.

480i (interlaced): A form of standard-definition digital television (SDTV) that approximates the quality of analog television; not considered high-definition television (HDTV). Even though the native resolution of DVDs is 480p, they are viewed at 480i on an NTSC analog television

480p (progressive): A form of standard-definition television (SDTV) It is not considered high-definition television (HDTV), though it is noticeably cleaner and sharper than (SDTV) analog television. The native resolution of DVDs is 480p, however that resolution can be seen only with a DVD player that outputs a progressive-scan signal and a TV with progressive scan or component video inputs.


Dolby Digital: Digital multi-channel surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories to encode films for theaters and home video; it uses a lossy compression technology to compress the digital audio soundtrack. Dolby Digital is the most common surround sound format used in DVDs and in DTV broadcasting. Dolby Digital is a 5.1-channel system with 3 speakers in front, 2 speakers in the rear and 1 subwoofer. Dolby Digital decoders are built into many newer A/V receivers, A/V preamps and surround processors.
 
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I think the best money Ive spent has been on my Avel Linkplayer2. Snazio does the same thing. Hell It upconverts but I rarely watch DVDs anymore. All HD material is extracted from the HDtivo, stored on Hard drives and streamed through a network to the linkplayer with no PC involved. Well the Infrant has a motherboard so theres the PC. Screw DVD's, why bother.
 
charper1 said:
I hope this was just a typo... (DVD's are all in 480i format)
Unfortunately it wasn't! Yes, MPEG-2 format can support Progressive scan, but unfortunately most (if not all) DVD source is interlaced in nature.
So all that progressive scan DVD players are doing, is de-interlacing!

Here is some good reading on this, for those interested in knowing the details.
 
vurbano said:
I think the best money Ive spent has been on my Avel Linkplayer2. Snazio does the same thing. Hell It upconverts but I rarely watch DVDs anymore. All HD material is extracted from the HDtivo, stored on Hard drives and streamed through a network to the linkplayer with no PC involved. Well the Infrant has a motherboard so theres the PC. Screw DVD's, why bother.

Same thing here, though my wife is compoletely hooked on Netflix, so we're still using as an upconverting DVD player as well - it's very nice over DVI. ;)
 

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