How much better do DVDs look when upscaled?

blackbird3216

blackbird3216

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I was wondering about how the picture quality of upscaled DVDs differ from the picture from a component 480p player. I connected my DVD player via component cable to my Panasonic TH42PZ80U, and it looked suprisingly good, considering that i didn't calibrate the TV yet. What is the difference between the upscaled picture and a picture that is upscaled by the TV itself? BTW, should i turn on MPEG Noise reduction/Video Noise reduction when watching DVD's?

Here's a picture of what i was watching today:
img0993dh7.jpg
 
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[quote name='crunchb3rry']DVD never looks "better' when upscaled. Too many artifacts are introduced to defeat the entire purpose. Better to just keep an SDTV in the house and watch DVDs on that. The closest thing to decent upscaling (in regards to picture quality) is to use the PS3 with the Double scale setting. You'll have bars all around the image but it is a clean scale of 2x and should have minimal image artifacts (still too much for a videophile to stomach). With any kind of upscaling you'll see a lot of pixelation and muddiness to background images that are intentionally out of focus. But the PS3's 2x scaler looks the nicest even if it sacrifices resolution real estate.[/quote]This is so stunningly incorrect I hope that no one takes a word of it seriously. I'm not kidding; don't spew nonsense when you have no idea what you're talking about. "Too many artifacts are introduced to defeat the entire purpose." Simply stunning in its wrongness - I'm not even going to waste time schooling you on every thing that is wrong with your post. Just amazing. :shame:
 
[quote name='mydecember1985']The tv itself actually doesnt upscale. it portrays whatever resolution you put into it. Did you set the dvd player to progressive scan to get a slightly better picture? If that's not easy enough to see a difference, try an animated movie... something along the lines of Flushed away's opening sequence or Ratatouille (sp?). Look for things like his cage or something with straight, finished lines and see if you the "granulated" look. I believe XBOX upscales dvds, and obviously a PS3 does.

I believe the resolutions go like so:
480i standard tv/dvd (cable, VGA, or component inputs)
480p is usually only achevied by a standard XBOX with component cables or a standard DVD player with component cables set to "progressive scan"

and 720+ is any HD source.

I'll be back with pics. I am watching space chimps right now.[/QUOTE]

Actually the 360 doesn't upscale (unless you have to turn on some option for it to do so). I also have a cheapo Philips upscaler hooked up with HDMI and things look better, but not as good as my PS3 on my 1080p and of course neither look as good as a Blu-Ray (upscaling can only do so much).
 
Upscaling looks OK with a decent TV and a DVD player that allows component cables to be used. It is better just to sell your DVD's before they become obsolete!
 
[quote name='i_bent_my_wookie'] It is better just to sell your DVD's before they become obsolete![/QUOTE]

DVDs will never be obsolete. A great movie is a great movie regardless of the resolution, and DVDs look more than good enough to most people outside of hardcore videophiles.

I have 300+ DVDs. I'll upgrade maybe 10-15 of them to Blu ray. And I'll probably still buy DVDs for a few films--stuff like comedies that I can wait and get for $5-10 on DVD vs paying $15-20 for a Blu Ray on sell. HD doesn't make a comedy funnier and they seldom have effects or cinematography worthy of paying extra for HD.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']When it boils down to it people just need to watch a non-upconverted DVD and a then watch the same scenes on the same TV upconverted and see if they think it looks better to their eyes.

At the end of the day all that matters is what looks better to you. Web forum advice just isn't much good for matters like this, or what type of HDTV to buy as too many people are hardcore videophiles and bitch about little technically things that most of us don't notice and couldn't give a shit less about. Again, it's an "ignorance is bliss" thing for me as I'm not a videophile and don't give a shit about all the technical elements of video or sound quality. I just like to watch movies, TV and play games and as long as it looks damn good to my eyes that's all I care about.

That said, I wouldn't recommend buying an upconverting player these days, now that there have been deals for good Blu Ray players (which upconvert) in the $150-200 range it's better to just save up for one of those and enjoy Blu Ray and upconverted DVDs.[/quote]

[quote name='dmaul1114']DVDs will never be obsolete. A great movie is a great movie regardless of the resolution, and DVDs look more than good enough to most people outside of hardcore videophiles.

I have 300+ DVDs. I'll upgrade maybe 10-15 of them to Blu ray. And I'll probably still buy DVDs for a few films--stuff like comedies that I can wait and get for $5-10 on DVD vs paying $15-20 for a Blu Ray on sell. HD doesn't make a comedy funnier and they seldom have effects or cinematography worthy of paying extra for HD.[/quote]

The two most sensible and truthful posts in the thread.
 
[quote name='postulio']sorry i misspoke, i know the difference and i know what is happening, i meant to ask for upconversion software. something that accomplishes on my pc what my hd-dvd player does (as of right now, playing on the hd-a30 looks nicer than off htpc)

thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]

It's cool, man, I was in a bad mood, and wasn't really directing that at you. I always use VLC to play videos. :)
 
[quote name='GTZ_NSR']Actually the 360 doesn't upscale (unless you have to turn on some option for it to do so). I also have a cheapo Philips upscaler hooked up with HDMI and things look better, but not as good as my PS3 on my 1080p and of course neither look as good as a Blu-Ray (upscaling can only do so much).[/quote]


i play DVDs through my HD DVD add on with VGA and if I hit info on the tv it says the movie is in 1080p
 
The HD-DVD add on does upscale I believe. I don't think the 360 itself does, so that's where that confusion arose probably.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']The HD-DVD add on does upscale I believe. I don't think the 360 itself does, so that's where that confusion arose probably.[/quote]The 360 will upscale over VGA or HDMI, not component. The HD-DVD add-on will upscale over HDMI or VGA.

A FAQ from Ruined (same one on CAG) on TeamXbox.com:
http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=477767
 
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[quote name='dmaul1114'] I don't think the 360 itself does, so that's where that confusion arose probably.[/quote]


The 360 DOES upscale DVDs by itself, but ONLY when using VGA or HDMI output.

Sounds like you're the one confused. ;)
 
My family and I just watched Charlie Brown Christmas on our 1080i TV w/ the Samsung Blu Ray Player (the one that was just on sale at Amazon) and the picture looked great. My wife and I were amazed how much clearer the picture looked. I would say upscaling is awesome for old cartoons and such.
 
It's hilarious that the thread title is "how much better do DVDs look when upscaled?"

And the replies are some super-technical, "You're a damn idiot if you don't believe me" shit. I'm sure the OP doesn't care about whether 720p is a legit HD source in your mind, or some page long explaination on such a simple question.

Why not just tell him the answer in a simplifed way? It looks better/It doesn't look better. Way too many chefs in the kitchen and not enough cooks....
 
I tried playing Letters from Iwo Jima tonight, and it looked like shit. Definitely serviceable, but it's shit. I have found that it looks marginally better than on my SDTV, but not as good as CBS-HD in 1080i. Hopefully BD players will drop near the $99 mark this year so that i can actually afford one.
 
I think a lot of it (ok, all of it) depends on the combination of TV, DVD player, and DVD. On my setup, most movies look a fair amount better. My DVD player allows me to cycle through video modes (480p and up), and the difference in each resolution is obvious. Yes, it can only show the information that is already there, but it can help get the cleanest display of that information.

To second dmaul's post, I've got over 400 DVDs, and the quality I get from them is good enough that I'm not willing to shell out $20-$30 for a Blu version of any of them. When the price comes down, I might replace a few of the more visually intensive films, but on the whole, the cost/benefit ratio of DVDs (I usually spend only $5-$10 on a film) is too good to abandon it.
 
[quote name='DirkBelig']This is so stunningly incorrect I hope that no one takes a word of it seriously. I'm not kidding; don't spew nonsense when you have no idea what you're talking about. "Too many artifacts are introduced to defeat the entire purpose." Simply stunning in its wrongness - I'm not even going to waste time schooling you on every thing that is wrong with your post. Just amazing. :shame:[/quote]

What the fuck is your problem? Did I use the wrong term or something? I'm referring to the blocking, blurring, pixelation, and mosaic effect gained through all the shit the player does to fill up a larger resolution with a smaller resolution source. Or are you batshit crazy and claim upscaled DVD looks prettier?
 
They way they are marketing high definition these days is '1080i' or '720p' is high definition and 1080p is 'true high definition.' Usually comes with a gold sticker on the top of the display tv haha.

As for upscaling, to put it in lamens turns- better cables = better picture. Crappy components won't look as really good composite (yellow red white). Good component cables (which can do up to 1080i, 1080p if you get reaally nice component cables and your tv accepts 1080p thru component), and good hdmi cables, it is hard to tell a noticable difference with the naked eye.

However, if you want true upscaling, you cannot upscale thru component on 99% of dvd players. Look it up if you disagree with me. Prove me wrong (hook it up to a tv capable of accepting 1080p thru component and your dvd player and see what resolution it displays in the screen). I used to work in electronics and I looked up crap like this to kill time when it was slow.

A big advantage however over picture, is when you goto an hdmi, you have true surround sound instead of left audio channel vs right audio channel.
 
[quote name='pacifickarma']The Helios DVD players will upscale all the way to 1080p via Component.[/quote]

Yes but your tv has to be able to decode it in 1080p through component(which very few tvs do)
 
just read the first page so dont know if anyone had mentioned this....it depends how big your tv is....if you have a 36 inch tv no you will not see a diff.....now if you have a 65 inch yes you will see a diff
 
[quote name='ndesent']if you have a 36 inch tv no you will not see a diff[/QUOTE]

Nonsense. I can tell the difference between 480p and 720p on a 17" PC monitor.
 
I didn't want to start a new topic on this question, so I figured I'd ask in this topic since there are a lot of knowledgable CAGs posting in here.

I was thinking about picking up a HD-DVD player since they are pretty cheap now and HD-DVDs seem cheap and easy to find. I have a 37" 1080P Panasonic Viera LCD. I was wondering if you guys think it would be worth it to buy a HD-DVD player, since I mostly want to use my existing DVD collection and keep my costs down through buying a cheaper player and the cheaper HD-DVDs.

Also, how does the quality of HD-DVDs compare to Bluray on 1080P and what might be a good player to pick up...taking cost and quality into account?
 
HD-DVD titles are pretty much the same as Blu-Rays, so if you can find a cheap player, it's a good route to go if you want to pick up some cheap, older HD flicks. Since HD-DVD players were only made by Toshiba, just get the cheapest standalone player you can find. No matter what brand the player is, it's just a rebadged Toshiba A-whatever. I would just stay away from the HD-DVD add-on for the 360, it's horrible.

As to the original question of DVD upscaling... no amount of upscaling and no technology ever will upscale a DVD so that it has comparable color to an Blu-Ray movie. Aside from the obvious resolution upgrade, the color is definitely the next biggest difference anyone can see. After watching only BD movies, I recently went back and watched a movie on DVD because it wasn't out on BD yet, and I had to turn it off because the colors were so muted in comparison that I almost felt like I was watching something in black and white.
 
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