Upscaling DVD Players

von551

von551

CAGiversary!
Basically, do they work? I have a Samsung LCD with 1080p. I don't have the change to get a PS3 for Blu, nor do i want to spend $30 for a movie. To an average guy, will a upscaling DVD player make my DVD's look considerably better? The TV already does a great job of making some DVD's look alot better than my old CRT. I've seen some for under $100, I'm just curious if for that money it can actually put out 1080p quality. basically, I'm looking for a cheap way to enjoy HD besides on my 360 (no i don't have the HD-DVD player). I'm not ready to go Blu and start re-buying my collection. Anyone have experience or knowledge of how good these work? Thanks for your opinion/knowledge.
icon_biggrin.gif
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Many will say it's okay. To me, I've got a 42" HD and I'd say upscaling is THE way to go. It's equal to about 50% of the shows. Very close to another 40%. There are a number of new films that HD really sparkle and you can see a difference. But it's almost all very recent films.

Even if you get a blu-ray later on, you will not regret the upconverter for ALL the rest. Plus there is already talk of the next gen HD. Good time to upconvert and wait so you don't double HD dip.
 
I believe the 360 upscales with the right connection (HDMI/VGA). I have a VGA cable for my xbox and with my new HDTV it looks great. You might want to compare the xbox to your standard dvd player if you have the 2 with the correct connections.
 
Upscaling only works over HDMI (maybe VGA but definitely not component). There are some legal issues with upscaling over component.

I would spend your money elsewhere. Your LCD has to upscale to its native resolution anyway to display anything. An expensive upconverting DVD player will make the image look better, but I personally don't think it's worth it for the average person.
 
it sort of depends, every HDTV has a built in scaler (that will take whatever content thrown into it, and scale it to its native resolution) Upscale/upconvert DVD players typically have a better scaler than you TV (but not always)

I had a CRT HDTV (an insignia) with an AWFUL scaler, this TV didn't have any HDMI or DVI either, I found a Zenith upconvert DVD player that actually did upconverting over component (the only one I know that exists that does this, and even so you have to make sure you have the old version of the firmware)

i got rid of that Tv (was only a 27") and got a 37" Vizio, the scaler is much better, I got rid of my zenith DVD player and got a PS3 that I use for blu-ray, it doesn't upconvert but normal DVD's still look good. I originally had a Toshiba Hd-A3 HD-DVD player that I sold as soon as warner Bros. jumped ship, this was a great upconvert DVD player, but the PS3 does a decent job with my TV's built in scaler.
 
I haven't been that impressed with upscaling on DVD players. I stand by my assertion that it's just a big pointless buzzword. I just keep mine at 480p since it usually looks the best on my displays. But I rarely even bother with FakeHD anymore since I really only watch HD DVD/Blu-ray movies now.
 
[quote name='von551']Basically, do they work? I have a Samsung LCD with 1080p. I don't have the change to get a PS3 for Blu, nor do i want to spend $30 for a movie. To an average guy, will a upscaling DVD player make my DVD's look considerably better? The TV already does a great job of making some DVD's look alot better than my old CRT. I've seen some for under $100, I'm just curious if for that money it can actually put out 1080p quality. basically, I'm looking for a cheap way to enjoy HD besides on my 360 (no i don't have the HD-DVD player). I'm not ready to go Blu and start re-buying my collection. Anyone have experience or knowledge of how good these work? Thanks for your opinion/knowledge.
icon_biggrin.gif
[/quote]
The quick answer to your question: Yes, upscaling DVD players CAN make a huge difference if you have the other components in place. Unfortunately, as it's been pointed out, there are a LOT of converters using all sorts of methods to upscale. Some are good, most aren't worth the $$$ (especially the cheap ones). I personally have 3 upscaling DVD players and a (PS3) Blu-Ray. Hands-down the best upscaler is the one in my Oppo unit. Yeah, I'd never heard of them before either but just Google them and get the high end model if you want true 1080p upconverting of standard disks. The players aren't cheap (a couple hundred bucks) but they're way less than Blu-Ray and the picture quality is amazing. Your TV will look just short of Blu-Ray depending on the source material and it'll be vastly superior to standard def players if you opt for one of the upconverters using a decent Faroudja chipset.
 
The 360 does upscale over VGA as well as HDMI. Remember upscaling is essentially creating something out of nothing, older sources will not look all that good. High quality transfers do look outstanding though, Star Wars Episode III is the best upscaled movie I've found so far.
 
Here's my experience. The now defunct HD-DVD player from Toshiba (the $80 A3) model upscales very well. I've tried it and compared with similar priced upscale DVD from Philips, Magnavox, Samsung and Sony. Amazingly, the A3 looks so much cleaner and very close to HD. Only tried using HDMI connection so far on Samsung 40" 1080p. The A3 only supports up to 1080i but strangely, the Samsung TV somehow seems to upscale it 1080p and I can't tell the difference.
 
[quote name='Drnick'] I got rid of my zenith DVD player and got a PS3 that I use for blu-ray, it doesn't upconvert but normal DVD's still look good. [/quote]

Woah, wait, what? The PS3 certainly DOES upconvert standard def DVD's.

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?
 
ok, so i currently run component cables from my 360 and the HD stuff i download on XBL looks amazing (Horton, Wall-E, Transformers, etc.) But i don't have a standard DVD player, well my modded XBOX might be putting out 480i, to compare. But, i was looking at the Sony DVPNS77HB for $90. How do i know if a player uses good upscaling technology or not? I have the Samsung LNT-4069FX 40", will the native resolution upscale be just as good as buying a dvd player, or can the player make it better looking? some of my older dvds look crappy on it, but some (LOTR) look HD. thanks for all the advice so far.
 
[quote name='cagfansub']Here's my experience. The now defunct HD-DVD player from Toshiba (the $80 A3) model upscales very well. I've tried it and compared with similar priced upscale DVD from Philips, Magnavox, Samsung and Sony. Amazingly, the A3 looks so much cleaner and very close to HD. Only tried using HDMI connection so far on Samsung 40" 1080p. The A3 only supports up to 1080i but strangely, the Samsung TV somehow seems to upscale it 1080p and I can't tell the difference.[/quote]

which model tv do you have?
 
I've got a Samsung upscaling dvd player and an Olevia tv. The upscaling makes a HUGE difference. At least in my setup, you can cycle through the resolutions, and the difference between 480p and 720p or 1080i is pretty significant.
 
[quote name='lawdood']Woah, wait, what? The PS3 certainly DOES upconvert standard def DVD's.

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?[/QUOTE]

I stand corrected, lol


for some reason I remember reading that the PS3 doesn't upconvert while the 360 does. (although my toshiba A3 did a much better job upconverting than the Ps3, maybe thats why I thought that.)
 
Check out Philips DVP-5982. Does 1080p upscaling thru HDMI. Only $60 at Sam's Club. Plays divx too (only non-HD files though) and has a USB port so you can play them thru a flash drive or powered external HDD.

The remote is the biggest POS ever though. Literally looks/feels like a happy meal toy. But if you can get past that, the 5982 is a great player with the most bang for the buck.
 
I have the Samsung 40" 1080P HDTV as well as the Toshiba HD-A3,
the A3 outperforms my Panasonic S-52, my Xbox360 and my friends PS3.
I do use HDMI for the input for the TV which I can't imagine any new TVs or DVD players not using HDMI for outputs.
the Samsung has some great hardware in it, so it has no problem dealing with the 1080i input from the A3,
so far I have read lots of reviews on upscaling and personally I plan on grabbing another A-3 at some point. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact it actually is a HD player, where a lot of players are only putting out 720P, or they skimped with the coversion hardware.
for $20 more than the average under $100 upscale DVD player I don't think you can go wrong with the A3, and pick up some cheap HD-DVDs over the next year.

Also, with 2 new HD formats on the horizon, Holographic DVD with its 4TB current capacity, and the increase in memory of SD/Flash drives, how close do you think we are to SD/HD on a chip and no moving parts.

Yes I will pick up my own PS3 at some point for gaming, but I plan on waiting for good sub $200 BD player (with the final release specs) before I make the big plunge.
 
I agree with those who suggest to get a cheap-o hddvd player for the upconversion. They upconvert better than similarly priced upconvert dvd player IMO.
 
[quote name='Drnick']I stand corrected, lol


for some reason I remember reading that the PS3 doesn't upconvert while the 360 does. (although my toshiba A3 did a much better job upconverting than the Ps3, maybe thats why I thought that.)[/quote]

Well, there I agree with you. I almost exclusively use my A3 over my PS3 or JVC upconverting DVD player as I believe it does the best job with standard DVD's.
 
If you import your DVDs (like I do) then you'll want to pick up one of the OPPO players which are the best region-free upconverting players.

A good upconverting player that has the correct HDMI will improve the image to near HD. But you have to have it setup correctly.
 
[quote name='MrGranger']If you import your DVDs (like I do) then you'll want to pick up one of the OPPO players which are the best region-free upconverting players.

A good upconverting player that has the correct HDMI will improve the image to near HD. But you have to have it setup correctly.[/QUOTE]

I was just about to bring up the Oppo brand... they are the best upconverting players out there
 
[quote name='lawdood']Woah, wait, what? The PS3 certainly DOES upconvert standard def DVD's.

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?[/quote]

Like most DVD players, they will not upconvert over component (same as Xbox 360) and again, due to legal issues. They will both upscale over HDMI, which was partially invented to protect contents from copying.

Check out Philips DVP-5982. Does 1080p upscaling thru HDMI. Only $60 at Sam's Club. Plays divx too (only non-HD files though) and has a USB port so you can play them thru a flash drive or powered external HDD.

The remote is the biggest POS ever though. Literally looks/feels like a happy meal toy. But if you can get past that, the 5982 is a great player with the most bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

I have this DVD player and I love it. Got it for around $50, and the remote is a true piece of crap.
Not entirely true... Helios makes a DVD player that will upscale over component - all the way to 1080p, in fact!
Click to expand...
From a technical standpoint, component is very capable but most name brands cripple it due to HDMI's copyprotection features and to help boost HDMI sales. Non-mainstream brands, like Oppo or Helios, will upscale over component.
 
I also give a big thumbs up for the phillips. I have it and think it upscales better than my 360 and PS3. Also, there's a hack to make it region free.
 
[quote name='von551']ok, so i currently run component cables from my 360 and the HD stuff i download on XBL looks amazing (Horton, Wall-E, Transformers, etc.) But i don't have a standard DVD player, well my modded XBOX might be putting out 480i, to compare. But, i was looking at the Sony DVPNS77HB for $90. How do i know if a player uses good upscaling technology or not? I have the Samsung LNT-4069FX 40", will the native resolution upscale be just as good as buying a dvd player, or can the player make it better looking? some of my older dvds look crappy on it, but some (LOTR) look HD. thanks for all the advice so far.[/quote]


If by modded xbox you're reffering to an xbox1, then you should have XBMC installed as your dashboard. Makes an excellent upconverting (720p/1080i) media centre.
 
Go with an A3. I got one hook up to my Panny Plasma and it makes a huge difference over non-upscaling DVD players. Not as good but until prices come down for BD titles then I will stick with cheap0 sub $5 movies on DVD. There are exceptions as I have some HD DVD titles and Blu Ray titles that were cheap at the time. Now that HD DVD is dead, I don't look for prices to fall so buying an A3 or Oppo player is really smart!
 
For the record, I think the xbox 360 has the worst DVD playback of any of the aforementioned upscalers. The PS3 isn't that much better though :(.

Oh, and I would suggest the oppo, but for that much money, you may as well get a next gen player.
 
it looks like the HD-A3 is the way to go for my price range. i haven't tried to see how my modded xbox looks on my new tv. i didn't know it upconverts, but i'm only running s-video out of it, so i'll have to wait til i can get some componen cables for it i guess. so does the 360 upconvert over component? or is it my tv upconverting the movies that look good? thanks.
 
[quote name='von551']it looks like the HD-A3 is the way to go for my price range. i haven't tried to see how my modded xbox looks on my new tv. i didn't know it upconverts, but i'm only running s-video out of it, so i'll have to wait til i can get some componen cables for it i guess. so does the 360 upconvert over component? or is it my tv upconverting the movies that look good? thanks.[/QUOTE]

Your xbox won't upconvert over S-video or Component. It needs a purely digital connection (VGA/HDMI) to do the upscaling.

Also, just to clarify, all HDTVs scale all signals to their native resolution. But that isn't really saying a lot. For example, my 720p flat panel displays many of the xbox games in stunning high def but even when I just view regular cable the picture is ugly.
 
[quote name='pogipinoy27']Your xbox won't upconvert over S-video or Component. It needs a purely digital connection (VGA/HDMI) to do the upscaling.[/quote]

VGA is analog, which is why DVI was created (even though DVI-A is actually analog and not digital). It has nothing to do with having a digital connection.

it looks like the HD-A3 is the way to go for my price range. i haven't tried to see how my modded xbox looks on my new tv. i didn't know it upconverts, but i'm only running s-video out of it, so i'll have to wait til i can get some componen cables for it i guess. so does the 360 upconvert over component? or is it my tv upconverting the movies that look good? thanks.
Click to expand...
You can get Xbox Monster component cables for like $10 shipped, which is truly worth it for XBMC alone, not to mention almost all Xbox 1 games will display in 480p, some even higher. It will upconvert your DVDs through XBMC so give that shot.

The 360 won't upconvert your DVD movies over component, again, due to legal reasons. The TV has its own upscaling algorithm/filtering, but you pay the big bucks for an Oppo DVD player for a reason.
 
I also have two OPPO DVD players hooked into HDTVs via HDMI and the upcoverting is awesome! Plus, the OPPO is region free, and has a USB port to play divx/avi files and it works quite well. They are a local (San Fran Bay Area) company and have an excellent customer service record from what I have read.
 
I may be of help here. Before I purchased a ps3 I too was looking hard for a upscaling dvd player. Before research I figured upscaling was just a simple process that would be managable by any player I purchase as long as I had and hdmi cable with it. I was completely wrong.

You will find upscaling dvd players by name brands like sony and phillips for a good looking price of around 70-100 dollers. I was ready to bite, but reading user reviews and experiences, those machines are hardly worth it. What I am trying to tell you is that the only upscaling dvd player that is worth it is the OPPO brand according to reviews. I dont have any experiences but I've heard great things about oppo and denon.

The thing is, while I was looking to buy one, the oppo and denon were around 300-400 a player. I decided to just purchase a ps3 for 300$ and every since I've been addicted to blu-ray movies. I think you'll be best off buying a blu-ray player just so you will be future proof, not all movies will cost you $30. Be a smart shopper by using websites like this, buy used, or take advantage net flix. Hope this helps!
 
what about the oppo HM-31? it's not their top model, but it's $100. it's supposed to upconvert to 1080p, any diff between this and their $300 model? any one have experience with this model? thanks.
 
[quote name='espy605']VGA is analog, which is why DVI was created (even though DVI-A is actually analog and not digital). It has nothing to do with having a digital connection.

You can get Xbox Monster component cables for like $10 shipped, which is truly worth it for XBMC alone, not to mention almost all Xbox 1 games will display in 480p, some even higher. It will upconvert your DVDs through XBMC so give that shot.
[/quote]

Keep in mind that monster is only worth it for about 10.00. You will waste more money on cables by buying into the monster myth. However back to the OP. This is a easy question to answer.

But I will give you three options

1) PS3: Plays games and obviously you play games, good dvd upscaler, and Blu ray. This is my main DVD player for my 50" Sony and I love it.

2) HD DVD Player: All of them upscale well some better then others. I personally own an A3 on my 26" Vizio and it does a good job. It plays HD-DVDs yes it's a dead format but I have been buying a lot of moves right now for cheap.

3) Oppo: The BEST up convert dvd player you can buy. Honesty if all you care about is your DVD collection not any of the other stuff above get an Oppo. Don't even think about any other player really. All of the oppo players have been reviewed HIGH and you can't go wrong with any of them. Just go to the site http://www.oppodigital.com/ all look at the features of them and see were you can save some cash.


Now if it was me I would go the PS3 route it's the trifecta. Cost wise I would spring for a cheap HD DVD player and grab some cheap moves from amazon.com. If its all about DVDs then bite the bullet and grab in oppo you wont regret it.



[quote name='von551']what about the oppo HM-31? it's not their top model, but it's $100. it's supposed to upconvert to 1080p, any diff between this and their $300 model? any one have experience with this model? thanks.[/quote]

FYI thats just an HDMI switch...
 
[quote name='von551']what about the oppo HM-31? it's not their top model, but it's $100. it's supposed to upconvert to 1080p, any diff between this and their $300 model? any one have experience with this model? thanks.[/QUOTE]

the HM-31 seems to be just an HDMI switch.

Go with the new DV-980H ($169.99 on Amazon). This looks to be the upgraded version of my DV-970. It has USB ports and 7.1 audio now. OPPO is pretty damn awesome!
 
guess i'll be pickin up an oppo player sometime soon i dont want to wear out my ps3 or my 360 running old dvds if i dont have to .
 
Every tech-related podcast I listen to says that the upscaling on the TV is the way to go, not the DVD player.
 
[quote name='Proto Man']Every tech-related podcast I listen to says that the upscaling on the TV is the way to go, not the DVD player.[/quote]


True to a point, thing is if your TV has a crappy scaler then it might ruin your DVD playback. Also if you send your TV its native resolution the less work it has to do and that can help the video quality. Thing is it's always better to send your TV it's native signal.
 
Some games look great on my PS3 through component cables on a 1080i Sony Wega (CRT set), but other look very bad in comparison. My TV is not 16:9 standard, so I must go into the TV options to set it to 16:9. What I noticed is that some DVDs stay in 1080i when they boot and thus I don't need to go change the TV to 16:9 mode (1080i triggers the setting automatically), yet others pop back into full screen and look like 480p. The 1080i DVDs looks considerably better, to near blu-ray levels. Is there a setting that I'm leaving off, or is it just this way with some DVDs?

To contribute to this thread, the upconverted DVDs look far superior to those that are 480p on my television set. It's readily noticeable.

Help would be much appreciated.
 
Your absolute best best right now is to grab one of the HD-DVD players that are currently on sale for dirt cheap. The A3 can be had for around $80, the A30 (best best) for around $110. They both contain fantastic upscaling chips in them, both better than their similarly priced rivals, and are simply marked down because of the HD-DVD element.
Then there's that nice bonus that you do have an HD-DVD player too, should you ever see one on sale cheap somewhere (many can be had for the same price as the normal DVD now... bonus if it's a combo HDDVD/DVD disc). Seems all win with that choice.
 
I like upconverts. My bro got the Toshiba HD dvd player and now it's an upcoverter lol but it works great. I watched I am Legend on DVD on it and wow, the quality IMO is great, very nice PQ. So if you can find a cheap HD DVD player, lol just buy that for the upconvert =) or your VG system.
 
thanks for all the info guys. i ended getting a 360 HD-DVD for $37. couldn't pass that up. it already has my SD DVD looking good over component, but i'll pick up a VGA cable to get it upscaling to 1080p. King Kong looks unreal on this thing...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top