1080p projectors - do you use them for SD????

[matengawhat]

owner of 1080p projectors do you use them for standard definition tv viewing - how is the picture? I have sky hd and an onkyo 876 for upscaling duties so for the hd stuff i am sure it will be fantastic but was just wondered about how bad sd looks upscaled to 1080p on a 120 inch screen - any thoughts welcome thanks

 

[Frank Harvey]

120" is a big screen!!! Are you going to be far enough away?

The picture depends on the source component - Sky varies wildly due to compression, DVD's vary depending on how good they're mastered, and of course, a better DVD player will look cleaner than a cheap one.

Properly mastered DVD's you can put on a projector, show a clip to someone with an untrained eye, and they'd think it was HD. Close up shots on DVD look great, DVD can deal with that ok, it's just long shots where compression is more noticable. A badly mastered DVD won't look very impressive at all.

I also use a Wii for playing MarioKart online with friends (yup, I have some, even if they are just gaming friends

), which is SD, and that looks fine too, although the component cable is recommended.

 

[matengawhat]

sorry my mistake my screens a 106inch thought that seemed bigger sit about 4.5m away from it.

i have a wii also and the component cable to connect to the onkyo and made big difference - i just tend to notice the halo effect wwhen watching thing like football on my 720p projector so was wondering how much worse that will be on a 1080p or whether its actually better

have you seen the hd20 yet? any thoughts?

 

[Clare Newsome]

Well i sit @12ft away from an 80in screen, using a Full HD projector, and I try and avoid SD where possible! My Yamaha DSP-Z7 amp does a decent job upscaling DVD/SD TV, but it really does depend on the source. Lower-bitrate SD channels are a no-go (no loss there then!) and even dear-old ITV can struggle, especially with football.

But with Sky+HD and a good stack of Blu-rays and DVDs, i'm never short of quality viewing!

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

I sit about the same distance away and run a 96" screen. No problems for me with SD , I use the projector to watch the TV and although it can be a bit ropey as Clare says most prime time viewing it is fine. I use iPlayer through it as well which is just about good enough.

DVDs look fine - most of my viewing - and Bluray sublime as you would expect.

Processing is what it's all about and investing in a good model will produce the results.

 

[matengawhat]

so would sd mat look better on a 720p projector than a 1080p due to less scaling? i know depends on quality of scaling etc but just as general thoughts

do most projectors allow you to decide the output of the projected imageor is it a case that if its a 1080p chip they all just upscale everything to 1080p and you don't have a choice?

 

[Frank Harvey]

Full HD Projectors wil scale to 1080p any signal that isn't when it reaches it, with no facility to output anything less. If on a 1080p projector you could set it to output a 576p signal, it would send it out a is, so the picture would be displayed a quarter of the size of your screen!

SD on a 720 and 1080 projector - too many variables, but I wouldn't worry about it. As long as you accept SD for what it is, it won't really bother you. I'm very impressed by some DVD's as to how good they look, and some others just look like VHS, which there's nothing you can do about.