1080p Upscaling for Dummies

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Equipment:

TV - Panasonic TH-50PX70

DVD - Denon DVD-1930

Surround Receiver - Sony STR-DA1200ES

Video Cable - QED Qunex HDMI-P

Can someone explain alittle about 1080p Unscaling and how it can be used?

I recently bought a new Surround Receiver and DVD Player to go with my new Plasma. I would like to take advantage of the 1080p Upscaling but I am not sure how! Does this mean I can buy Blu-ray/HD DVD's and play them on my Denon? Or does it mean I can upscale my standard DVD's to 1080p quality?

Thanks,

Conway
 
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Anonymous

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G'day Andrew, thanks for the quick reply!

Ok, cool, I had things set up the right way then. I have the Denon 1930 set to 1080p.

Are there any limitations with this? Can any standard DVD be upscaled?

So would this be the same quality as Blu-ray or HD? I guess it would as they are both 1080p. But there may be some quality loss in upscaling compared to standard 1080p on Blu-ray/HD?

I tested Star Wars 111 - Revenge of the Sith on the 1080p setting yesterday and thought the picture quality was amazing!

Thanks again for the advice,

Conway
 

Andrew Everard

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Yes, any DVD can be upscaled, but of course this isn't 'real' 1080p, but some intelligent interpolation of information designed to increase the perceived resolution of the material on the disc. How good it'll look depends on the quality of the upscaling algorithms, the quality of the transfer of the original programme source to DVD, and indeed the quality of the original movie or video. Many films look excellent upscaled, while some look truly shonky, if that's the correct spelling!
 

stevee1966

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I'm in the process of putting new system together (plasma arrives in 4 days and counting).

So to upscale, i need to connect my Denon 1930 dvd to my plasma, via a HDMI cable, and set the dvd playe to 1080p ?

As easy as that, or is there more to it, as most things seem to be a bit more complex ?
 

D.J.KRIME

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I have found that the best way was to set my Denon to AUTO and let the player select the best resolution for your screen, so if you have a native 1080 pannel it will select 1080p as where if you have a screen that is 1080p compatible but a 768 panel it may well select 720p and not 1080p. Rember the best a DVD can be before upscaleing is 576p so on a 768 panel you may well find the results are actually better at 720p rather than 1080p due to the fact that the upscaler has not had to make up as much picture information.
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stevee1966

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Thanks for the info DJ. Don't suppose you know what my Panasonic TH42PX70 is in terms of what you've written, ie, 768 or 1080 ?

The review i saw said 1080p playback and 1024 x 768 native pixel count resolution. I'm guessing that means it's a 768 panel - but i'm not 100% sure.

What are the results when you playback at 720p - is it still good quality ?
 
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Anonymous

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My tv is only HD ready & not full HD. Does this mean I would need to set the DVD player to 1080i - if there is such a setting ?
 

D.J.KRIME

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[quote user="stevee1966"]Thanks for the info DJ. Don't suppose you know what my Panasonic TH42PX70 is in terms of what you've written, ie, 768 or 1080 ?
The review i saw said 1080p playback and 1024 x 768 native pixel count resolution. I'm guessing that means it's a 768 panel - but i'm not 100% sure.
What are the results when you playback at 720p - is it still good quality ?

[/quote]

Your screen like my Samsung 50"" is a 768 line panel and I have found that the best results when upscaling DVD are when set to 720p as this is the setting that is the closest match to the native resolution of the screen which means that the screens scaler has very little to do. Now if you wer to upscale to 1080p the screen will then have to downscale this 1080p image to 768p which is what the panel displays, meaning you have added another process into the video signal that is not needed and generally gives worse results. At 720p the picture I get is fantastic.

The 1080p will come into play when you are viewing a native 1080p signal from HD-DVD/BLU-RAY but your screen will downscale them to 768p.
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D.J.KRIME

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[quote user="Spike66"]My tv is only HD ready & not full HD. Does this mean I would need to set the DVD player to 1080i - if there is such a setting ?[/quote]

Set the dvd player to 720p as it is the closest resolution to your screen.
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stevee1966

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Thanks again DJ - very helpful info.

One other thing ?

If i set my Denon dvd to Auto, is there a way of knowing what level of upscaling is taking place ? Is there something on the display that will say 720 is selected ?
 

D.J.KRIME

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[quote user="stevee1966"]
If i set my Denon dvd to Auto, is there a way of knowing what level of upscaling is taking place ? Is there something on the display that will say 720 is selected ?

[/quote]

On my Denon 3930 when auto is selected the display on the player flashes AUTO then 720p RGB on the display panel it may or may not do the same on yours, either way if you select AUTO with your screen being a 768 panel it will definatly output at 720p.
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stevee1966

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Thanks again D.J. Hope you don't mind but i think you are turning into my personal Home Cinema guru.

A couple of points :-

1. I understand the audio ports on an AV Receiver but why does it also have video ports, ie, s-video etc. Isn't it ok just to connect devices, ie, dvd player, directly to the tv and not go via the receiver ?

2. My set-up is going to be plasma, dvd player, sky+ box, and AV Receiver equipment listed below).

a. Dvd will connect to tv with HDMI cable(audio and video), and to AV Receiver with digital cable for dvd (surround sound) and cd (2 speaker). I understand that if I want to play SuperAudio CD's or Video cd's then I need a 5.1 cable set to connect from my dvd to receiver. Is this correct, and if I do connect this cable set, will normal cd's play through all surround speakers or still just through front 2 from the digital cable link ?

b. Sky+ will connect to AV Receiver with digital cable (surround sound) but am restricted with tv connection. Sky+ only has SCART or S-video OUTs, but my tv doesn't have s-video (I don't think so anyway, it's not delivered until this Saturday). Is Scart to Scart my only option, or is there a different cable which will connect Scart to another tv port, or s-video to another tv port, and if these cables do exist, would they noticeably improve the quality over a normal SCART cable.

I think that's all. I do apologise for all the questions (1st time I've bought a separates system - cannot believe the amount of different cables to be bought) but this is what you get when you've proved to be so helpful up to now.

Big thanks
 
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steve - you can also hit the 'Info' button on the Panasonic TV. It will show you what level the DVD is on.

Ok, just to make things more confusing, well for me anyway. I was reading the Panasonic website today. And it says, in reference to the Pana TH-50PX70A (see below).

Now what does all this that mean? It sounds like the Pana can upscale DVD's from any DVD player? If so why bother spending alot of money on a 1080p Upscaling DVD Player like the Denon's?

Or is it more a case off the Pana can upscale, but the Denon DVD-1930 will do a far better job?

I think alot of it refers to using Blue-ray or HD DVD's and keeping it in 1080p. But if anyone can translate this into something simple to understand that would be great!

"1080p Digital Processing Chip-Set - Inputting and outputting 1080p video signals without altering their natural specifications. (Image is displayed on HD Panel with 1366 x 768 resolution).

The 1080p signal format used by Blu-ray Discs offers the highest image quality among high-definition video sources. The VIERA processor receives 1080p video signals in their original format. It applies optimum signal processing to output the same high signal quality. Image is dispplayed on HD Panel with 1366 x 768 resolution.

1080p Digital Re-mastering Processor - Up-converts SD video signals to 1080p signals. Delivers pictures as beautiful as those from HD video signals. (Image is displayed on HD Panel with 1366 x 768 resolution).

The processor converts SD and HD video signals from DTV broadcasting and DVD players to 1080p without loss of image details. It also applies progressive conversion to upgrade 1080i high-definition video signals to 1080p signals. This allows VIERA to render pictures that are more beautiful than the original. Image is dispplayed on HD Panel with 1366 x 768 resolution."

 

D.J.KRIME

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[quote user="stevee1966"]
1. I understand the audio ports on an AV Receiver but why does it also have video ports, ie, s-video etc. Isn't it ok just to connect devices, ie, dvd player, directly to the tv and not go via the receiver ?

[/quote]

the benifit of also conecting all your equipment for video through your amp is manily to cut down on wires going to your display and also 90% of modern recivers also have good upscaling features, so you can simply have 1 HDMI cable coming out of your reciver to your tv, so ever time you chose dvd,cable etc on your amp the picture swithces without ever needing to touch the tv remote.

[quote user="stevee1966"]
2. My set-up is going to be plasma, dvd player, sky+ box, and AV Receiver equipment listed below).
a. Dvd will connect to tv with HDMI cable(audio and video), and to AV Receiver with digital cable for dvd (surround sound) and cd (2 speaker). I understand that if I want to play SuperAudio CD's or Video cd's then I need a 5.1 cable set to connect from my dvd to receiver. Is this correct, and if I do connect this cable set, will normal cd's play through all surround speakers or still just through front 2 from the digital cable link ?
b. Sky+ will connect to AV Receiver with digital cable (surround sound) but am restricted with tv connection. Sky+ only has SCART or S-video OUTs, but my tv doesn't have s-video (I don't think so anyway, it's not delivered until this Saturday). Is Scart to Scart my only option, or is there a different cable which will connect Scart to another tv port, or s-video to another tv port, and if these cables do exist, would they noticeably improve the quality over a normal SCART cable.

[/quote]

Firstly, given your equipment I would not bother routing the video through your amp as IMHO I always prefer to have my video source connected directly to the screen where this is possible and seeing as you only have a DVD player and Sky box this is easilly done.

Right Sky box first, stick with a good RGB scart cable for the video to the screen and optical to your amp. You can either go for a fully wired RGB scart if you want to use the internal speakers or a RGB video only one if like me you dont intend on using the tv's speakers,(why use them when you have a amp??) The RGB feed from the scart is the best picture you can get out of a standard Sky box but you can allways upgrade to Sky HD in the future.

With your DVD player personally unless you intend on getting SACD's or DVD AUDIO discs I would not bother with seperate 5.1 inputs and stick with a good coax digital for your sound and HDMI direct to the screen. If you do intend to listen to SACD then yes get the player hooked up via the 5.1 multi-channel inputs to enjoy SACD's properly, simply select the multi-channel input on your amp and off you go, but if you listen to cd's via these inputs it will be in 2 channel stereo which again IMHO is how you should listen to a cd. If you conect both 5.1 inputs and a Digital coax you can chose which input you wish to use.

Hope that helped.
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D.J.KRIME

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[quote user="Conway"]
1080p Digital Re-mastering Processor - Up-converts SD video signals to 1080p signals. Delivers pictures as beautiful as those from HD video signals. (Image is displayed on HD Panel with 1366 x 768 resolution).
[/quote]

The Panasonic has a screen resolution of 768 vertical lines meaning the if the inputed video be either normal tv,dvd or even HD-DVD/BLU-RAY the image you are watching is a 768p image, no more, no less. The differnce will be in the quality of this image as in the better the quailty of the video signal you feed the tv the better the image you see. So a TV image scaled upto 768p will look worse and lacking in detail when compared to a native 1080p feed from a HD disc due to the differnces in avalible picture information from both sources. But why Panasonic are saying all video is upscaled to 1080p then displayed on a 768 pannel gets me as why upscalr to 1080p then to only downscale to 768p again? I think maybe they are just trying to prove the point that this tv will accept a native 1080p signal with no problems.
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