Between Sony and Samsung which company does the better upscaling of SD content

[NigelF]

I have over 500 SD DVDs and I do watch them time-2-time, I am in process of buying a 40" TV and have short listed down to three options SONY 40HX703 and Samsung 40C8000 or 40C750.

Thanks.

 

[Clare Newsome]

We've typically found (rare exceptions aside) that it's better for the source to do the upscaling, rather than the TV. Even a modestly priced Blu-ray player like the Sony BDP-S370 (available for around £100) will do a great job upscaling your DVD collection to a 40in set.

 

[NigelF]

Thanks Clare for quick reply, I forgot to mention that I already have PS3 in living room and it does a good job in upscaling sd dvds, I am looking for second TV in bedroom where we have a FTA Sat receiver with some SD stuff, I don't want to invest in a second blueray player and also most of the viewing in bedroom is done via video stream from NAS, hence for FTA SD channels and video stream it would be better to have a TV which does a better upscaling. The streaming is done via old AppleTV runing XBMC which is not good in upscaling.

In ideal world I should replace my SD FTA with HD FTA satbox and a cheap BDP, but for the time being I want to limit my budget and want to use the stuff I have at hand and let TV to a better job on upscaling. Thanks.

 

[bigboss]

In my experience, I've found Samsung to be a better upscaler than Sony. I thought the Sony SD images are a bit soft.

I would recommend you to take a couple of DVDs with you, & do a direct demo to compare the two, asking the salesperson to set any upscaling by the blu-ray player to "off" (so that the TV upscales it). The aerial feeds in the shops are generally shared between many TVs, resulting in deterioration of signal quality.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep, agreed that demo is best. From our testing i'd actually say the Samsung and Sony upscaling abilities are broadly similar (depending on material involved), but there may be other elements - motion-handling; black levels/contrast - that make you favour one set over another, especially if it's primarily for movie duties.