Bluray upscaling

[vonchief]

Hi,

Is there a bluray player that allows you to upscale DVD to 720p for a better picture on a HD-ready TV ?

Don't really like the idea of up scaling to 1080p only for my screen do downscale it again to fit.

The reason i ask is my current DVD player is much better when set to 720p and if i make the jump to bluray i don't want a worse picture with DVD.

Can't seem to find any references to this in any reviews so any help much appreciated.

 

[hammill]

If you have an HD ready TV then why are you wasting your money on a blu-ray player? You wont see the difference

 

[professorhat]

Erm, that's not true at all - it depends on a lot of factors like size of screen, viewing distance etc. I used a 42" HD Ready TV very happily for a couple of years with Blu-Ray and the difference was very apparent between upscaled DVD and Blu-Ray.

Anyway, with that out the way, yes, virtually every Blu-Ray player will allow you to set the output at 720p for both upscaled DVD and Blu-Ray so that you don't have to get your TV to downscale it. What's your current DVD player? To ensure you don't get a worse picture, you need to ensure you get a Blu-Ray player which can produce at least the equivalent of it, so this is key info.

 

[Anonymous]

the sony bd360 at less than £100 is a safe bet , does everything perfectly well for a small investment , even if you upgrade your tv at some point it would still be fine ...

 

[Anonymous]

hammill:If you have an HD ready TV then why are you wasting your money on a blu-ray player? You wont see the difference

Absolute nonsence. You obviously have NO clue what you're on about!

 

[vonchief]

Current DVD player is Yamaha 1700 and Tv is Panasonic px80 42"

Bearing this in mind which bluray player would give as good a picture with DVD ?

 

[professorhat]

A rather good DVD player as I remember. Unfortunately I can't say for certain without seeing them of course, but I would think the likes of the Sony BDP-S760 would trump it with DVDs, or maybe the Pioneer BDP-320 which looks to be a bit cheaper than the Sony at the moment.

Of course there are even better players for more money, but these look to be around the same price as you would have paid for your Yamaha if bought new.

**EDIT - Actually, scratch the Pioneer - quick check in the manual shows it won't output 720p, only 1080p. The Sony BDP-S760 will let you output at 720p though.

 

[Sorreltiger]

.......but you shouldn't rule out sending blu-ray out at 1080p. That's the best setting for me - I have an 8G HD ready Kuro (768p). I suspect it's a little like putting an image into PowerPoint - a nice big image with lots of pixels, reduced in size, will still look great, whereas an enlarged small image will look terrible!

However, I change the output to 576i if I'm watching a DVD so that the TV can upscale. It's worth remembering that there isn't a hard and fast rule for upscaling. The best method is the one that produces the best picture!

However - to return to the original point - watching blu-ray discs on an HD ready TV definitely IS worthwhile!

 

[vonchief]

Thanks for the replies,

Do you know if i can send bluray at 1080p and DVD at 720 if i got the Sony 760?

Would it mean going into the menus and changing the setting each time i change formats or can it do it automatically. Might be a stupid question but it would make things a bit easier if it could do this automatically.

 

[Sorreltiger]

You would have to go into the menu and change the resolution, but it only takes a couple of minutes.

 

[professorhat]

Minutes?! Surely it's only 10 seconds or so at worst?!

 

[Sorreltiger]

OK, you win, Prof!

 

[professorhat]

Sorry, judging by the time, I was a little tipsy and thus being a pedantic idiot!

 

[Sorreltiger]

No offence taken. I spent ages trying to think of a witty reposte and then gave up!

 

[Woodruffe]

I don't know if this helps but I have a Panasonic TH42PX70 and although it is 'only' HD Ready it can take a 1080p signal from my Sony BDP 363 and it looks brilliant. I am assuming there is some internal jiggery pokery which downscales to the 1080i? If you have a PX80 will it do the same?