DVD Upscaler - I cannot see a difference

[admin_exported]

I purchased a new Samsung LE40M87 1080P HD TV and decided to buy a Philips DVP5980 upscaler to compliment the TV as all my DVD's are normal.

I tested the upscale capabilities out last night using 3 different films and TBH I could not see any difference from 476 up to 1080P.

This may be that the newest DVD I have is 2 years old or it could be that the TV's has its own upscaling capabilities, or maybe as I tried each setting on the DVD I should have adjusted settings on the TV (which I did not do) but I was dissapointed as I did expect some improvement.

If anyone has any ideas it would be most appreciated even if its "Sorry mate you have wasted your money as these upscalers do not work"

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Sorry to say but in my oppionion you have wasted your money on this perticular dvd player as the upscaling it uses is no better than that of the Samsung lcd you have, the only benifit you may notice over a older non hdmi dvd player is the fact there is now a digital link between the screen and dvd player.
All lcd/plasma screens have built in scalers to upscale/downscale any incoming image to fit the screens natural resolution (in your case 1920x1080) so it will upscale your dvd's maximum of 576p to fit your 1080p screen, but it is at which price point on a dvd player do the scalers do a better job than the internal ones of the screen?
Your dvd player is a sub £100 unit and at that price you can not expect miricles! I recently upgraded my old plasma to a Samsung 50"" plasma and hooked up my old Pioneer 757Ai to it via component. Now the pictures were good but I decided to upgrade my dvd player as you have to one with upscaling and hdmi. So I home demoed a few units and ended up geting the Denon dvd3930 which delivers fantastic images far out proforming the old pioneer and the screens internal scalers. Now I know this is a £1000 dvd player(I got it for a lot less) but if you say upped your budget to say £200 you could easily get yourself a Denon dvd1930 which will no doubt out proform your Philips DVP5980 both visually and sonically but more importantly the internal ones in your screen. The Denon does only upscale to 1080i but your screen will de-interlace this as all images on your screen are displayed at 1080p.

 

[Anonymous]

OR.....somthing like the Pansonic S53 or the PIONEERS 440 and 600AV's would have shown you far better than the poor old Philips you have

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there I have the Pioneer DAV600 DVD player and while it has 1080P upscaling, my experience is so far that at the standard setting of 480P/576P HDMI output, the picture is the best. I have tested again and again settings at 720P, 1080i, 1080P but the picture is the same or slightly less detailed.

I wonder if this is because I am using the Pioneer PDP428 plasma which I must say lives up to the hype. I have therefore left the DVD player setting at 480P/576P and is currently enjoying tremendous pictures,

My only regret is that I have no use for the upscaling function from the DVD player...I am even doubtful whether I should buy a better DVD player i.e. Denon DVD1940 or higher.....appreciate some thoughts......

 

[Clare Newsome]

It's always worth experimenting with the scaling offered by your player, TV and even receiver, to find the option you prefer. As you say, the Pioneer plasma has a superlative scaler, so you're right to use it rather than have your player upscale.

But remember, scaling is just one element of how a player's performance increases as you upgrade - its innate video-processing capabilities (at any resolution) plus sonic improvements should all take a step up.

For what it's worth, I think your Pioneer deserves a good a source as you can feed it - you're only seeing part of its potential at present.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
It's always worth experimenting with the scaling offered by your player, TV and even receiver, to find the option you prefer. As you say, the Pioneer plasma has a superlative scaler, so you're right to use it rather than have your player upscale.

But remember, scaling is just one element of how a player's performance increases as you upgrade - its innate video-processing capabilities (at any resolution) plus sonic improvements should all take a step up.

For what it's worth, I think your Pioneer deserves a good a source as you can feed it - you're only seeing part of its potential at present.
[/quote]

Hi Clare,
Sorry to hi-jack this thread but do you have any advice on the quality when upscaling using the Panasonic DMR-EX77 DVD recorder and the Panasonic 42" 1080p panel (TH-42PZ700A )? Basd on what you have said here, would it be best to let the plasma upscale the signal and leave the recorder on a SD setting?

Cheers
Carl