Onkyo and upscaling settings? Help

[admin_exported]

I have recently found a few of my assupmtions about things have been very wrong. Little settings have made huge gains, especially in sound terms.

At the moment, my Onkyo is set to "Auto" for its output resolution. The other option is "through" for an unaltered feed (plus some others like 720 or 1080i).

I assumed "Auto" picked the best? My kit list is below, and I'm after the best for any given source.

I feed my amp with a V+ box and a PS3 (for blu ray and upscaled dvd's). Each source is hdmi to onkyo, then a single hdmi out of the onk to the tv.

I'm worried my Onkyo may prefer "through"? If I'm honest, I am not sure what the difference is?!

(main menu = 5) Hardware set up >>>> then 4)HDMI >>>> then options are auto (output), normal(zoom),off (audio tv out), enable for both lip synch and x v colour, the disable for control).

?

 

[professorhat]

Very simply, Through will just pass the signal through unaltered whatever it is, whereas Auto will upscale anything below what it believes your native display to be. For example, on my 720p set, if I play a DVD through the Onkyo when it's set to Through, my TV will receive the unaltered 576p signal and the TV will therefore upscale it to 720p. If on the other hand I set the Onkyo to Auto, since the Onkyo has done a handshake with my TV and has discovered it's maximum resolution is 720p, it will take the 576p signal from the DVD and upscale it to 720p. My TV will therefore receive the 720p signal and there's no need for further upscaling. Which you choose therefore should depend on which is better, the upscaler in the Onkyo or the upscaler in the TV.
Of course if you're using the PS3 to upscale DVDs, then this will already be upscaling to the maximum resolution for your TV and the Onkyo will just pass the signal through whichever setting you have it on. Having seen the PS3's DVD upscaling with the latest firmware, I'd say your best bet is just to let it do it as it's magnificent and better than my Onkyo 905.

 

[Anonymous]

so i leave it on auto then?
(no idea if my onk beats my tv at upscaling)

 

[professorhat]

When you're bored, have a play. You'll need to change the PS3 settings to not upscale DVDs (located under the Video Settings > BD / DVD Upscaler section) first. Then, play a DVD and change the Onkyo between Auto and Through and see which picture you prefer. Once you've got that sorted, turn the PS3 upscaling back on and marvel at how good it is... (unless you have an amazing TV!).