Philips 9664 & Upscaling??

[Nick_Shepherd]

Getting this set to replace my Sony WE5.

Reviews says its soft with upscaling.

I have a Sony 360 BD player, and am yet to buy an amp, but looking at a budget one.

Will the BD player upscale automatically? and will my Sky HD box do the same? or should I get an amp that does it?

 

[Anonymous]

i think the reviews say that the 9664s sd upscaling is a little soft , your bluray player will output at 1080p with blurays and dvds, so the tv wont have to . although you may need to set this up for dvds in the players menu .

you can set your sky hd box to upscale to 1080i , which may improve the picture , however , and im not very knowledgable on this , a good amp may have a better scaler than the sky box , if i was you i would see if you are happy with the sd picture from the sky box , if not an amp may be the answer ....

 

[Nick_Shepherd]

Is it a rule of thumb that an AV amp will upscale better than the Sky box? and, also, is a BD playey showing DVD better off going direct to the TV or though the AV amp?

 

[Anonymous]

im not the best to advise on this nick , but i know for example , that when watching a dvd on my ps3 , the picture is much better when the ps3 is doing the upscaling , its sometimes near hd quality , ive never seen an sd broadcast , say from bbc1 ( which is very good on freesat ) that is as good as the ps3 , i have my humax box doing the upscaling , its better than my tv doing it , i wouldnt think you will improve a bluray picture by going through an amp , but i assume if you had a good quality amp , it would upscale sd better than the sky box ... i hope that hasnt confused you more

, wheres all the techies tonight ???

 

[Sorreltiger]

There was a test in WHSV a few months ago which showed that in almost all cases the upscaling was better done by the blu-ray player. You would have to spend some serious dosh to get an amp which does this better. You can easily set the output res of the Sony BD player to 1080p via HDMI.

I use my AV amp all the time, so all of my sources go through it and only one HDMI goes to the TV. I find that really convenient, but others prefer to use the TV speakers for 'normal' viewing. In this case, they connect the HDMI direct to the TV and optical to the amp for DD sound (you need that anyway).

There is some debate about which setting to use with a Sky+HD box. I have read various opinions about what works best, but I prefer "Auto". The only downside of this is that there is a slight delay when you change between SD and HD channels. Some people find that annoying and prefer 1080i. Some think that's a better setting anyway due to interlacing/deinterlacing issues with the Sky box. A few even still use Scart just for SD channels! At the end of the day, it's easy to flick between the different settings and try out what works best for you.

 

[j4mm3r]

Hi Nick,

Whats happened to your WE5 I remember you were looking at this around the time I was looking at tv's I almost got one as I thought the picture was really impressive in the shops.

Well ive had my 9664 and denon 2310 avr for a while.... with regards to upscaling I find the denon upscaling has the best picture quality (for the record i set the sky hd box to auto and my denon to 1080i - i find its not quite as good on 1080p perhaps its something to do with interlacing/deinterlacing i dont know im no expert!) the skyhd box can upscale to 1080i also.

With regards to picture quality, jonathan ross on bbc and bbc hd look almost the same on my setup, as do a lot of bbc/bbc hd programs not sure if this to do with the bbc hd quality (there has been alot written about the bbc's hd quality of late). not that this is a bad thing, 99% of sd programs look very impressive on this tv, it still amazes me. life on bbc hd tonight looked amazing this program is a step up over the sd version. channel 4 hd and luxe tv hd look amazing on this tv also.

I have a dvd player but dont have the correct leads so havent set it up on this tv, waiting to get a bluray player when funds are available and i reckon 1080p movies on the 9664 are going to be even more amazing than what ive seen already.

just had a quick look at the built in freeview channels on the tv and it is def softer but not offensive, you should find the sky hd box upscaling to 1080i is a good improvement,as im looking at itv2 on freeview theres a little noise which you i dont seem to get through upscaled sky.

interesting to see how you compare this tv to the we5 as i was really close to getting one myself.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Hi Nick,

The upscaling in the Philips isn't bad, it's just not as good as some rival sets - we had to find something not perfect about this otherwise awesome set! It's a minor quibble.

Good news is that - as mentioned about - using a source (your Sony 'S360 will be fine) to upscale makes this irrelevant: we specifically tested using the budget Sony Blu-ray player with DVDs and the Philips looks magnificent.

A higher-end receiver is obviously another option to upscale everything, if you want a future surround sound upgrade too.

 

[Nick_Shepherd]

Hi Clare,

I get that the 360 will do the job for DVD, but, is my SKY HD box upscaling the SD and HD picture, and does it do a better job than the Philips TV?

Also, how much would i need to spend on an reciever to improve over the upscalling done by the Sky box?? It SD & Sky HD I would be looking

I am getting one, already have the speakers, so the amp is the last thing to get. Budget is tight though....

j4mm3r:

I'll reply to you later if I may, I'm being nagged by the boss!

 

[Nick_Shepherd]

Polite Bump

 

[j4mm3r]

nick, ur sky hd box will upscale the sd to 1080i and hd as broadcast, making the sky upscale makes the picture look crisper and sharper with better edge definition therefore that would be the way to go, but you can play around yourself when u get ur equipment to find setting that suits you.

so what happened to sony we5 ? backlight?

 

[Nick_Shepherd]

j4mm3r :

Yes the backlight. But only slightly and its not in every dark scene either. But, in some dark scenes, there is a patch of light in the top left corner, and now I see it, I notice it each time it is there. Apart from making the scene not look like it should, sometimes it makes the screen look warped. Its a real shame as its is not every time, and the rest of the set is spot on. So much so, I am not convinced I shold change it. I'm a bit worried the Philips wont look as good with motion for football, or with SD, but i cant get my head round the fact that the WE5 has slight bleed and I see it. I will always feel its broken.

I guess I need to know what amp to buy to do all the upscalling, but I dont want to spend £500 on an amp........