Silly Question: Can you play Blu Ray on a 1024 X 768 or 720 TV?

[admin_exported]

We know that Blu Ray Players will upscale standard DVDs to 720p and 1080i on non 1080p compatible TV's, so what does Blu Ray uspcale on a just an HD ready TV ? Do you have to set the HDMI to either 720p or 1080i for Blu Ray as you would for upscaling standard DVDs?

 

[Clare Newsome]

All depends on whether the set can handle 1080p content or not. The best HD Ready sets - like the Panasonics and our Pioneer product of the year - will take the Full HD content and automatically downscale it to suit their resolutions.

With other, typically (though not always) cheaper sets, you need to set the player to output at the lower resolution.

For example, see the 26in TV Supertest in our current issue where we mention the sets that do and don't handle 1080p natively. The big surprise is the Sony, which doesn't... (hello, Blu-ray???)

 

[Anonymous]

So Clare............For many , like me, who don't have a full 1080p set or a TV that doesn't automatically downscale Blu ray, by setting the HDMI on a Blu Ray to 720p or 1080i is that really going to give you a better picture than compared to usuing an Upscaler DVD Player like a Denon 1940 or say the Cambridge Azur DVD V2?

 

[Clare Newsome]

The Blu-ray/HD DVD will be better - no contest - as it's downscaling from a pixel-loaded picture, rather than upscaling from a lesser-pixelled image. There's no guess-work involved to fill in the missing pixels..

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, it's much better to have all those spare pixels escaping as heat from the vents at the back of the screen, rather than the pixel pixies having to add in all those extra dots using their box of 16m different coloured Crayolas, and what's more doing so 24 times every second.

Anyone needing a less technical explanation, let me know

 

[Anonymous]

That little gem really made my day, I think Andrew should have a Daily News Nugget. A seemingly complicated idea explained in plain english.