Sky HD upscaling

[admin_exported]

Does anyone know if the Sky HD box upscales the SD channels as well as HD to 720P? The reason I'm asking this is because on my Onkyo amp I can set it to upscale or pass through, but would have to change this setting depending on which source I'm using if the source does or does not upscale itself. I'm guessing that upscaling from the source and then upscaling again through the amp is not recommended even though the quality of the scaler in the amp is far superior to the Sky upscaler.

I also have a Denon 1930 dvd player that upscales itself. Unfortunately if I turn the scaler on that off completely I get a blank screen, so again if I wanted to use the scaler on the amp I would be upscaling twice, once on the dvd player and once on the amp.

Once some quality blu-ray players are released I'm guessing that will no longer be an issue as blu-ray discs don't need upscaling, but the player should have a high quality scaler for dvd playback. I'm thinking in particular of the Denon 2500 BTCI or the Marantz BD player due sometime this year.

Any feedback, experiences or views on scaling are welcome.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Which Onkyo are you using? Certainly we've found with the 875 upwards, it's best to set the Sky HD box to auto and let the Onkyo do the scaling from there. Makes a big improvement....

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Have you tried setting your receiver to upscale to the maximum and let it do the work from there? Leave your Sky HD box to auto and I would have your DVD player to 1080p.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Clare beat me.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Gerrardasnails"]Clare beat me.[/quote]

is that a question or a statement?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Come on JD, if it had been a question, I would have used one of these ? thingeys! I went to school!!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses. I should have clarified that the screen I'm using is a Pioneer 428XD so native resolution is 720, and the amp is the Onkyo 875.

If I set the sky box to auto then some of the programmes would be sent to the amp at 1080i and the amp would scale down to 720p. Is that correct?

 

[Anonymous]

where did you all go??

If I set the Sky box to auto doees that mean that SD content will not be upscaled as it comes into the amp, and then the amp upscales it using its HQV circuitry?

 

[Clare Newsome]

Sorry, we're on press...

Yes, if you set the Sky box to auto, the Onkyo's fancy-dan upscaling will handle the rest. Then your wonderful Pioneer will take the feed and you'll be enjoying an incredible picture. Great set-up, sir!

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]Yes, if you set the Sky box to auto, the Onkyo's fancy-dan upscaling will handle the rest.[/quote]

And very fab it is, too.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Clare and Andrew, that's very helpful.
Currently I've got my Denon dvd player set to the lowest resolution possible so the Onkyo upscales the rest of the way. Is that best?

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry I can't help with your issue, I guess trying different ways until all looks good, but you have for me raised a question.
I've only recently got the Sky HD box but did notice that all the channels were 1080I, looking at my settings it asks for HD resolution and I have it set on 1080i and thought that it was just for the HD channels, it seems now that this is for all channels.
But what is interesting is not all programmes on the HD channels are actually HD when you press the i button, but if you flick between for instance Channel 4 HD and normal channel 4, the HD channel is much better even though it is standard resolution.
Anyone have any ideas? I think mybe that the HD channels allow for more information but I'm not sure.

 

[Anonymous]

i find that gives the best results with mine. Av fun

 

[Anonymous]

i find that setting the denon to the films native settings and letting the onkyo do the upscaling gives the best results with mine. Av fun

 

[professorhat]

You'll find the SD programmes on Channel 4 HD have been upscaled by Channel 4 themselves prior to broadcast. Since they (generally) do a better job of this than your Sky box can, the SD programmes on Channel 4 HD will look better than the ones on standard Channel 4.