Up-scaling query. (and a Discouraging article)

[admin_exported]

Hello people, I have both my PS3 and Denon DVD-1940 connected via HMDI to my AV receiver (Denon AVR-4308) and I'd like to know if i should disable the receivers HDMI scaling capabilities since both players are already set to scale at 1080p and 720p respectively., The receiver is connected via HDMI to the TV (Pioneer PDP-508XD) and i can't say that i see any difference when i set the receivers scaling capabilities on or off. ps. I read a rather discouraging article recently about new generation TVs with HDMI 1.3a. It said that when a picture is received through HDMI at anything other than it's native resolution, ie. PAL up-scaled from 576i to 720/1080p, the TV can sense it ( through HDCP if i remember correctly) and disables all of it's picture processing filters thus letting your player only do all the job with no assistance from the TV. This is done so that HDTV can keep selling (Sky HD, Blue Ray and HD DVD) otherwise the picture up-scaled from your player then filtered and processed from the TVs filters would be a real challenge... Anyone heard about this???

 

[Andrew Everard]

Re the PS, not too sure why that's discouraging - it just means the picture's only going through one set of upscaling. If you'd rather the TV did the upscaling, just kill the upscaling on the player or receiver.

 

[Anonymous]

Cause then the Denon DVD player was a waste of money since when upscaling a movie, the TV stops working it's magic... and it's nothing less than magical what this TV does to a SD source, possibly a better job than the DVD player on it's own.
Therefore there was no point in changing my old Pioneer DVD that had no upscaling capabilities and had a digital coaxial output for sound.

 

[Andrew Everard]

No, you're missing the point. If the image is upscaled by the player, the TV then lets the upscaled image through to the display panel in upscaled form, rather than trying to upscale again what is already upscaled. It doesn't downscale it again, but just passes the upscaled version.

If you feed in a non-upscaled image, then the TV's upcsaling kicks back in.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Andrew Everard"]
No, you're missing the point. If the image is upscaled by the player, the TV then lets the upscaled image through to the display panel in upscaled form, rather than trying to upscale again what is already upscaled. It doesn't downscale it again, but just passes the upscaled version.

If you feed in a non-upscaled image, then the TV's upcsaling kicks back in.

[/quote]

I think the OP is now concerned that there appears to be no advantage to buying a quality DVD player that upscales when the TV itself does an excellent job of upscaling. Hence the comment:

[quote user="_SeLecT_"]Cause then the Denon DVD player was a waste of
money since when upscaling a movie, the TV stops working it's magic...
and it's nothing less than magical what this TV does to a SD source,
possibly a better job than the DVD player on it's own.

Therefore there was no point in changing my old Pioneer DVD that had no
upscaling capabilities and had a digital coaxial output for
sound.[/quote]

I'm in the same situation. I have one of the new Pioneer plasmas and am looking to buy the Denon DVD-1940. But what's the point of getting a good up-scaling DVD player when my TV itself does such a great job of upscaling? Like Select, I have an old DVD player that doesn't upscale.

So what is the best option for Select and myself? Will I see an improved picture if (1) I buy the new Denon DVD player and let it upscale the picture or (2) keep my existing old DVD player and let my Pioneer TV handle upscaling or (3) buy the new Denon DVD player but continue to let the Pioneer TV upscale?

 

[Andrew Everard]

I'll turn you over to the reviewers on that one, as they have more spoecific product knowledge of the Denon and Pioneer. When they've recovered from the show no doubt one of them will reply.