Upscaling - Must have or Hype?

[admin_exported]

Hi, I was just wondering weather it was worth the effort and expense of upgrading my present system (non hd panasonic 37 inch plasma without freeview and panasonic 3 in 1 hdd/dvd/vhs analogue recorder) to a new panasonic hd ready tv px70 and ez27 dvd recorder. As I mainly watch DVD these days and do not really want to go down the blu ray/hdd route. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Your Viera may be 'non-HD', but will it accept a 720P signal? Chances are it may well unless it's ancient.

If so, an upscaling DVD player is probably going to make a big difference to the way discs look on the screen.

As an example, as as explained in other posts, I have a Fujitsu 50in plasma which long predates all this HD-ready stuff, and yet it looks great with well-upscaled DVDs at 720p and 1080i.

Dig out that manual or do some online searching for a download copy - you might just save yourself the cost of a new TV for a while.

 

[Anonymous]

My TV is about four years old, it's a Panasonic TH-37PA20, and as far as I can see the spec does not reach as far as 720p, It appears to reach 60p only, what would one expect for £3500 at the time of purchase, hence my original question, as that kind of budget is way out of my league now, not that a setup would cost anything like that now, but I appreciate the help and reply.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Just pulled the manual down off t'interweb and it seems this set will only handle 480/576p signals - ie standard definition progressive scan - given its 852x480 pixel resolution

Whether it's worth upgrading is really down to how happy you are with your current picture; if it's fine for the moment I'd hold fire for a while, since the price of 1080P sets is likely to tumble as they become more common, and that should further haul down the prices of 1080i/HD Ready sets.

Not sure how anyone's making any money on these TVs any more, but it can only be good news for the consumer.