what is upscaler

[admin_exported]

hi what is upscaler im new to hifi and what is hd sound

 

[professorhat]

These aren't really Hi-Fi terminology, but home cinema. Upscaling is the process whereby a lower video resolution is turned into a higher resolution by filling in detail e.g. a PAL DVD's native resolution is 576p (i.e. 576 horizontal lines) whereas a Full HD television will have a resolution of at least 1080p (i.e. 1080 horizontal lines). In order to prevent the DVD being shown as a small square within the television, it is upscaled so those missing lines of detail are filled in and the picture fills the screen. The upscaling chip is responsible for this.

HD sound isn't really an official term, but is generally used these days to describe a soundtrack you might get on a Blu-Ray disc. DVD used to use compression standards like Dolby Digital and DTS which would compress a soundtrack down so it could fit on a DVD disc. Since Blu-Ray discs have far more capacity on them, there is no need for this level of compression and now lossless compression formats (like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio) or even uncompressed PCM soundtracks can be stored on the discs, resulting in a much improved sound. HD sound is the term generally used to describe these soundtracks.