Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater how much better is 720p from 480/540p

in a moment of madness, I purchased a Hitachi 46f510 46inch widescreen HDTV. This is my first ever real TV purchase. I can't wait to set it up

Anyway, the TV has a built-in upconverter to either 540P or 1080i. My DVD player currently gives a max of 480P (which it can upconvert to 540P). I could buy a 720P player and plug that in, however, would the picture quality be that much better? Is it worth spending that much on a new player?

i'm also interested in this, have a denon dvd-2900 and the tray got a little mussed in shipping and gets fussy sometimes. my brother thinks we should get some $300 something or other from best buy that does hdmi/dvi/720p.

Ravi, congratulations on the new TV. I'm sure that it'll look great when you get it set up. As to the player, I assume that you mean a player that would "upconvert" to 720P. The 46F510 already has an upconverter, as you described, which can make the 480 output of the player "fit" its 1080i native resolution, although of course it can't actually make it HDTV. So, you don't need to be concerned about whether the player can upconvert, since the TV will do it. It's rather unlikely that you'd happen to find a player which does a significantly better job at this than the TV does.

hey JohnK

thanks. I can`t wait to set it up. it arrives on saturday.

i did mean a player that outputs 720p. mine currently outputs 480p. i wonder if a 720p player would be much nicer or not.

Ravi,

You should should set the tv up so it upconvert to 1080i vice 540p. You don't need to get a dvd player that display 720p because your tv can not display it. Although a dvd player with HDMI connection will give you a smoother picture because it doesn't go through the digital-analog-digital conversion.

duong,

according to the website, it will display 720p
http://www.hitachi.ca/forhome/46F510.html

it also says something about virtual 1080p, i am curious as to what that is.

either way, i`m rather broke for the time being, so i guess i`ll leave it at 1080i. i was just curious if 720p would have been better.

thanks for all your replies!

Doesn't look like that has an HD tuner. HD is where you'll see it REALLY shine. Don't think you'd see that as large an improvement w/ DVDs though.

DVDs to HD was like VHS to DVDs for me.

Definitely do not trade your Denon 2900 for a crappy Samsung or LG player from Best Buy.

The image quality will be much better with the Denon. It is a far superior player in every respect.

thanks!