Upscaling Question - Axiom Message Boards

My Playstation 3 does not upscale, or, as some people call it upconvert, meaning that it is not capable of displaying a standard dvd into 1080i. While looking for my receiver (please see my other post below) I realized that I really wanted my standard DVDs upscaled. Does this require the purchase of an upscaling receiver such as Pioneer 84, or the purchase of new upscaling DVD player, or both? Sorry if this sounds naive.

It all depends on how you want to run your DVD output signal. Your TV may be capable of upscaling, or your DVD player. The important thing is not to mess with the signal too many times. I use a Denon 2910 and let it do the scaling to 1080i into the plasma. It looks ALMOST as good as the Hi-Def feeds off of Dishnetwork. I don't put anything else into the mix. Just run straight hdmi to the TV from it. Then optical to the pre-amp for movie sound. I'm not sure as to Receivers as I've never looked into it as an upscaling solution. If you want your receiver to be in the equation it will at least have to be able to pass what ever signal you are sending it. I don't think too many receivers will be as good as the TV or DVD player or dedicated scaler doing the job though. Oppo's are supposed to be good too and can be had for half the price or less of some of the other upscaling DVD players out there.

There's also these:

http://www.anchorbaytech.com/products/systems/

supposed to be the end all of upscaling. A tad spendy though.

Thank you Robert for your reply. My PS3 does not upconvert unfortunately so does my Sony SACD/DVD player. Now how do I know whether my Samsung DLP upconverts? I bought it three years ago, and I can't remember anybody talking about uconverting at that time. A samsung site search turned up nothing.

Skerdi, a player or receiver can't display anything, that's what the TV does. If the the TV is a fixed-pixel 1080 unit it has to use 1080 pixels vertically for a full picture to be shown. On a regular 480i DVD, if the player or receiver hasn't mathematically calculated extra pixels to be added to the 480, the TV itself does it to fill up its 1080 screen(note that although this allows showing a complete picture, the resolution isn't real 1080; it remains 480). Unless the upscaling that a player or receiver did would be visibly better than what the TV itself does(this varies)there's no advantage in having the player or receiver do it.

John, does that mean that I should not care about a player or receiver that upconverts? I read a lot in terms of this upconverting players/receiver nowadays, is this just a marketing hype?

Except that, as was said, it's possible that some players or receivers would do a visibly better job of upscaling than your Samsung(no way to tell). So, yes, there's a considerable hype element in the "upconverting" thing. If your Samsung has a "native resolution" of 720(likely), that's what will be used to fill the screen, regardless of what comes in; 480 would be upscaled, 1080(from a HD-DVD or broadcast)would be downscaled.

The question is wether your player or your display device does the "upscaling" better. I have a projector that's native resolution is 720p. It does a good job with upscaling the signal from a standard DVD from 480p. But when I fed it a 1080i signal from a Blu-ray player, it looked horrible. It didn't do a good job scaling the 1080i signal down to 720p. I tried telling the player to output a 720p signal to feed the projector it's native signal (so it didn't have to modify it in any way) and it looked fabulous.

At least in the receiver world, the term 'upconvert' refers to a receiver being capable of converting video from a composite/S-video/component connected source to HDMI or component, so you can just connect one video cable from your receiver to your TV display.

OK, I understand it better now. My Samsung DLP does 720p. I understand the concept of "upconverting" regarding video from a component/composite/S-video connected source to HDMI, and I also realize that most of the receivers recommended in my "decision on the receiver" are capable to do the above. Examples are Marantz 8100 Denon 2807, Yamaha 1700, 2700 and even Onkyo 604. I also understand, courtesy of your replies, that I should not care too much about "upscaling" receivers - those that claim that can upscale a standard DVD from 480i to the current HDTV resolution, in my case 720p. Right? To illustrate my understanding I would take Pioneer Elite 82 vs. 81 Comparison Chart If you could please scroll down to "Video Scaling" you see that 82 has a "Faroudja DCDi - 480P, 720P, 1080i" feature, while 81 does NOT. However, they both do "Video Conversion - HDMI" as you can read right underneath "Video Scaling".

I am excited to learn the importance (or NOT) of video-Scaling, since I can save money purchasing the non-video-scaling receiver, which is generally cheaper. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, you've got it, but it couldn't be said with certainty without trying that the scaling on the 82 wouldn't look slightly better. The conversion to HDMI of analog inputs to allow using just a HDMI output is of course a separate matter.

Great I am glad I got it.

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The conversion to HDMI of analog inputs to allow using just a HDMI output is of course a separate matter.

...I got this one too - "upconverting". Both these units do it. Thanks John!

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OK, I understand it better now. My Samsung DLP does 720p. I understand the concept of "upconverting" regarding video from a component/composite/S-video connected source to HDMI, and I also realize that most of the receivers recommended in my "decision on the receiver" are capable to do the above. Examples are Marantz 8100 Denon 2807, Yamaha 1700, 2700 and even Onkyo 604. I also understand, courtesy of your replies, that I should not care too much about "upscaling" receivers - those that claim that can upscale a standard DVD from 480i to the current HDTV resolution, in my case 720p. Right? To illustrate my understanding I would take Pioneer Elite 82 vs. 81 Comparison Chart If you could please scroll down to "Video Scaling" you see that 82 has a "Faroudja DCDi - 480P, 720P, 1080i" feature, while 81 does NOT. However, they both do "Video Conversion - HDMI" as you can read right underneath "Video Scaling".

I am excited to learn the importance (or NOT) of video-Scaling, since I can save money purchasing the non-video-scaling receiver, which is generally cheaper. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Sounds like you are starting to get this stuff. Cool. Just one other thing to keep in mind. I'm thinking that your TV being 3 years old probably doen't have a lot of inputs. HDMI especially. Depending on how your set up is, you may benefit from having one unit...IE receiver...that can do all the work for you. There by being able to just run one cable to your TV. Also if your going to go that route, make sure what ever "upscaling" solution you get can support 1080p. You'll want it in the future when you upgrade your TV. You PS3 is capable of that output now however your TV downscales it to 720p.

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Sounds like you are starting to get this stuff. Cool. Just one other thing to keep in mind. I'm thinking that your TV being 3 years old probably doen't have a lot of inputs. HDMI especially. Depending on how your set up is, you may benefit from having one unit...IE receiver...that can do all the work for you. There by being able to just run one cable to your TV. Also if your going to go that route, make sure what ever "upscaling" solution you get can support 1080p. You'll want it in the future when you upgrade your TV. You PS3 is capable of that output now however your TV downscales it to 720p.

I am trying. I totally agree with you as above. Fortunately, my tv has 1 DVI input, which of course can be HDMI for video with a dvi/hdmi adaptor I purchased and currently using it with the PS3.