Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has hooked up a Blu Ray player to an older CRT television? I was thinking of getting a Blu Ray player and hooking it up to my Pioneer Pro-530hd CRT projection television. Do you think that there would be any improvement in picture quality over my Pioneer Elite DV-45a dvd player using standard dvd's? What about Blu Ray discs? The television has component inputs, no hdmi.

Thank You,
Tim

Tim, Welcome!

Your TV will display 1080i, so you could certainly see an improvement by viewing blu-ray (1080p content) rather than DVD (480p content). Since your TV will not display 1080p, you're not losing anything by using the component video cables.

One of the things I really like about the newer crop of blu-ray players is the ability to stream content from other providers (like Netflix). Likewise, blu-ray offers better audio than regular DVD.

So, yes, I think there is a good chance you'd find some value in a blu-ray player.

Have fun!

Hmmm, this is an interesting thread as I was going to buy a Blu ray player as a Christmas present for someone with a CRT and wondered if it would be worth it or not. I'm not sure of the age of their TV, but it's GOT to be at LEAST 15 yrs old. Would a BR player be a waste?

Adrian, for picture quality a BR player will be a waste as a 15 y.o. TV will likely only be able to display 480i. However if any of the other features that come with a modern BR player are of benefit then that is what I would base the purchase decision on. Just a thought, why not a good DVD player that has the features to save some $ from a BR equivalent?

I wouldn't think it to be a waste as it might urge them on to buuying a new HDTV to take advantage of the new player. Who knows they might even become interested in a new sound system to take advantage of the new HD soundtracks as well. This was how I got into DVD's, my Brother-in-law bought us a DVD(we didn't have a player) and the rest is history.

Jay, that's kind of what I was thinking...maybe they'll(finally) get motivated and buy an HD. If they don't though....

...hope this is relative to Tim's original post, not meaning to hijack(not this time anyway).

Then they have a new slightly more expensive DVD player

All things are relative, but your post is a thread-jack... and on page one too. Bad form, old chap.

Yep, it's pretty rude, Adrian.

I used to have a JVC something or other 1080i tube tv. It looked pretty darn good. Was there loss of detail? I think so. But it still looked beautiful. Tubes have been replaced but they did some things great.

Also: Even if picture quality did not improve...
Blu Ray sound is great and the ability to see the menu while the movie is playing would make it worth it.

Since you have an RPCRT/1080i with only component video inputs there is a couple of pieces of equipment out there available that you can purchase and they do work very well. They are essentially digital to analog converters that will allow you to use the full video processing capabilities of your player via the HDMI output including upscaling of standard DVDs which is a feature not available through component video. Also, the advanced video processing of BR players like the ABT processing in the Oppo player and in many other players is also only available through the HDMI connection. In this respect, I would disagree with the idea that the component out of BR even with a 1080i set is just as good as HDMI and the use of either one of these converters will verify that.

For further information, I would suggest you look at the following websites: "Moomecard.com" and "HDFury.com".
I personally, have the "Moome" converter which allows me to use the HDMI connection out of my Oppo BR player with all its benefits and it converts it in to component and 1080i in my set.

I must admit just recently there has been an issue with the questionable legality of resellers in NA(i.e. CurtPalme.com and Monoprice) selling these pieces because of the issue of HDCP but since these are manufactured in Taiwan, where they were ordered and shipped from any way, one can order direct through either website and it won't be an issue.

The problem is and it is still a little ridiculously touchy for some, however, realistically because these pieces are primarily designed for "legacy" equipment(FP and RP CRTs) this is now a very tiny market and shrinking by the day. It just allows those that still have perfectly working sets to extend their life and get the use out of source equipment that has only HDMI connections.

OK, I was being too practical and not catching on to the real motive!

I missed that point. My tube tv did have hdmi. The component inputs did weird things. If I did not have the HDMI maybe I would not have liked it and would have had to (see casey's post above)