gabby: They worth it?, I like the Phillips (DVP5965K ) one cos it has a HDMI output and connection but is it worth the measly $199?, to with my HD LCD TV
I'm looking at getting one! Not sure if it's worth $199 but thats in my price range! I have the PS3 and they are inline for a firmware update that will allow upscaling DVDs, so I might just wait for that!
I noticed an improvement when shifting to an HMDI output DVD player (Sony with HDD). Only issue i have is that, i guess becuase its now upscaling the signal digitally, the unit has to be on the whole time. For me, as I'm passing Sky thru it also, i now have to power up the DVD/HDD each time as it doesn't pass the video signal thru on stand-by mode. It does it fine with Component or S-Video. I know have to contect with the slight noise of the fan/hdd spinning when I'm watching a quite scene on tv. But as far as quality, it did shift up a gear, so i'm happy with it.
For many people, the upscaling does not do much unless the dvd is encoded at a lower bit rate than usual. The player will however send out a 720p or 1080i resolution signal but thats over a standard dvd def source, so there is not much improvment. They say they digitally insert detail into the picture (using some magical mathematical set of formulas) but the isnt much of a visible difference between component (without upscaling) and hdmi(with). To make it worse, some TV's still perform their own digital enhancements which can give a reverse effect (pixel plus rings a bell)
From what I have seen, you can pick up a philips $99 player on component that will give an equal picture to that of a upscaling HDMI player for $199.
I will admit that I can see one major advantage of the upscalers is that they would produce a very, very good image if you were using them as DivX players, or encoding at a higher than usual bitrate.
I can only see it benefiting divx if it goes straight from the low res divx file to 720 or 1080 without going thru an intermediate 50Hz or 60Hz interlaced stage. Without knowing how it works internally its hard to say what will happen, since divx files are typically non interlaced (have had a couple that were, and I think they were just poorly deinterlaced rather then storing it nativly interlaced) avoiding the in between 480i stage would be a benefit. I tend to watch divx on my xbox since its a pain burning to disc when I can just play it off the network ;)
Wonder if there is some test footage one could play thru the dvd player to see if there is an interlace/deinterlace cycle happening on divx content, or if when outputting to 60Hz progressive it is simply doing a 3:2 cadence on the 24 field divx input.
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