Upscaling S-DVD to 1080P - quality improvement?

cerebrex

[H]ard|Gawd
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Yes, it's been discussed. However lately there has been quite a bit of talk regarding the latest scalers, and how much better standard DVD's look when upscaled to 1080P. What is your opinion on the quality, is there an improvement? Or, is it all in peoples heads? I myself have never seen an upscaled DVD, so I'm going entirely from what I've heard. Is the improvement noticable?
 
I know using my HTPC playing dvd's on a regular dvd reader at 720p (tv only has 1080i and looks like crap) does look better than my old standalone player.
 
I haven't seen one on a standalone player being upscaled, but from my HTPC being passed through FFDshow (de-noise3d,lanzcos to 1080p, and Adaptive sharpening filters) there is a VERY noticable improvement. I don't think it's true HD quality by any stretch...but it's definately a lot better than standard DVD's 480p.
 
I haven't seen one on a standalone player being upscaled, but from my HTPC being passed through FFDshow (de-noise3d,lanzcos to 1080p, and Adaptive sharpening filters) there is a VERY noticable improvement. I don't think it's true HD quality by any stretch...but it's definately a lot better than standard DVD's 480p.

Yeah thats what I meant really, I don't expect HD from a standard resolution, but I wanted to know if it does make it noticably better appearing.
 
When I upgraded to the 46" Samsung LCD, I took my (somewhat expensive) progressive scan Denon DVD player out of service in favor of the upscaling HTPC (1080i). The difference was quite noticeable.
 
I have a TV upscaler too and when I upscale SD TV to 1024x768 there is some improvement but it still looks like crap compared to true HD content. You can't add pixels where there is none to begin with. it makes a difference but by a very minor amount, IMO.
 
I haven't seen one on a standalone player being upscaled, but from my HTPC being passed through FFDshow (de-noise3d,lanzcos to 1080p, and Adaptive sharpening filters) there is a VERY noticable improvement. I don't think it's true HD quality by any stretch...but it's definately a lot better than standard DVD's 480p.

Same here, I can tell a big difference this way.
 
ditto. after comparing the two, dumped my progressive dvd player and strictly use my htpc. the upscaling made a definite improvement. like others said it still doesn't hold a candle to hddvd/blu-ray. even upscaled dvd's after watching a hi-def movie is like watching standard def tv vs hd tv. somewhat painful to watch the old stuff.
 
I was really pleased with my HTPC in 1080 mode. Going to get rid of my dedicated DVD player.

Although still not as good as true HD-DVD/Blu Ray.
 
When I upgraded to the 46" Samsung LCD, I took my (somewhat expensive) progressive scan Denon DVD player out of service in favor of the upscaling HTPC (1080i). The difference was quite noticeable.

Have you run it through the 360 HD-DVD drive for the 1080p upconvert?
 
upscaling is just something you have to do if source resolution != screen resolution. It does not improve quality unless your display has a terrible scaler (not many do). Quality improvements mostly come from deinterlacing.
 
Yea, these people who claim they see a big difference are the same people who claim they can hear difference between an mp3 @256kb/s to an mp3 @320kb/s. Take both claims with a large grain of salt.
 
Yeah thats what I meant really, I don't expect HD from a standard resolution, but I wanted to know if it does make it noticably better appearing.

Short answer: yes, if the upscaling player is a good one.
 
upscaling is just something you have to do if source resolution != screen resolution. It does not improve quality unless your display has a terrible scaler (not many do). Quality improvements mostly come from deinterlacing.

No offense, but it's obvious you have little to no experience in the area. Virtually every HDTV and projector manufactured benefits greatly from having a standalone upscaling DVD player as opposed to a traditional progressive-scan DVD player.
 
No offense, but it's obvious you have little to no experience in the area. Virtually every HDTV and projector manufactured benefits greatly from having a standalone upscaling DVD player as opposed to a traditional progressive-scan DVD player.

lol

wrong on all accounts

try again
 
alot of placebo IMO...


as well as alot of people upgrading walmart crap, to a decent dvd player...




I think some of the image sharpening filters that are ran during the process are what gives the impression of a better picture... in all reality, it's not much better... you can't magically "add" quality to something... it just doesn't work. If you have a very nice setup, upconversion isn't so hot... I know it's awesome on my mothers old crt RPTV, but that television upconverts everything to 1080i(and does an awful job of it)... feed it strait 1080i and you bypass the shitty upconversion.
 
upscaling is just something you have to do if source resolution != screen resolution. It does not improve quality unless your display has a terrible scaler (not many do). Quality improvements mostly come from deinterlacing.

And source resolution will "never" be the screen resolution if you have a modern 1080 TV and are playing standard DVD's. All standard DVD's will need to be adjusted/upscaled.

(In fact, I suspect some people on this forum are having their DVD output upscaled, sometimes by the TV itself and other times by the DVD, but not realizing that the picture is being upscaled)

And poor upscalers will do a bad job of it. In fact here's a good example (with pictures included): http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/xbox-360s-dvd-playback-stunningly-bad-233490.php
 
Yea, these people who claim they see a big difference are the same people who claim they can hear difference between an mp3 @256kb/s to an mp3 @320kb/s. Take both claims with a large grain of salt.

Is there any substance to what you claim or are you just randomly guessing?

Take a top quality 1080 plasma display and try playing a low definition video (i.e. standard DVD). Then compare it to the results of upscaling (on a top plasma display again) using a high end chip like the Silicon Optix Realta, and see what happens. Google around and read the reviews.

Admitedly, if you have a low quality TV to begin with you'll see no difference. (It will look poor in both cases)
 
alot of placebo IMO...


as well as alot of people upgrading walmart crap, to a decent dvd player...




I think some of the image sharpening filters that are ran during the process are what gives the impression of a better picture... in all reality, it's not much better... you can't magically "add" quality to something... it just doesn't work. If you have a very nice setup, upconversion isn't so hot... I know it's awesome on my mothers old crt RPTV, but that television upconverts everything to 1080i(and does an awful job of it)... feed it strait 1080i and you bypass the shitty upconversion.
What matters is the upscaling processor.

Not many TVs have, say, a Faroujda or Realta upscaler.
 
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