Upconvert.. What is it?

[miker 5,000+ posts]

So, I know that the idea behind upconverting is to make standard DVD's look better, right? They say that they convert the movie to ,say, 1080p, but really it's not actually making a 480i movie 1080p. Is it? Or else HD DVD's would be pointless.

So I would like to know what it is actually doing. Also I have found that some movies look AMAZING in upconvert, some not so good. Any reasons for this?

Thanks.

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[desertheat 10+ year member]

Could not tell you... But I sure can tell on my 65" between a standard player and my oppo which upconverts. Even my old toshiba that had an upcoverter processor looks better. I thought I was full of crap and just making it up in my head so I had my wife play the disks to see if I could tell the difference, And sure as heck 9 out of 10 tries I picked the upconverted picture "had everything running through an hdmi switch at the time and the reg dvd player was direct to the tv.

Another factor could simply be that the regular dvd player I used to compare just sucked really bad.

 

[ballstothewall 10+ year member]

Breaks it down, runs it through algorithms and then re-encodes it.

 

[iagrdshaka 5,000+ posts]

So, I know that the idea behind upconverting is to make standard DVD's look better, right? They say that they convert the movie to ,say, 1080p, but really it's not actually making a 480i movie 1080p. Is it? Or else HD DVD's would be pointless.
So I would like to know what it is actually doing. Also I have found that some movies look AMAZING in upconvert, some not so good. Any reasons for this?

Thanks.

You're only getting the best image possible out of the DVD. They aren't up to par or comparable to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, but still a good investment if you only have regular DVDs.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

You're only getting the best image possible out of the DVD. They aren't up to par or comparable to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, but still a good investment if you only have regular DVDs.

Especially with the price of them now...

nG

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

You're only getting the best image possible out of the DVD. They aren't up to par or comparable to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, but still a good investment if you only have regular DVDs.

I keep staring at your avatar *LOL* Must mean deep down inside I want to tape my wifes mouth shut *LOL*

On another note, unless the movie was recorded in very recent years, kind of pointless to buy it on blue ray. I tried two older movies and was not impressed at all.

 

[Se7en 10+ year member]

I found this online and is a pretty reasonable explanation.

One of the major reasons to consider the purchase of a multimedia player is its ability to upscale a standard DVD signal to match the higher resolution capability of your plasma or LCD television set. Connecting a traditional DVD player without such upscaling options will simply leave you disappointed with the video displayed on your large screen set.

In it simplest sense, video upscaling is the process of converting one picture size to another. However, that conversion does not take place without the proper technological adjustments.

To fully grasp the concept, let’s get a little technical. But let’s also keep the idea relatively simple. First, a standard DVD player has a normal video output resolution of 720 by 480. These two numbers refer to the number of pixels, or colored dots, appearing on the screen.

Horizontally, 720 pixels will appear across the screen while vertically 480 pixels will appear down the screen. These two factors essentially produce an array that produces 480 horizontal lines of pixels on the television screen.

Second, that standard DVD player will come with one of two display options. One format is to display alternate lines, first displaying all of the even numbered horizontal lines, followed by a display of all the odd number lines, in an alternate fashion. A second method is to provide pixels in horizontal lines that are displayed progressively, or one line followed by another buy another in a consecutive pattern.

In either case, the pixel movement is so fast that the ***** eye blends these rows into the image we digest on the screen.

Now, those 480 lines will appear very different depending on the capability of your television set, particularly if the set is a plasma or an LCD television. Viewing those 480 lines on a 19' screen will not call attention to the divisions between rows but as you move upwards to larger and larger screens, unless you have some sort of process to fill in the gaps being created, you are taking a set number of lines/pixels and attempting to use them to fill a space that is much larger. Without filling those gaps, the same picture creates an image that is of far lower quality on the large screen set.

Here’s where the concept of the multimedia player comes to the forefront For example, with the new MviX MV-4000U multimedia player you have the ability to upscale the view to match the higher quality capability of a plasma or LCD set. The 4000U model has two such upscale options, a 1920 by 1080i array and a 1280 by 720p, each available to match the capability options of your large screen television.

The 1920 by 1080i delineation is just as you would expect, 1920 pixels horizontally and 1080 pixels vertically. Therefore this device will produce more than double the number of horizontal rows produced by a standard DVD Player.

The 1280 by 720p provides only 720 horizontal lines but is still a key aspect of the upscaling concept. The small letter i in the 1920 by 1080i refers to the alternating horizontal line format while the small letter p in the 1280 by 720p refers to the progressive line display. Because the progressive display option gives a smoother picture, to the average viewer there is no discernible difference between the 720p line format and the 1080i.

Once again, in it simplest sense, video upscaling is the process of converting one picture size to another. And, without the proper technology, the image that gets created to fill a larger resolution display will produce a lower quality picture than the same picture on a smaller screen.

This video upscaling concept works best on fixed pixel displays, the basic technology in use in LCD or Plasma sets. Of course, the upgrade should match the native pixel display of your television set in order to maximize the set’s capabilities.

Using such a device on the standard CRT or Projection sets may not produce the same results. In addition, if your television has a native display resolution other than 720p or 1080i, the TV's video processor will rescale the incoming signal to its own specification.

So double check that resolution. Then get a multimedia player with video-upscaling at 720p or 1080i to produce video output that more closely matches the capabilities of today's HDTVs. The upscaling process will produce greater picture consistency as well as enhanced detail, getting you as close to high definition as is electronically possible.

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

I have a 10 year old Sony RPTV 53", no HDMI, only analog inputs, 1080i capable.

A few years ago I found a certain Samsung universal DVD player that will send the upconverted

signal out the analog outputs by using a special 'hack', a code you enter in the remote to unlock the unit.

This player cost $126 a few years ago, lol. The picture quality on a good movie like Star Wars, etc, was much

better, and this is coming from an analog feed. I haven't found a movie that looks worse than my old player,

non converting player.

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

I found this online and is a pretty reasonable explanation.
One of the major reasons to consider the purchase of a multimedia player is its ability to upscale a standard DVD signal to match the higher resolution capability of your plasma or LCD television set. Connecting a traditional DVD player without such upscaling options will simply leave you disappointed with the video displayed on your large screen set.

In it simplest sense, video upscaling is the process of converting one picture size to another. However, that conversion does not take place without the proper technological adjustments.

To fully grasp the concept, let’s get a little technical. But let’s also keep the idea relatively simple. First, a standard DVD player has a normal video output resolution of 720 by 480. These two numbers refer to the number of pixels, or colored dots, appearing on the screen.

Horizontally, 720 pixels will appear across the screen while vertically 480 pixels will appear down the screen. These two factors essentially produce an array that produces 480 horizontal lines of pixels on the television screen.

Second, that standard DVD player will come with one of two display options. One format is to display alternate lines, first displaying all of the even numbered horizontal lines, followed by a display of all the odd number lines, in an alternate fashion. A second method is to provide pixels in horizontal lines that are displayed progressively, or one line followed by another buy another in a consecutive pattern.

In either case, the pixel movement is so fast that the ***** eye blends these rows into the image we digest on the screen.

Now, those 480 lines will appear very different depending on the capability of your television set, particularly if the set is a plasma or an LCD television. Viewing those 480 lines on a 19' screen will not call attention to the divisions between rows but as you move upwards to larger and larger screens, unless you have some sort of process to fill in the gaps being created, you are taking a set number of lines/pixels and attempting to use them to fill a space that is much larger. Without filling those gaps, the same picture creates an image that is of far lower quality on the large screen set.

Here’s where the concept of the multimedia player comes to the forefront For example, with the new MviX MV-4000U multimedia player you have the ability to upscale the view to match the higher quality capability of a plasma or LCD set. The 4000U model has two such upscale options, a 1920 by 1080i array and a 1280 by 720p, each available to match the capability options of your large screen television.

The 1920 by 1080i delineation is just as you would expect, 1920 pixels horizontally and 1080 pixels vertically. Therefore this device will produce more than double the number of horizontal rows produced by a standard DVD Player.

The 1280 by 720p provides only 720 horizontal lines but is still a key aspect of the upscaling concept. The small letter i in the 1920 by 1080i refers to the alternating horizontal line format while the small letter p in the 1280 by 720p refers to the progressive line display. Because the progressive display option gives a smoother picture, to the average viewer there is no discernible difference between the 720p line format and the 1080i.

Once again, in it simplest sense, video upscaling is the process of converting one picture size to another. And, without the proper technology, the image that gets created to fill a larger resolution display will produce a lower quality picture than the same picture on a smaller screen.

This video upscaling concept works best on fixed pixel displays, the basic technology in use in LCD or Plasma sets. Of course, the upgrade should match the native pixel display of your television set in order to maximize the set’s capabilities.

Using such a device on the standard CRT or Projection sets may not produce the same results. In addition, if your television has a native display resolution other than 720p or 1080i, the TV's video processor will rescale the incoming signal to its own specification.

So double check that resolution. Then get a multimedia player with video-upscaling at 720p or 1080i to produce video output that more closely matches the capabilities of today's HDTVs. The upscaling process will produce greater picture consistency as well as enhanced detail, getting you as close to high definition as is electronically possible.

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Hmmmm. Thats saying that up-convert makes it HD. Which I think is untrue, unless HD/ Blue-ray is some scam....

 

[BrianChia 10+ year member]

Think about it this way:

Any picture that is output on your HDTV has to eventully be converted to fill in the TV's native resolution. Supposes you have a 720p TV. Whether it is a 480i or 1080p video source, eventually the final image must be somehow scaled to fit into 720 lines. Otherwise a 480i image will be too small (letterboxed) and a 1080p image will be too big (cropped). Any HDTV can rescale the image to fit, but it does not always do a great job. A dedicated processor (such as the "Faroudja" chip) can usually do a better job than the TV can. It can help get rid of artifacts and "fill in the lines" that would be vsibile where the TV would just stretch the picture to make it fit. Since the upconverter is then set to match the native resolution of the TV, the image is no longer altered by the TV itself. It will appear to be of better quality if the upconverter is able to produce a sharper rescaled image than TV is able to do itself (often the case). It does not turn a 480p video into a 720p video, but goes through algorithms to properly fill in the missing lines to where the final output of 480p->720p will look the best.

It is somewhat analogous to using an external DAC for your CD transport and bypassing the receivers built in DAC. A dedicated DAC can often do a better job.

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Thank you.

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

IF you are looking for a player Woot has one up today...

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

IF you are looking for a player Woot has one up today...

INdeed. Linked to it in FlamJam...

Now HURRY UP... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

nG