DVD Upscaling - 720p or 1080i

[Planet-Ed]

I recently purchased a 50" Sony Grand WEGA KDF-E50A10 and the Sony DVP-NS70H Upscaling DVD player. I have them hooked together thru HDMI.

When I set the DVD players upscaling to Auto it automatically upscales to 1080i. Since the TVs native resolution is 720p is it better to override the Auto and have the DVD player to upscale 720p? Or is there something to be gained by by letting the DVD player upscale to 1080i?

[Ratman]

Does your TV "accept" 720p input?
If so... give it a try and compare. See which you prefer.

[terryfoster]

I personally don't think there is any thing to be gained by having the signal upscaled at all. People say, "upscaling DVD players are better because they do their conversion in the digital realm" which I suppose does have some merits.

I would not recommend upscaling to 1080i before sending it to the HDTV because the HDTV will then downscale it back to 720p.

Of course, mileage may vary and try lots of different settings and see what looks best to you.

[Planet-Ed]

Yes the TV does accept the 720p input. Thats where I have it (DVD player) set right now as I was just guessing the progressive (P) was better for movies than interlaced (I). But I really haven't noticed any difference on any movies I've watched yet as I haven't really watched any action films with a lot of motion.

The reason I asked was I didn't know if the "extra" conversion makes a difference or not. IE the TVs resolution is 1280x720 pixels (720) so it just seemed odd to Auto to 1080i and then display on a 720 line screen. So the DVD player was upscaling to 1080 and the TV is downscaling to fit it on the 720 screen.

Or am I missing something in this process?

[Ratman]

Nope that's how it works.

Logically, one would think keeping everything "native" would provide the best quality. But, that's not "visually" always the case.

Also keep in mind... all DVD's are encoded at 480i anyway, so there's not much you can do to make the source material look much better, no matter the resolution (higher than 480p).

[gparris]

FYI, my Hitachi's sets native resolution is 1280 x 720p so that is what I set my Sony 995V changer to via HDMI and it works well.

Additionally, there is a noticable (better perceived detail) difference over my Pioneer 563-A player with component at 480p, maybe its just me.

[Ratman]

Let me clarify...
Depending on the TV and the quality of the upscaling DVD player, there are potentially some visible benefits. I would expect that there would not be a dramatic difference between 720p and 1080i. Nor... a dramatic improvement from 480p to higher resolutions. You can't expect 'miracles' based on the source material(s).

Again... all players, TV's and perceptions/tastes will differ. Try all combinations and use what looks best.

[Scott916]

I have a Toshiba SD5980 HDMI DVD player connected to my Hitachi plasma TV and I did notice a slight improvement in color quality through HDMI after I tuned out a bit of extra red it introduced. No real difference in resolution though, I think it really comes down to the quality of the video processing in your player and your set. I have seen really good results with upconversion players on Panasonic plasmas and Toshiba DLP's.