The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

[UncleMo]

1. Hi, I bought a surround sound system that came with a DVD player, and on the outside of the box it toutes upconverting to my surprise. I placed a DVD movie named ELF in, placed the HDMI cable to the back of it, and ran the HDMI cable to the TV. I hit play and was waiting to see a higher def version of ELF to no avail. Is there something I could have done differently? Here is a link directly to the system:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/Descr...component_id=2, and if that doesn't pop up it is named: "RCA 250W DVD Home Theater System with 1080p Upconvert DVD Player, RTD317W".

2. This upconverting makes me now wonder if the PS3 can do this, and if so, how? I already played ELF in the PS3 and it was doing two things; it was playing in low regular def., not 1080p, and; after a few minutes the PS3 had a fan come on making me think that sucker was going to overheat, even though it never overheats with video games.

Can anyone share with me your knowledge and thoughts on these items? I would appreciate it. Right now I think that my coarse of action is to only buy BLU RAY and return this RCA thing, and just watch BR on my PS3, and hope it doesn't overheat and explode into Smithereens (while listening to Vaselines).

[Burns11]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

No matter what resolution your TV said was coming in, it was displaying in 1080p if that's what your TV is. LCD and Plasma TVs are fixed pixel, meaning that the image you see is always 1080p, the TV always scales the image to 1080p. A lot of times, in fact most times with modern TVs of the past couple of years, the TV will often do a better job of upscaling a DVD than an upconverting DVD player.

What makes you think the RCA and PS3 weren't showing the movie in 1080p though? Was it saying the video was something else, if so what? It could be that your TV isn't sending the proper information and you may have to set the resolution manually. See HDMI has a data channel that your TV can tell the device what resolutions it supports so the PS3/DVD player sets resolution automatically to the maximum supported. If the TV is sending faulty data or none at all the PS3/DVD player will likely default to a standard def resolution. What resolution is the PS3 desktop showing as?

[PVarck31]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

I have always wondered what the point of a blu-ray player was if these upconvert dvd players show regular dvds in 1080p????

[FlyingFinn]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

I have always wondered what the point of a blu-ray player was if these upconvert dvd players show regular dvds in 1080p????

Because the upconversion process is just a "guess" on the part of the player because the actual source material is not 1080p. As with any guess, there are errors. With blu-ray, the source is 1080p so the all the information needed to display in 1080p is on the disk and the player doesn't have to "guess" how to fill in the extra resolution.

[UncleMo]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

What makes you think the RCA and PS3 weren't showing the movie in 1080p though?

You can tell the lackluster picture quality. It looked like watching regular TV instead of HD programming.

Was it saying the video was something else, if so what?

No, you can just tell picture quality differences from regular to HD programming.

It could be that your TV isn't sending the proper information and you may have to set the resolution manually. See HDMI has a data channel that your TV can tell the device what resolutions it supports so the PS3/DVD player sets resolution automatically to the maximum supported. If the TV is sending faulty data or none at all the PS3/DVD player will likely default to a standard def resolution. What resolution is the PS3 desktop showing as?

Good info, however, I am guessing that the DVD player isn't sending it's information, if that is even a possibility, but I'm just being biased toward the TV as it has given me great quality on other programming from TV and the PS3 gaming. I can retest this out tonight though. I'll check to see how the the TV can send data to the DVD player. As for the resolution the PS3 deskopt was showing, if I know exactly what you are speaking of, it should be 1080p.

[mgoblue]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

The tv should show 760 or 1080p, whatever the PS3's connecting as....If you're playing games in HD, it should be set to upconvert just fine.

Are the movies showing in widescreen? I don't think you can do standard def in widescreen, you know?

Also, don't expect blu-ray clarity with regular dvd's (obviously)...if Upconverting was the be all end all then we wouldn't need a next gen blu-ray....

[garnettrules21]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

My mother in law had this same issue, turns out the upconvert dvd player has its own menu settings for output and for some reason was defaulted at 480p. I would try going into your dvd players menu and make sure the resolution/output settings are to 720p or 1080p or 1080i. May be something as simple as that.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

The tv should show 760 or 1080p, whatever the PS3's connecting as....If you're playing games in HD, it should be set to upconvert just fine.

Are the movies showing in widescreen? I don't think you can do standard def in widescreen, you know?

Also, don't expect blu-ray clarity with regular dvd's (obviously)...if Upconverting was the be all end all then we wouldn't need a next gen blu-ray....

You can do SD in wide screen.

I have an upconvert dvd player connected with HDMI, and it def looks better then just a dvd player with red, white, yellow connections.

[Seether4113]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

an "upconvert" dvd player will not give you a real HD picture. All dvd's are pressed as 480p. That is the resolution that is stored on the disc. What an upconvert player does is takes that information and "upconverts" it to HD (720/1080). It is still technically an SD picture, since there is only so much information there... really, it's kind of a marketing gimmick. You won't be able to notice much difference between a progressive scan dvd player (480p and component cables) and an upconvert player, as the tv already performs an "upscaling" process as was said earlier where it displays everything in it's native resolution (720p or 1080p)... again not true HD, just making the picture fit the screen.

Blu-Ray discs are pressed in 720/1080p, so they are a true HD picture.

and regarding the PS3: yes, it upconverts movies and plays Blu-Rays. If you want that nice, crisp, clean picture, stick to Blu-Rays.

[UncleMo]

Re: The Art and Science of the "Upconvert".

Very information packed dialogue guys. Thanks.