Upconverting dvd players

fire boy · 13-12-2005, 2:05 AM

Just a quick question.

Can a dvd player unconvert to 720p or 1080i via component or do you have to use dvi/hdmi.

Only asking because i want to order the samsung 23" lcd which has a high res but no dvi/hdmi input.

Cheers Brian

evans · 13-12-2005, 8:12 AM

fire boy hi,

Yes dvd players can upscale via component but in most countries not sold that way as apparently they deem component leads easy to copy the dvds from. Hdmi has copy protection in place.

Some asian countries sell chineese ones from HOng kong look at www.hivizone.com and also the neuneo player, do a google search. Hivizone is realiable but it is from asia so customs tax has to be paid. the cheapest they have is the skyworth at only 150 us dollars but no dts.

PJTX100 · 13-12-2005, 8:29 AM

Your screen will scale the pic up to HD, you don't need to get a DVD player that does it...PJ

Joe Fernand · 13-12-2005, 8:44 AM

Hello Fire Boy

The V-One SnaZio SZ1350 will up-convert 480i and 576i DVD Video to 720P and 1080i on both Digital (RGB via DVI) or Analogue (YUV 'Component' on 3RCA).

As you say lots of the main stream devices that up-convert only offer this feature on HDMI or DVI (with HDCP).

Best regards

Joe

PS And of course what the SnaZio can do that's very tricky is connect via your LAN to your PC and Output High Definition video on DVI or Component!

evans · 13-12-2005, 8:53 AM

PJTX100 is right my tv upscales the picture to over 1000 line interlaced and the picture is fantastic on some dvds. Since you only have a small screen you can try out just a normal dvd pro scan player and see if you get a good picture. An upscaling dvd player will upscale the picture to 720p or 1080i, but if this is not your lcd native resolution then the lcd will rescale the picture and picture quality will be lost I think.

evans · 13-12-2005, 8:54 AM

something i forgot to add is that for small screens anyway the a dvd player with the faroudja chip is recommended.

Nic Rhodes · 13-12-2005, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evans

something i forgot to add is that for small screens anyway the a dvd player with the faroudja chip is recommended.

Not sure I agree.

The Faroudja is certainly a decent chip (but not without faults), it is best with video material. The SIL504 is a competing chip that has a reputation for film based material. There are many other 'not bad' chips as well often integrated with MPEG decoding now. None of these are aimed at small or large screens per se. INHO.

Thrombin · 13-12-2005, 1:01 PM

One of the reasons I got my HD Ready LCD screen recently is because Sky is going HD in February. I'm pretty sure that this won't work through component because it will be utilizing the HDCP copy protection protocol. The BBC are planning to go HD soon too and I would be surprised if they didn't also require HDCP.

I know that the Xbox 360 outputs HD through component (it doesn't have an HDMI or DVI output) but, in my inexpert opinion, I think it would be a mistake to get an HD screen that wasn't HDCP compliant because it will limit the services that you can take advantage of in the future.

Regards

Julian

evans · 13-12-2005, 1:06 PM

nic hi,

Im sure there are others equally as good all i can recommend is through my own experiences. I find it does a terrific job on my 32 inch crt. For larger screens I dont know there is apparently a fault with micro blocking according to some people on this forum.

Nic Rhodes · 13-12-2005, 1:23 PM

Evans

knew where you coming from and it is a good solution for big and small, just added a little bit extra general info for others to help them. Hence the tongue in cheek

evans · 13-12-2005, 1:28 PM

nic

have you heard of the MediaTek MT1389FE chip? Is it any good or as good as the faroudja chip.

Nic Rhodes · 13-12-2005, 2:05 PM

The Faroudja is a deinterlacer chip with the latest 23xx with a built in scaler from memory (need to check the exact number 2310?). The MediaTek MT1389FE is different and is a chip that mostly driven by the MPEG decoding. This is an upto date chip so does MPEG 4 as well as well as other talents. It competes with ESS Vibtrato, Vibratto II ES6698F, Sigma Designs EM8500, Zoran Vaddis 7 and others. Some of these have okay deinterlacing as well but for me are behind what the Faroudja and SIL chips can do for SD. They do however often have some HD 'capbilities' that the Faroudja and SIL don't currently have but watch this space.

As an MPEG chip it is pretty decent with excellent Chroma performance. Are you talking Oppo here?