High Definition via Component??

I have an NEC LT-155 projector. The manual claims that it can display high definition pictures via the component input. Having had a quick Google and looked at the instruction manuals for some of the cheaper DVD players it suggests that none can output upscaled pictures via the component sockets.

Is this common for DVD players? If so, how do I go about getting a high definition picture out of my projector as it doesn't have an HDMI socket? Am I misunderstanding something here??

Thanx.....

[Joe Fernand]

Hello Sparky137

All that glitters is not gold.

You can NEVER get a High Definition picture out of a DVD player - the Discs are encoded in Standard Definition.

If your preferred Display device has more pixels than are encoded on the DVD disc your system has to somehow rescale the info on the DVD disc to fill the pixels on your Display device.

You can do the re-scaling in the DVD player, in an external Video Processor or in the Display.

Lots of DVD players that offer up-conversion via a Digital HDMI Output will usually also offer up-scaling via Analogue 3RCA 'Component' too - though as you've found out not always the case on the entry level products.

Assuming you are wanting to stick with a budget player you may be better finding the best non-scaling player and simply let the Projector do the scaling - after all you have paid for the scaling chip in the projector already.

Best regards

Joe

Thanks for the reply Joe. I wasn't aware that the projector was capable of upscaling itself. I had assumed from the wording of the manual that it was capable of displaying HD resolution only if fed an HD or upscaled pcture. I had thought that if it were set to, say, 1080, that it would display a small 525 image in the centre of the screen.

I have a Toshiba DVD on my bedroom TV (a High Def Hitachi LCD) which is connected via component. The scaler in the TV does a surprisingly good job of upscaling the image. I think before shelling out on a new DVD to use with the projector I'll try the Tosh via a component cable and see what options the projector gives me.

Thanks again.

[Joe Fernand]

Hello Sparky 137

It would be a brave move by a Projector Manufacturer to only do pixel mapping and never scale images to fill the whole pixel array - mind you I have read of a few folk who do view like that as they prefer the sharpness of a non scaled image.

Best regards

Joe