Confused about upscaling

[SandLake]

I have read too much about upscaling and have got myself totally lost and confused.

I have just bought my first HD TV (Samsung LE4M86BD) and am waiting for delivery, in the meantime I want to do whatever I need to ensure I get a decent picture on it

I am reading up on 'settings' and whilst they can be subjective that's fine but if necessary I want to buy an upscaling device, either a DVD player or HDD recorder.

I see that in upscalers you can get 'upto 1080i' or 'upto 1080p' - is there any benefit in 'upto 1080p' or is that just some marketing hype (which this whole area seems to be littered with)?

Would it be true to say that external upscalers do a better job of upscaling than an inbuilt upscaler? I have read that not all upscalers are equal, there are Rolls-Royce upscalers and Lada upscalers - how can I tell which has the best?

If I just use the TV's upscaler that is quite a simple setup but if I have an external upscaler, how do I either turn off upscaling in the TV or in the external device, do I just set the external device to SD output and leave the internal TV upscaler to do its job. If I want the external device to do the upscaling and set it to its best upscaling what do I set the TV to?

Sorry for rambling, but I feel as if I am wallowing in a sea of conflicting advice/rumour/conjecture - can someone please help to clear the air?

Thanks

[TommyVecetti]

Just do a search for 'upscaling' and you'll find a million threads where the subject has been debated.

[gblades]

If you have a TV compatible with 1080p then I would recommend that the upscaler is capable of upscaling to that. Otherwise the DVD will upscale to 1080i and then the TV will upscale it again to 1080p.

Some players have vary good upscalers. You need to decide if you want a DVD player with a good upscaler or if you want an AV amp. Modern AV amps have HDMI switching and will upscale aswell. No point getting a cheap DVD player with upscaling as its upscaler probably wont be any better than the TV.

If you want to use an external upscaler just set it to 1080p or whatever your TV is so the TV doesnt need to do any upscaling itself.

[Barfly]

Some info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upscaling