Best Upscaling DVD player for Panny TH42PX60

[hopwoods]

Hiya

I just brought a Panasonic TH42PX60 with the pedestal stand for £999 in vat from http://www.novatech.co.uk.

I currently have a Marantz DV4200 DVD player which I brought several years ago with my AV Amp, also Marantz. It only has a Scart connection and while I am impressed with the picture on my new panny, I'm looking to spend some money on a Upscaling DVD player, Panasonic if possible so I can try to use the Plasma's remote to control the DVD.
I have been looking at the Panasonic DVD-S52 as this seems to be quite good and around the price point I'm looking for. My TV has two HDMI sockets and I'll be going with a Sky HD subscrition in the near future, so I thought I'd use a Upscaler with HDMI too.

Is this a good choice for my Panny, or should I look at a Sony or other brand?

 

[matthewl]

The TH42PX60 has a 852x480 SD panel. I have a 42PE50 which I believe was the previous equivalent model.

Using HDMI instead of RGB Scart should improve the picture a little. My set doesn't have HDMI (component only): I find the difference between component and RGB Scart quite obvious when very close to the TV, but can barely see a difference from the sofa. I would add that my vision is not perfect so those with sharper eyes might see a greater difference from a seated position.

In theory, the DVD upscaling function should not be used as you have an SD panel. The default DVD HDMI output will probably be 576p for PAL R2 DVDs (I assume that the Panasonic DVD has a Faroudja 23xx chip). The TV would then down convert this to 480p. US R1 DVDs would be ideal as they are 480i and would require minimal processing.

If the DVD player was set to upscale, the picture would be scaled twice; scaled up to 720p/1080i in the player, then scaled down to 480P in your TV. In theory this would add additional artefacts and soften the image. However, I've read that some people with HD 1280x720 & 1368x768 displays experience a better image by overscaling to 1080. The same might be true of a 852x480 display. I think this requires a good quality DVD player or external scaler though and am doubtful that a panasonic DVD player is suitable for this. (There's only one way to be sure though; try it).

I suspect that the best performance would come from the use of an external scaler, taking 576i from the DVD player and de-interlacing & down converting to 480P for the TV. A second-hand DVDO IScan Ultra or HD might be ideal for this. As with all AV things though, you have to try it and see it to be sure.

Regarding Sky HD, I suspect that you would see an improved image over Sky SD and Freeview. The quality of SD television is comparatively poor (low bandwidth and visible compression artefacts). A downscaled HD signal should have greater bandwidth and fewer compression artefacts.

 

[hopwoods]

Why would the TV downscale an upscaled DVD from the player when it can display 720P?

 

[Woodywizz]

The TH42PX60 has a 852x480 SD panel. I have a 42PE50 which I believe was the previous equivalent model...

I thought that the TH42PX60 had a 1024*768 HD panel??

 

[Woodywizz]

With regard to an upscaling DVD player - Denons always seem to compliment Panny screens well. What about the Denon 1930??

 

[jackal]

The TH42PX60 has a 852x480 SD panel. I have a 42PE50 which I believe was the previous equivalent model.
.

As Woodywizz has pointed out this is quite wrong. The PX60 is a HD set. http://www.panasonic.co.uk/plasma-tv/th42px60cab/index.htm

 

[mohit_ranjan]

Why would the TV downscale an upscaled DVD from the player when it can display 720P?

I had a similar question and here's the response...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=437347

 

[hopwoods]

That Denon seems good, any others?

 

[Cheekster]

The Oppo 971H or newer 981HD (out 12/12/06) would also be worth considering.

Cheekster.

 

[matthewl]

I thought that the TH42PX60 had a 1024*768 HD panel??

Dowt, apologies for getting the resolution wrong. I checked the panasonic site and must have looked at the 42PD60 instead of the 42PX60.

Not sure if it's in the right price range, though the Denon 2930 might be a good choice. The following review rates it very well:

http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/2006/08/denon_dvd2930ci.html

I suppose it's only useful as long as the TVs internal scaler doesn't have an intermediary stage that downscales to SD resolution though.

 

[Cheekster]

I have my Denon 1930 set to output a 1080i resolution and then let my Panasonic TH50PX60 downscale the image to it's native resolution as I have been told it downscales better than it upscales.

Cheekster.

 

[BigAndy_1979]

Confused.com .

I also have PX60 and watching my DVD's on DVD-S52 (1080i). Are you saying that if even DVD output is set to 1080i it will not show you true 1080i picture and TV will downscale it??? I thought PX60 is meant to show 720p/1080i picture .

 

[diggler46]

It does but downscaled andy....

720 is 720 pixels across (1024 x768, 1280 x 768 and 1360 x 768 panels)
1080 is 1080 pixels accros (1920 x 1080 panel)

So yours does 720 natively, but when a 1080i piccy is sent its downscaled to 720 to fit your res of 1024 x 768

 

[BigAndy_1979]

It does but downscaled andy....

720 is 720 pixels across (1024 x768, 1280 x 768 and 1360 x 768 panels)
1080 is 1080 pixels accros (1920 x 1080 panel)

So yours does 720 natively, but when a 1080i piccy is sent its downscaled to 720 to fit your res of 1024 x 768

So it's mean it's better to set DVD player output to 720p rather than 1080i .

 

[nwgarratt]

So it's mean it's better to set DVD player output to 720p rather than 1080i .

Probably, yes. As, there is no upscaling then downscaling.

 

[Midge]

I use a Denon 1730 set at 720p with my TH42PX60 and the picture is great. Watched X-Men 3 last night, and at times the picture was stunning

 

[diggler46]

I got the sammy 40" n series this morning. Im really struggling to tell the dif between 576p and 720p, but then that is probably because at 576p the tvis doing the upscaling, where as 720p the dvd player is

 

[nwgarratt]

I got the sammy 40" n series this morning. Im really struggling to tell the dif between 576p and 720p, but then that is probably because at 576p the tvis doing the upscaling, where as 720p the dvd player is

Correct. If the TV is native 720p then it will show everything at 720p. You won't get it displaying 576p. Try the DVD player at 720p and see if it looks better. It sounds like it doesnn't matter which one does the uspcaling.

 

[diggler46]

Looks amazing anyhows.....