Question Sony ubp-x800 UHD player to a HD display

[LV426]

Suppose I want to begin a slow upgrade process with a UHD player such as the Sony ubp-x800. My two existing displays are both regular HD (1920x1080) displays - they pre-date UHD - and won't be upgraded possibly for some time.

What results might I expect if I try to use such a player with an HDMI connection to such a display
a) with a "normal" HD Blu Ray disc
b) with anything lower resolution (eg DVD-Video)
c) with a UHD disc ? (Yes, I do acknowledge that I cannot expect to see UHD resolution without a UHD display).

 

[babator]

I have a full HD TV currently, but I picked up a "bargain" Samsung K8500 basically just because the streaming services and discs load quickly with the fast-ish CPU, because the device itself is a little more rugged than the 100€ Blu-ray players, and if I eventually get a 4k TV I will still get use from it.

Based on this, my answers would be
a) and b) should work without issue, I would expect it to be just like a standard Blu-ray player with decent scaling. Edit: thinking back a little more, I think the DVD loading speed or quiet DVD operation (in startup or chapter navigation) is not something Samsung have optimised for (understandably) but this does not really apply to Sony
c) The quality of the result will depend on how good the HDR to SDR colour space and PQ curve conversion is, the resolution downscaling itself should not be a problem. On the K8500, I have only really tried this with the bonus Deadpool UHD disc that came with the player, and there the conversion seemed to produce a bit too "dynamic contrast"-style picture for my taste. May be due to the movie itself, too.

 

[LV426]

Bought one, tried it
(i) via my 1080p Toshiba TV
(ii) via my 1080p JVC projector.

I put all the output settings (HDR, resolution, etc) to auto and found that all three scenarios work just fine. I presume the player is handshaking with the relevant display and correctly working out what to do. I can't honestly tell whether there is much (if any) difference between HD Inferno and UHD Inferno (the only UHD disc I have to play with), and I didn't really expect any.

So, it's all good.