Upconverting DVDs

[SicEmBaylor]

I'm thinking of getting a new DVD player that upconverts to HD. I have a 29" HDTV (720p) and am currently just using my Xbox.

My question is, will getting a new DVD player with HDCMI cables that upconverts standard DVDs make a noticeable difference? I don't want to go through the trouble if I can't really tell a difference though.

[TopDaugIn2000]

I can. I'm not willing to fork out the dough for an HD DVD or Blu Ray yet, so I went with the upconverting+HDMI. I'm happy.

[SicEmBaylor]

I can. I'm not willing to fork out the dough for an HD DVD or Blu Ray yet, so I went with the upconverting+HDMI. I'm happy.

Yeah, those are my thoughts exactly. It looks like Blu Ray is going to win out, but I want to wait until the dust settles and the price of a player comes down 100.00 or so.

In the mean time, an upconverting DVD player looks to be a nice compromise.

[jeremy885]

Yeah, those are my thoughts exactly. It looks like Blu Ray is going to win out, but I want to wait until the dust settles and the price of a player comes down 100.00 or so.

In the mean time, an upconverting DVD player looks to be a nice compromise.

$100?? You'll be waiting for at least 3 years then.

[TopDaugIn2000]

yeah, and I"m not willing to pay 30-35 for a disk yet either

[soonerinabilene]

Its near hd, not true hd, but there is a pretty noticable difference between it and standard def.

[Frozen Sooner]

As with everything in electronics, you'll get what you pay for.

You get a POS $50 upconverting DVD player, you're getting an upconverted picture that's going to look like crap.

Oppo makes some really nice upconverting DVD players. Look for either the Reon or Realta chipset on an upconverting player-those are your best bets. They don't typically tell you on the box which chipset is used, so do some homework on the internet.

Or, you know, you could get a Toshiba HD-A30. Price on that is going to drop to $199 next week and I believe it has a Reon chip for upconversion of standard def-plus, it will play HD DVDs.

[soonerinabilene]

Also, if you have a 360, the hd player they make for that is relatively cheap compared to others, and from what Ive read is very good.

[SicEmBaylor]

Also, if you have a 360, the hd player they make for that is relatively cheap compared to others, and from what Ive read is very good.

Yeah, but HD-DVD is dead. I'm not wasting the money on a dead format.

[Frozen Sooner]

Also, if you have a 360, the hd player they make for that is relatively cheap compared to others, and from what Ive read is very good.

Actually, it's not. It's kind of cruddy. No Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD MA support. Only upconverts over VGA or HDMI, so if SicEm has an older 360 and a TV without a VGA in, he's screwed.

The PS3 does a better job upconverting than the 360 addon and has the advantage of being a really good BD player.

[bluedogok]

The Toshiba HD-DVD that I bought in December was cheaper ($200) than the Denon upconverting DVD player that I bought last January when the HD-DVD was still about $800 and the Blu-ray was still $1,000. It does a great job of upconverting, so the Denon is going to another room. I will only buy a few HD-DVD Combo format movies if I can't get them in Blu-ray, other than that most of the HD-DVD movies will be the free ones with the player. The only reason why I was keeping the Denon in here was for SACD and DVD-A.

[Frozen Sooner]

The Toshiba HD-DVD that I bought in December was cheaper ($200) than the Denon upconverting DVD player that I bought last January when the HD-DVD was still about $800 and the Blu-ray was still $1,000. It does a great job of upconverting, so the Denon is going to another room. I will only buy a few HD-DVD Combo format movies if I can't get them in Blu-ray, other than that most of the HD-DVD movies will be the free ones with the player. The only reason why I was keeping the Denon in here was for SACD and DVD-A.

Denon supposedly has a BD player coming out that will use the Realta chip for upconverting and includes SACD and DVD-A support over HDMI 1.3a.

I have no idea how much that sucker is going to cost, but I bet it's going to be a monster.

[Sooner_Bob]

As long as I'm subscribed to all of the HD channels on DirecTV (PPV included) I don't think I can justify buying an HD or BluRay player. It's not really worth it to me just yet.

[Taxman71]

I was in the same boat a while back. I didn't want to upgrade to BR or HD-DVD because I didn't know which format would win and I didn't want a bunch of DVDs I could only play on 1 DVD player.

So, I got the Oppo DV-980H and it is awesome. Great upconverting, plus it doubles as a universal player that plays virtually every kind of disc you throw at it (except HD-DVD and BR of course). A big plus if you are into multichannel music (Dark Side of the Moon in SACD = nice).

http://www.oppodigital.com/

Comes with a free HDMI cable, but you can also get on at monoprice.com for nearly nothing.

[soonerinabilene]

Doesnt samsung or lg have a player that plays both hd and blu-ray?

[frankensooner]

I have the Toshiba D-R400 - DVD recorder. It is an upconverting DVD Player/recoder. It is very highly rated on the recording end and works quite well. I think I paid a little over a hundred for it.


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2932404&CatId=1702

[Frozen Sooner]

Doesnt samsung or lg have a player that plays both hd and blu-ray?

Both do. Both are in the $1000-$1200 range.

[85Sooner]

Both do. Both are in the $1000-$1200 range.


LG's new 200 series is rated okay and plays both. you can find it for 750 and up. IMHO discs will be gone in five years anyhow. So I am not really worrying about the format.

[Frozen Sooner]

LG's new 200 series is rated okay and plays both. you can find it for 750 and up. IMHO discs will be gone in five years anyhow. So I am not really worrying about the format.

Replaced by what? Download just doesn't have the bandwidth and it's going to take a pretty major overhaul of existing infrastructure to get it to work, particularly with mass adoption. The "HD" downloads from Apple look about as good as an SD DVD.

Solid state could work as the next generation technology within the next few years, I guess. 50GB flash memory cards with movies preloaded would be nifty. Encryption on them would have to be seriously robust for the studios to consider it a viable option.

That's nice that LG's dual format player is down to $750. Hadn't seen that yet.

[85Sooner]

Replaced by what? Download just doesn't have the bandwidth and it's going to take a pretty major overhaul of existing infrastructure to get it to work, particularly with mass adoption. The "HD" downloads from Apple look about as good as an SD DVD.

Solid state could work as the next generation technology within the next few years, I guess. 50GB flash memory cards with movies preloaded would be nifty. Encryption on them would have to be seriously robust for the studios to consider it a viable option.

That's nice that LG's dual format player is down to $750. Hadn't seen that yet.


Note that the Hollywood writers took DVD royalties off the table. Several of my customers familiar in the biz have said within 5 years most everything will be streaming thus the concession. I don't have the background to determine what will be possible by then but with the speed technology moves it would not surpise me. Additionally, the studios are trying anything and everything with regard to protecting their material that it would not surprise me on that level as well. Many of our reps have agreed that their companies are expecting this to happen as well. OTT who knows.

[Frozen Sooner]

We'll see, I guess. It's entirely possible, I just think it's unlikely. ISPs are starting to push back on the whole downloadable movie thing as well-they're saying "Why should we build all this infrastructure so that some other company can make money streaming video and overtax our network?"

Anyhow, if streaming/downloading HD video becomes the new thing in 5 years, I'll have gotten 7 years out of BD/HD DVD-roughly what I got out of DVD. I'm good with that. :)

Hopefully, HD streaming/downloading will offer some sort of improvement of AQ and PQ rather than a regression like it's looking now.

[bluedogok]

A big plus if you are into multichannel music (Dark Side of the Moon in SACD = nice).
I have that one.....


Doesnt samsung or lg have a player that plays both hd and blu-ray?
The early LG model was not completely HD-DVD compatible, I think the newer LG model achieved certification.


Note that the Hollywood writers took DVD royalties off the table. Several of my customers familiar in the biz have said within 5 years most everything will be streaming thus the concession. I don't have the background to determine what will be possible by then but with the speed technology moves it would not surpise me. Additionally, the studios are trying anything and everything with regard to protecting their material that it would not surprise me on that level as well. Many of our reps have agreed that their companies are expecting this to happen as well. OTT who knows.

Streaming may be what the entertainment industry wants, but that doesn't mean the infrastructure will be in place to support it. For it to be working in five years you would already have to have the the FIOS v2.0 system in place everywhere. Phone or cable company copper wire won't be able to handle 100 people on a ring trying to stream/download HD video at the same time, which would be very feasible if everything were to go to that type of system. The weakest link is the one to the house and 95% are still on copper, you still have to have fiber to the hub before it distributes the last mile.

It is more feasible in places like Japan because they have been rebuilding the infrastructure already, we are lagging behind because of the sheer area of land area/infrastructure that would need to be upgraded and the existing telco/cable companies haven't seen a need (yet) to completely rebuild the system at their expense.

I just don't see it happening effectively as soon as the entertainment industry would like. For music or 320x240 video the existing system can handle, for full length HD movies it just isn't there yet.