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UPSCALING DVD Players? 720p/1080i?

PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
edited January 2008 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
Okay that other thread is about cheap DVD players. I'm willing to spend a little money on an upscaling setup, but I don't know what's good and what isn't.

I've got a 32" Samsung LCD that supports up to 720p or 1080i. I've got 2 spare HDMI ports in back on it, and while I'm not very interested in either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD just yet, if I could get a really nice upscaling DVD player for less than a full on HD format player, I'd be really interested in doing so. I have a relatively large DVD collection and I'm not going to start replacing them any time soon.

Help me out people. I'm willing to order online. I have very little brand affiliation although I don't trust Sony products by and large. I'm also in Canada.

IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Pheezer on

Posts

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Your 32" Samsung LCD is likely 720p native, so don't worry about upscaling to a higher resolution than that.

    I too have a 32" LCD HDTV, 720p native. There is an upscaling Phillips DVD player at Wal-Mart for about $40 or so that does the job just fine.

    If you really feel you need to drop some benjamins, search around http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers. OPPO is an excellent brand to look into for upscaling prowess.

    AbsoluteZero on
    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • phamtqphamtq Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    Edit:

    DV980H

    Features:

    SACD, Divx/Xvid, USB 2.0 for external USB drives, etc..

    phamtq on
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    phamtq wrote: »
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    How exactly is $169 a good price?

    maximumzero on
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  • phamtqphamtq Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    How exactly is $169 a good price?

    Because if you find a upscaling DVD player that scores as high on the HQV Benchmark DVD, you're going to pay a lot more.

    phamtq on
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    phamtq wrote: »
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    How exactly is $169 a good price?

    Because if you find a upscaling DVD player that scores as high on the HQV Benchmark DVD, you're going to pay a lot more.

    Edit: Nevermind. No point in arguing with Home Theatre junkies with their 18.1 surround sound and $2000 recievers.

    maximumzero on
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  • tofutofu Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    How exactly is $169 a good price?

    Because if you find a upscaling DVD player that scores as high on the HQV Benchmark DVD, you're going to pay a lot more.

    How about for those of us that can't tell the difference?

    Uh, then you can spend less of course.

    tofu on
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    tofu wrote: »
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    How exactly is $169 a good price?

    Because if you find a upscaling DVD player that scores as high on the HQV Benchmark DVD, you're going to pay a lot more.

    How about for those of us that can't tell the difference?

    Uh, then you can spend less of course.

    Then what would be a good upscaling player in the say....$50-$100 range?

    maximumzero on
    FU7kFbw.png
    Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
  • phamtqphamtq Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    maximumzero wrote: »
    phamtq wrote: »
    Oppo DVD Players

    It's been rated one of the best and has a VERY good price.

    How exactly is $169 a good price?

    Because if you find a upscaling DVD player that scores as high on the HQV Benchmark DVD, you're going to pay a lot more.

    Edit: Nevermind. No point in arguing with Home Theatre junkies with their 18.1 surround sound and $2000 recievers.

    You don't need to be a junkie to tell the difference. I'm not and I can tell the difference between these two pictures:

    %2FcontentEngine%2FcontentImages%2Fimg%5Fcompare%5Fnoise%2Ejpg

    %2FcontentEngine%2FcontentImages%2Fimg%5Fcompare%5Fcadenc%2Ejpg

    phamtq on
  • Down, Set, GoDown, Set, Go Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    For $149.97 you can buy a Toshiba A3 on Amazon right now. Yes, it's HD-DVD but it's a fantastic upconverter as well. Like phamtq said, you don't have to be a home theater junkie to notice the difference, but I don't see a point in getting a cheap upconverter. If you "cant' tell the difference", what good would it do anyway? If you want an upconverter, get a good one or it's just pointless.

    Down, Set, Go on
  • PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2008
    Yeah, everyone ignore maximumzero. It's not his thread, the subject isn't for him and I don't care what he thinks. This is a thread for people who can tell and do care and anyone who wants to come in here and shit on that can just fuck off.

    Pheezer on
    IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
    CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
  • Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Yes, at this point you shouldn't pay more than $150 for an upscale player. While checking it's HQV Benchmark as well. There is no use in spending money on a player that is crap.

    If anyone is willing to take the plunge the 40gig PS3 can be had from www.sonystyle.com for $299. It's a top notch upscaling DVD player and the best Blu-ray player since it updates it's self. The PS3 did very well HQV Benchmarks for both DVD & Blu-ray.

    And maximumzero, that's pretty damn rude. If you don't want answers then don't ask let alone be a prick afterwards.

    Dark Shroud on
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  • PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2008
    Is there a site that compiles and ranks HQV benchmarks for different players or what? How do I know where different players stand?

    Pheezer on
    IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
    CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
  • Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    You can go about this two ways. The easier it to search the online sites for players in your price range and then do a web search on the player with HQV test. Here is a site that reports on a few things: http://www.extremetech.com/ They reported on the 360 being a poor quality DVD & HD-DVD player.

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  • corcorigancorcorigan Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    There is no way the bottom of those two images is accurate. Unless some sort of voodoo magic is involved.

    corcorigan on
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  • PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2008
    No, the only difference in the bottom two is really in the way it scales the text on the newspaper, and that's actually pretty much what you get when you compare a really shitty, fast re-size (like MS Paint) to a good resize (bicubic sharp in Photoshop). Keep in mind that you're taking a clear source image at 480i and scaling to 720p, you're really not talking about a huge scaling. A notably bad re-size could produce a result that much worse than a notably good one.

    It seems very CSI (read: unrealistic) if you think of it as taking the bad image and turning it into the good one, of course that's completely impossible. But a bad enough scaling method will do that poor of a job when a good re-size accomplishes a clean one.

    Pheezer on
    IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
    CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I'm not trying to be a dick, I just find it hard to believe that this player can be worth $169 over your average 720p/1080i upscaling Sony or Samsung player that ranges from $70-100.

    maximumzero on
    FU7kFbw.png
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  • PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2008
    maximumzero wrote: »
    I'm not trying to be a dick, I just find it hard to believe that this player can be worth $169 over your average 720p/1080i upscaling Sony or Samsung player that ranges from $70-100.

    I'm not trying to be a dick but nobody cares.

    Pheezer on
    IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
    CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Not sure if anyone pointed out this yet:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_hi_te/hd_dvd_price_cut

    Toshiba lowered the price of their HD-DVD players by 1/2. So if you want a really good upscaling DVD player, get the A3 which is $149.99, and you can watch some really good HD-DVDs on it as well.

    urahonky on
  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    All LCDs are natively progressive, so you'll want to use 720p over 1080i.

    For high-end upscaling DVD, Oppo as has been mentioned.

    For cheaper options I recommend Philips, specifically the DVP-5982 or DVP-5960.
    - The 5982 upscales to 720p/1080i/1080p and stutters less on playing DivX/XviD, and goes for about $60 US.
    - The 5960 upscales to 720p/1080i and has a bit more trouble with DivX, though nothing too jarring. Also, unlike the 5982, its USB port can handle external HDDs by itself - the 5982 will likely require the HDD to have its own power source. It goes for about $50 US.

    BubbaT on
  • Down, Set, GoDown, Set, Go Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Not sure if anyone pointed out this yet:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_hi_te/hd_dvd_price_cut

    Toshiba lowered the price of their HD-DVD players by 1/2. So if you want a really good upscaling DVD player, get the A3 which is $149.99, and you can watch some really good HD-DVDs on it as well.

    I'm not trying to be a dick either, but this thread is 1 page and I did mention it pretty much.

    Down, Set, Go on
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Not sure if anyone pointed out this yet:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_hi_te/hd_dvd_price_cut

    Toshiba lowered the price of their HD-DVD players by 1/2. So if you want a really good upscaling DVD player, get the A3 which is $149.99, and you can watch some really good HD-DVDs on it as well.

    Really...

    Hmm. I really would like to see Corpse Bride in HD.

    You may be sold, my good friend.

    maximumzero on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Down, Set, Go wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    Not sure if anyone pointed out this yet:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_hi_te/hd_dvd_price_cut

    Toshiba lowered the price of their HD-DVD players by 1/2. So if you want a really good upscaling DVD player, get the A3 which is $149.99, and you can watch some really good HD-DVDs on it as well.

    I'm not trying to be a dick either, but this thread is 1 page and I did mention it pretty much.

    You said from amazon, not most retailers. The above link says that they slashed the prices of all their units, not just the one from amazon.

    Dick.

    urahonky on
  • EshEsh Tending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles. Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    May I point out that the Oppos are also ALL REGION?

    Esh on
  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Esh wrote: »
    May I point out that the Oppos are also ALL REGION?

    Most DVD players can be hacked to region-free with a few button presses of the remote

    http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

    BubbaT on
  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    If you want to spend lots of money I'm getting the Sony DAV-IS10 system. Its supposed to be awesome.

    Ziggymon on
  • archonwarparchonwarp Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    On the same subject, are there any good programs/utilities for the PC for upscaling? I'm currently using Media Player Classic to watch DVDs on my 1080p screen, and it looks pretty good. I want to make it look as good as possible with software, but I'm also wondering if I should just give in and buy a Bluray/HDDVD drive?

    archonwarp on
    873342-1.png
  • Monkey Ball WarriorMonkey Ball Warrior A collection of mediocre hats Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Do they ever bother to list exactly what rescaling algorithm the player does (in hardware I presume)? THAT would be the main difference between a good picture and a poor one. Idealy you'd get one that does something like lanczos in hardware.

    On the software side, if media player classic is any good, it's actually your video card doing the scaling, so there's not much you could do without significantly increasing the CPU load. I think VLC player has some rudimentary post-processing. Regardless, there's probably an mplayer video filter (-vf) that could make it look even better, but you'd have to dig through the man page to figure it out.

    Monkey Ball Warrior on
    "I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
  • Bill NyeBill Nye Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    archonwarp wrote: »
    On the same subject, are there any good programs/utilities for the PC for upscaling? I'm currently using Media Player Classic to watch DVDs on my 1080p screen, and it looks pretty good. I want to make it look as good as possible with software, but I'm also wondering if I should just give in and buy a Bluray/HDDVD drive?

    I'm in the same boat. I watch my dvd's on a 65" using mpc and it looks better than dvd players and the ps3 upscaled.

    Blu-ray on a big screen is a must. Dvds start looking like ass above 52"ish. So if I'm watching a dvd, I never let mpc full screen it, I just use 200%.

    Bill Nye on
  • archonwarparchonwarp Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Bill Nye wrote: »
    archonwarp wrote: »
    On the same subject, are there any good programs/utilities for the PC for upscaling? I'm currently using Media Player Classic to watch DVDs on my 1080p screen, and it looks pretty good. I want to make it look as good as possible with software, but I'm also wondering if I should just give in and buy a Bluray/HDDVD drive?

    I'm in the same boat. I watch my dvd's on a 65" using mpc and it looks better than dvd players and the ps3 upscaled.

    Blu-ray on a big screen is a must. Dvds start looking like ass above 52"ish. So if I'm watching a dvd, I never let mpc full screen it, I just use 200%.

    I'm willing to bet that the amount of power available in a PC's hardware lets it upscale a lot cleaner than anything else. I just have a 37 inch, so I'm fine with watching Dexter upscaled for now. I will say that I'm strongly leaning towards the LG combo drive, but that's another thread, I guess.

    TLDR: Media-capable PC + Media Player Classic = upscaling win.

    archonwarp on
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