Legit Reviews

Do upconverting dvd players have the ability to upconvert video that is plugged into its "input", if it has one? What i mean is can an upconvert dvd player upconvert video not on a dvd, and if not, can you tell me what kind of equipment could upconvert any kind of input video though the a/v wires or hd wires etc...

I want to say no, I haven't seen a straight up DVD player that will have an video input on it, output only. As for it was a VCR/DVD combo then I'd still say no, but a DVD recorder will since that has a tuner on it to record the video and there are versions of those that will upscale.

no, just on the DVDs

is there any kind of equipment that can upconvert all the input sources that go into the machine?

none that I know of, other than maybe a computer..??

You can get a dvd player that plays divx and dvds to upconvert. You can also get a camcorder taht has upconverting in it, but that price is WAY up there!

What source do you want to upconvert? Each individual item would have to have its own upconverting chip, unless there is a tv with one built in, or a surround system..?? I have no knowledge of any, but it might be a place to look.

Mike

If you do find one, i bet it will be so high priced that you will do without it ;)

some higher end HDTV's include an unconvert mode as part of the signal processor, but most rely on your other components (DVD, cable or satellite box,tivo, etc) to pre-process the signal for the best output.
remember that upcoverting is just "massaging" the signal, filling in info/line doubling bits not really there.
if done well it looks great, done poorly it's terrible (tends to over-sharpen the edges)
soundandvisionmag.com has this article about how it works and what to avoid.
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/featur ... acies.html

so do you mean that a computer can upscale the signal for tv? Ideally the resolution that I want is 1080i what my hdtv can support

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia ... 93742.html

monitor with hardware upconverting - and only $1600 for 30"


I do NOT have first hand knowledge of this, but if you hook your computer up to your HDTV with a HDMI cable and set the output resolution to your tvs max, it will display that resolution. I do not have and DVI-HDMI convertors around so I can not test this, and my only hdtv does not accept DVI, only VGA and HDMI.

Am I wrong on this? If you have a monitor set to 1920X1080, is it not showing EVERYTHING at 1080p resolution??

PLEASE correct me if I am wrong!

Mike

Oh like that monitor article says, video cards are not that great at upconverting to big displays, but the quality should be fine for movies and such.