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Blu-Ray Upscaling of DVDs .. Question


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Old 14-12-2009, 18:49
KeyserSoze
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I'm on the verge of replacing my older Panasonic PT460 Home Cinema system (standard DVD), with the Panasonic SC-BT200 one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SC.../dp/B001Y91M6W) which will give me my first foray into the world of Blu-Ray!

It may be a silly question, but will a Blu-Ray player upscale a "normal" DVD, better than an upscaling DVD player would? (my current DVD player upscales and it's connected via HDMI) - obviously I know the quality of Blu-Ray Discs will be immediately evident, but will I noticed any difference with an upscaled DVD in a Blu-Ray player, over the same disc being played in my old upscaling DVD player?
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Old 14-12-2009, 18:58
justpootling
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Upscaling quality depends entirely on what upscaler and Blu-ray player you have. Having had an good quality Samusng upscaler for a couple of years, and being happy with it, I was unimpressed by the upscaling from my Sharp Aquos Blu-ray player, which tbh is just plain nasty.

But my £70 Curtis Bly-Ray player upscales very nicely.
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Old 14-12-2009, 19:34
grahamlthompson
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I'm on the verge of replacing my older Panasonic PT460 Home Cinema system (standard DVD), with the Panasonic SC-BT200 one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SC.../dp/B001Y91M6W) which will give me my first foray into the world of Blu-Ray!

It may be a silly question, but will a Blu-Ray player upscale a "normal" DVD, better than an upscaling DVD player would? (my current DVD player upscales and it's connected via HDMI) - obviously I know the quality of Blu-Ray Discs will be immediately evident, but will I noticed any difference with an upscaled DVD in a Blu-Ray player, over the same disc being played in my old upscaling DVD player?
See my posting here

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...1&postcount=99
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Old 14-12-2009, 21:40
gemma-the-husky
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i have a PS3 and a sony HDD-DVD (HDRX890 I think)- PS3 definitely upscales better than the Sony
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Old 15-12-2009, 09:44
Nigel Goodwin
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Generally BluRay players (and HD-DVD) upscale far better than DVD players, as they use more expensive scalers.
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Old 15-12-2009, 11:04
martysport
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Generally BluRay players (and HD-DVD) upscale far better than DVD players, as they use more expensive scalers.
I have some unheard of make DVD player that does upscaling. It's fairly poor TBH, but my LG BD player does a smashing job
So I guess your right
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Old 15-12-2009, 17:59
KeyserSoze
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Thank you all for your informative replies. Very much appreciated
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Old 17-12-2009, 23:29
JethroUK
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...It may be a silly question, but will a Blu-Ray player upscale a "normal" DVD, better than an upscaling DVD player would? .
No

You can buy blu-ray player for less than upscaling DVD player

so logic dictates it must be better at the job (otherwise it simply wouldn't have a market - at all!)

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Old 18-12-2009, 09:51
grahamlthompson
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No

You can buy blu-ray player for less than upscaling DVD player

so logic dictates it must be better at the job (otherwise it simply wouldn't have a market - at all!)

.
Oh no it does not. I have a 3yr old Denon DVD player that cost £250.00 it had the best scaler available at the time. My £150.00 Sony bluray scales normal DVD's a lot better. Like everything else technology advances have improved scaler designs.
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Old 18-12-2009, 10:02
paulr2006
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Oh no it does not. I have a 3yr old Denon DVD player that cost £250.00 it had the best scaler available at the time. My £150.00 Sony bluray scales normal DVD's a lot better. Like everything else technology advances have improved scaler designs.
Agree 100%, I used to have a Denon which I sold when I bought my BD player as the BD scaler was better.
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Old 18-12-2009, 12:30
grahamlthompson
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Agree 100%, I used to have a Denon which I sold when I bought my BD player as the BD scaler was better.
Kept mine because it plays CD's a lot better than the bluray.
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Old 18-12-2009, 12:52
JethroUK
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Oh yes it does!

(well it is panto season

I have a 3yr old Denon DVD player that cost £250.00.....
Yeah well i have 6 year old car that originally cost £22K...

I am talking about comparing new - like for like (as per the OP requirments)

Obviously!


My £150.00 Sony bluray scales normal DVD's a lot better.....
It will not do as good a job of std DVD as Toshiba which has custom built engine for upscaling std DVD - fooooooooooooooooor sure!!!!!!!

.
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Old 18-12-2009, 13:02
grahamlthompson
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Oh yes it does!

(well it is panto season



Yeah well i have 6 year old car that originally cost £22K...

I am talking about comparing new - like for like (as per the OP requirments)

Obviously!




It will not do as good a job of std DVD as Toshiba which has custom built engine for upscaling std DVD - fooooooooooooooooor sure!!!!!!!

.
Can't talk about the Tosh but my son has a Denon 1940 and it does not scale standard dvds any better than the Sony Bluray (and it plays Blurays as well). To be honest I doubt you could improve much on the scaled picture, unless you get really close to the screen it's hard to tell from bluray.
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Old 18-12-2009, 13:04
paulr2006
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Kept mine because it plays CD's a lot better than the bluray.
Agreed, luckily my Arcam Alpha 9 CD player was only 1.5mtr. away through a stud wall in my Hi-Fi rack so a short lead sorted that issue
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Old 18-12-2009, 14:04
Deacon1972
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It will not do as good a job of std DVD as Toshiba which has custom built engine for upscaling std DVD - fooooooooooooooooor sure!!!!!!!
It's nothing more than a gimmick, a play on words.

It will have a scaling chip like any other player - and seeing it only costs £99 not a high end one.

If good quality upscaling is important then a dedicated scaler is the way to go, which will cost you £1k upwards.
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Old 18-12-2009, 14:20
Nigel Goodwin
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It's nothing more than a gimmick, a play on words.

It will have a scaling chip like any other player - and seeing it only costs £99 not a high end one.
Yes, it will be far inferior to a BluRay player.
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Old 18-12-2009, 14:21
grahamlthompson
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Oh yes it does!

(well it is panto season



Yeah well i have 6 year old car that originally cost £22K...

I am talking about comparing new - like for like (as per the OP requirments)

Obviously!




It will not do as good a job of std DVD as Toshiba which has custom built engine for upscaling std DVD - fooooooooooooooooor sure!!!!!!!

.
Well how about some examples then, it's fine quoting the advertising guff until you actually compare how do you know. My posting is based on actual personal experience not a hunch
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Old 18-12-2009, 17:30
JethroUK
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Can't talk about the Tosh ....
Well they have custom built engine for up-scaling std DVD to 1080p - you can buy blu-ray player (with vox-pop upscaling) cheaper = they wouldn't have a market at all if blu-ray player did as good a job of up scaling std DVD (as you suggest)


.
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Old 18-12-2009, 17:48
JethroUK
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Well how about some examples then, it's fine quoting the advertising guff until you actually compare how do you know. My posting is based on actual personal experience not a hunch
Bit of a straw man - You're only one opinion - and you never actually seen Tosh - which makes your only opinion redundant that's a fact


Mine is based on logic (average high school student could grassp) and reading owner reviews which seems to support the logic

Of course i dont need to justify anything to you - but for the benefit of the poster who will be the one buyin somthing

Toshiba XDE500

It seems to get very good reviews with regard to picture quality and any bad reviews are always with regard to something else - go figure - i might give one a try on my rather extensive antique DVD collection - but i'm fairly confident that std blu-ray player wont touch it for std DVD - in fact i think one user actually sold his blu-ray player in favour of it

.

.
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Old 18-12-2009, 18:00
JethroUK
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It's nothing more than a gimmick, a play on words

It will have a scaling chip like any other player - and seeing it only costs £99 not a high end one...
Thers nothing there that suggests blu-ray player will be better - which is what the threat is about


If good quality upscaling is important then a dedicated scaler is the way to go, which will cost you £1k upwards.
that's not what the OP is talking about either - but to add some sort of proportion - you propabably already know that you need to double your money to get at best 10% improvement, so without doing the actual maths a £1000 scaler will be about 1/2 as good again as £100 scaler - so my recommendation to the OP is, dont waste a grand on a scaler

.
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Old 18-12-2009, 18:44
Deacon1972
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Thers nothing there that suggests blu-ray player will be better - which is what the threat is about
And there's nothing to suggest the Tosh will be better at upscaling than a Bluray player.

I personally wouldn't go solely on owners reviews - PQ is subjective, what looks good to one user will look poor to others. I prefer personal experience.

If anything, price depicts quality, seeing the Tosh is only £99 I wouldn't bet any of my money on it being better than any BD player of the same price.

that's not what the OP is talking about either - but to add some sort of proportion - you propabably already know that you need to double your money to get at best 10% improvement, so without doing the actual maths a £1000 scaler will be about 1/2 as good again as £100 scaler - so my recommendation to the OP is, dont waste a grand on a scaler

.
I know it's not what the OP was talking about, but then neither was a DVD player recommendation.

They wanted to know if the BD player they are interested in would upscale as good as their std DVD player - the answer to that is, there's a very good chance it will equal if not better it when you compare the two models in question.

My reference to the dedicated scaler was to point out that very good scaling comes at a price, don't expect miracles from £99 budget machines.
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Old 18-12-2009, 20:35
captainmccoy
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Well they have custom built engine for up-scaling std DVD to 1080p - you can buy blu-ray player (with vox-pop upscaling) cheaper = they wouldn't have a market at all if blu-ray player did as good a job of up scaling std DVD (as you suggest)


.
They would because they rely on suckers who don't know what they are talking about

As for a £99 player doing anything exceptional....
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Old 18-12-2009, 21:25
Nigel Goodwin
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They would because they rely on suckers who don't know what they are talking about
Toshiba seem to be going downhill, they even started advertising an 'upscaling TV' - which of course ALL HDTV's already do, including all previous Tosh's.
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Old 18-12-2009, 22:26
captainmccoy
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Toshiba seem to be going downhill, they even started advertising an 'upscaling TV' - which of course ALL HDTV's already do, including all previous Tosh's.
Maybe they are desperate to get something from the HD market after losing the HD disc format war.

About time they launched a Bluray player
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Old 18-12-2009, 22:29
JethroUK
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Toshiba seem to be going downhill, they even started advertising an 'upscaling TV' - which of course ALL HDTV's already do, including all previous Tosh's.
You seem surprised! - and not least seem to sh!t on the idea before you've even seen it

but since all TV's up scale to their native res, then to extend your logic - there absolutely no use for any external device to do the same

but of course everyone knows there is - because TV upscaler are sheet

so it should come as no surprise that tosh (or any other TV manufacturer) design a TV with specific engine for up scaling

isn't logic a wonderful thing

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