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Would a Blu Ray player play an ordinary DVD better than a DVD player?


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Old 29-05-2012, 21:30
RichardLister
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Does that make sense?
My Panasonic DVD Freeview Writer plays DVDs to my Panasonic TXL3710g10b pretty disappointingly if I'm honest. Nothing special.
If I get a Panasonic Blu Ray DMP-BD345 and play the same DVD - will it be better.
Watched a mates DMP-BD345 play lord of the rings on ordinary DVD to a LG 42LE8900 TV and was totally astonished at the quality. I have never seen a picture like it.
Was it his TV or his Blu Ray player - in terms of bettering mine?
Thanks for any words of wisdom.
Richard
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Old 29-05-2012, 21:35
grahamlthompson
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My hundred pound Sony blu-ray plays DVD's in better quality than a 5 yr old Denon DVD player that cost £300.00.

Scaler technology has improved considreably over the period. The Denon plays CD's much better though.

Without knowing if the blu-ray was set to output at 1080p for DVD or the scaling was done by the TV it could be either.

Can't you try your mates player on your TV ?
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Old 29-05-2012, 21:46
Arkudos
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Check the settings to see if DVD upscaling is enabled, I know you can turn it on/off on certain models
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Old 29-05-2012, 23:28
RichardLister
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Thanks, output from existing DVD is 1080. Good idea might try his BR player on my telly and see how it looks.
thanks.
R
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Old 30-05-2012, 09:45
grahamlthompson
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Thanks, output from existing DVD is 1080. Good idea might try his BR player on my telly and see how it looks.
thanks.
R
In that case the player is doing the scaling. That's not to say the TV itself isn't better than yours of course.
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Old 30-05-2012, 10:07
Nigel Goodwin
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Generally BD players have better quality scalers, so it's common for them to be better at playing DVD's than a DVD [player.
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Old 30-05-2012, 10:59
captainkremmen
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Does that make sense?
My Panasonic DVD Freeview Writer plays DVDs to my Panasonic TXL3710g10b pretty disappointingly if I'm honest. Nothing special.
If I get a Panasonic Blu Ray DMP-BD345 and play the same DVD - will it be better.
Watched a mates DMP-BD345 play lord of the rings on ordinary DVD to a LG 42LE8900 TV and was totally astonished at the quality. I have never seen a picture like it.
Was it his TV or his Blu Ray player - in terms of bettering mine?
Thanks for any words of wisdom.
Richard
Could be both.

I assume your TV is HD, but is it full HD or 720p?.
Is his TV full HD?.

In your case your TV is probably doing the upscaling, in his case the BluRay player will be, and it's likely the scaler in his player is better than the one in your TV. But that could only be half the reason, if your TV is 720p it is likely it's native resolution will be 1366x768. If you buy a BluRay player and set it to output full HD, then the player will do it's upscaling, but then your TV will downscale full HD to your TV's native resolution. How good a job the TV does of this depends on the scaler in your TV. On very good quality TVs you'd really be hard pushed to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p at normal viewing distances. It's a case of trial and error, setting the BluRay player to output 720p, 1080i, 1080p and seeing what you think looks best. The settings on your TV will also affect the picture quality too, you might improve things (sometimes) quite dramatically by spending a bit of time getting the settings right, such as turning off picture processing modes, adjusting brightness, contrast etc. etc. When I took delivery of my TV for example, I spent a bit of time searching the web for calibration settings. I eventually found someone who had the same TV and had paid a couple of hundred to have it calibrated, he kindly posted the details over at AVForums. Using his settings I spent about half an hour tweaking things and the difference it made was actually quite surprising.
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Old 30-05-2012, 11:29
-GONZO-
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One thing I wish Blu Ray players did a better job of and that's coping with the DVD layer change so you don't get that annoying pause.
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Old 30-05-2012, 13:24
unique
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whether a dvd player plays dvds better than a bluray player depends on each specific model

if you take a current £500 dvd player and compare it to a current £100 bluray player, what would you expect to be better?

regarding upscaling, in most cases you panel will do a better job at upscaling than the player, particular in the budget range of gear you are talking about. higher end product may vary. if you have a budget panel and a high end player, the player may upscale better, but typically most people would have a reasonably balanced setup
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Old 30-05-2012, 13:54
Nigel Goodwin
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if you take a current £500 dvd player and compare it to a current £100 bluray player, what would you expect to be better?
Probably the BD player - if you're paying £500 for a DVD player you're paying for the name, and little else.

The differences are almost entirely down to the scaler used - and BD players (or at least decent ones) use extremely good scalers. Even PS3's make DVD's look better than DVD players.
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Old 30-05-2012, 18:03
Dansky+HD
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PS3 is £200 and is by far the best with all it's add-ons

Blu ray, 3D, DVD, CD, web browser, games console, tv catchup etc...
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Old 30-05-2012, 21:33
unique
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Probably the BD player - if you're paying £500 for a DVD player you're paying for the name, and little else.

The differences are almost entirely down to the scaler used - and BD players (or at least decent ones) use extremely good scalers. Even PS3's make DVD's look better than DVD players.
what rubbish

probably? you mean you don't know? so you speak from no experience?
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Old 30-05-2012, 22:01
grahamlthompson
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what rubbish

probably? you mean you don't know? so you speak from no experience?
Sorry you are posting the rubbish. I doubt you have ever done a blind test on a £500 DVD player compared to an average priced blu-ray player using a selection of impartial viewers using the same TV (which is surely the weakest link in the chain from DVD to screen). When you have you might have a point.

Can you imagine what difference you would see on a Technika TV from Tesco using either

No doubt you are one of the gullible few that imagines a £500.00 mains lead produces a visibly better picture than a £2.50 one or a £60.00 hdmi lead compared to a £1.00 from Poundland.

Matched to a £8000.00 oled TV you might see a difference but I doubt it. If you buy one and the other kit and do a properly conducted blind test you might have a point. Until then it's just mere conjecture
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Old 30-05-2012, 23:53
RichardLister
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Could be both.

I assume your TV is HD, but is it full HD or 720p?.
Is his TV full HD?.

In your case your TV is probably doing the upscaling, in his case the BluRay player will be, and it's likely the scaler in his player is better than the one in your TV. But that could only be half the reason, if your TV is 720p it is likely it's native resolution will be 1366x768. If you buy a BluRay player and set it to output full HD, then the player will do it's upscaling, but then your TV will downscale full HD to your TV's native resolution. How good a job the TV does of this depends on the scaler in your TV. On very good quality TVs you'd really be hard pushed to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p at normal viewing distances. It's a case of trial and error, setting the BluRay player to output 720p, 1080i, 1080p and seeing what you think looks best. The settings on your TV will also affect the picture quality too, you might improve things (sometimes) quite dramatically by spending a bit of time getting the settings right, such as turning off picture processing modes, adjusting brightness, contrast etc. etc. When I took delivery of my TV for example, I spent a bit of time searching the web for calibration settings. I eventually found someone who had the same TV and had paid a couple of hundred to have it calibrated, he kindly posted the details over at AVForums. Using his settings I spent about half an hour tweaking things and the difference it made was actually quite surprising.
Hi, My TV is full HD 1080. I think it is my DVD player that lets me down. Never been happy with menu text as it looks all chunky and cheap on the TV. I think I'll try his bluray player and cable at my house and see ewhat it looks l like. If no difference then I guess it's his "led e" TV - I was really impressed.
thanks for everyones views. I guess nothing is ever easy.
Richard
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Old 31-05-2012, 07:28
unique
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Sorry you are posting the rubbish. I doubt you have ever done a blind test on a £500 DVD player compared to an average priced blu-ray player using a selection of impartial viewers using the same TV (which is surely the weakest link in the chain from DVD to screen). When you have you might have a point.

Can you imagine what difference you would see on a Technika TV from Tesco using either

No doubt you are one of the gullible few that imagines a £500.00 mains lead produces a visibly better picture than a £2.50 one or a £60.00 hdmi lead compared to a £1.00 from Poundland.

Matched to a £8000.00 oled TV you might see a difference but I doubt it. If you buy one and the other kit and do a properly conducted blind test you might have a point. Until then it's just mere conjecture
nonsense. i don't know why people post such rubbish on here

unless you have a mismatched system, the panel should have a much better scaler than the player

and yes i have done testing in a specialist AV store as AV is a hobby of mine
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Old 31-05-2012, 09:24
Nigel Goodwin
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what rubbish

probably? you mean you don't know? so you speak from no experience?
I speak from many, many years of professional experience - presumably unlike you?.

'Probably' because I haven't seen every DVD player ever made, but have never seen (or heard of one) that scales anywhere near as good as a decent quality BD player.
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Old 31-05-2012, 09:27
grps3
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PS3 is £200 and is by far the best with all it's add-ons

Blu ray, 3D, DVD, CD, web browser, games console, tv catchup etc...
the ps3 can also upsacle DVD's to HD

[DVD Upscaler] is an option in [BD/DVD Settings] under Settings. This enables users to adjust settings for upscaled output of DVDs.

[Off]: Disable upscaled output.
[Double Scale]*: Upscale and display with double horizontal and vertical dimensions without changing the proportions.
[Normal]: Upscale and display at a size that matches the screen size.
[Full Screen]: Upscale and display at full screen by changing proportions and stretching the image
* This option can be used only when the video output of the PS3 system is set to 1080p/1080i.

and stream content direct from your pc
or netflix, or lovefilm or tons of other stuff

and it can play 3D blurays

easily the best bluray player ever for the price
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Old 31-05-2012, 10:11
gomezz
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the ps3 can also upsacle DVD's to HD
No it can't.
easily the best bluray player ever for the price
Have they fixed the problems with the PS3 then?
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Old 31-05-2012, 12:14
captainkremmen
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Hi, My TV is full HD 1080. I think it is my DVD player that lets me down. Never been happy with menu text as it looks all chunky and cheap on the TV. I think I'll try his bluray player and cable at my house and see ewhat it looks l like. If no difference then I guess it's his "led e" TV - I was really impressed.
thanks for everyones views. I guess nothing is ever easy.
Richard
Don't base it just on the menus of the DVD player. Their menu systems tend to be designed to look good on SD displays/inputs, and don't scale well on modern HD TVs. Pretty much any BluRay player will have a better menu system because it's been designed for HD sources/inputs.

Good idea trying his BluRay player, but I would still advise turning off picture processing modes on the TV such as any sharpness applied, digital noise reduction etc. Often they can actually make things worse, but again, it's personal opinion really, some people like using them other's don't. You could try the TVs built in modes, most TVs have setting such Animation, Cinema or Film modes which might be worth trying. But some TVs do a better job with these modes than others.
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Old 31-05-2012, 12:17
grps3
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No it can't.
Have they fixed the problems with the PS3 then?
yes it can
and it makes quite a difference, still not bluray quality, but still miles better
http://uk.playstation.com/ps3/suppor...le-DVD-output/

Upscaling is a feature for taking video that was recorded at SD resolution (576p/576i) and displaying it at HD resolution (1080p/1080i/720p). Because the video content of PlayStation format software, PlayStation 2 format software, and commercial DVDs is recorded at SD resolution, higher quality video can be achieved by enabling upscaled output.
and what problems?
i regularly watch blurays and have had never had any kind of problem
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Old 31-05-2012, 12:23
-GONZO-
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No it can't make it HD.
It upscales an SD image to fit a HD resolution screen, but it's still an SD image.
A poor quality DVD will stil be a poor qaulity upscaled DVD.
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Old 31-05-2012, 13:25
unique
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I speak from many, many years of professional experience - presumably unlike you?.

'Probably' because I haven't seen every DVD player ever made, but have never seen (or heard of one) that scales anywhere near as good as a decent quality BD player.
i see. now i understand you are a sony dealer or engineer, is that right? you don't deal with the high end side of the market?

or have you compared sony bluray players to say devoted top end arcam dvd players?

how many £500 dvd players have you compared against £100 bluray players that were made in the same year?

if you compare the cheapo currys end of the market, you are comparing shit with shit, but move higher up the scale and you should see an improvement

but the main point is that most decent panels will do a better job of upscaling than budget players, and certainly cheapo sub £100 ones
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Old 31-05-2012, 13:57
grps3
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No it can't make it HD.
It upscales an SD image to fit a HD resolution screen, but it's still an SD image.
A poor quality DVD will stil be a poor qaulity upscaled DVD.
it still improves the quality, depending on the dvd, it is very noticeable difference too on most retail dvds
which is what op asked
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Old 31-05-2012, 15:30
iangrad
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OP : if the menu's look odd ? have you been into "functions / settings / others / connection and yours should be set at HDMI output to either 1080i or 1080p ?

The out of the box setting is 576 and looks horrible !
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Old 31-05-2012, 16:14
bobcar
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if you compare the cheapo currys end of the market, you are comparing shit with shit, but move higher up the scale and you should see an improvement
What is the market for an expensive blu-ray player? Anyone producing quality video equipment would be far more likely to go for a blu-ray player and the numbers involved make the BR much cheaper. It wouldn't make much sense to put a lot of research into making a better DVD player, continuing to sell an old one that was top of the range originally may still make financial sense if someone will buy it but it wouldn't be better than a decent modern blu-ray player.

The only way a new DVD player makes sense now is as a low end device as you can get a cheapo blu-ray player for £40 (edit £35).
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