hi guys,

i have recently bought a Panasonic TX37LZD80 LCD tv, very impressed with it, only running Sky+ so far.

i have an old Pioneer DVD player (http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products...0-S/index.html)

its about 6 years old i think? anyways

would i get a better picture from an upscaling player now? or would my tv be good enough to improve the picture of the dvd?

any advise would be great

thanks

You probably won't notice any great improvement. You will be able to use HDMI and films can be progressive but in practice it makes little difference - there is a slight improvement in my Panny TV/DVD using 576p but I could only tell you which was was which in a direct comparison.

I recently bought a Panasonic EX77EB upscaling hdd/dvd recorder to connect to my Sony KDL40W2000 lcd, and I must say, the improvement has been quite substantial, both over my old Sony dvd player and the tv's built in freeview.
I also have Sky (hd ) and I now view any Sky sd channels via the Panasonic, Again the upscaling done by the Panny gives a significant improvement to that previously seen.
Of course it could be that the Sony tv has very poor upscaling abilities - so you might not get such an improvement with your tv - but I'm really impressed with the Panny.

The panasonic is set to output at 1080p, so it uses the tv's full hd potential.
Last edited by mickyfinn1948 : 18-04-2008 at 14:39

The Sony sets have exceptionally good upscalers - in particular the W2000 is one of the best. It sounds like you may not have been watching via RGB?, but using Composite instead - the change from Composite to RGB (or HDMI) is huge.

This does surprise me for the improvement is such that I rarely ever watch via the Sony's built in tuner - which of course requires no connection.
Apart from hdmi, my only other input/outputs are by rgb scart - I've never used composite connections since I had a B&W tv! . When watching sd via the Sky box, I use the scart rgb tv output to the Panasonic scart input, which then upscales to the tv via the hdmi lead.

Anyway, my point to the OP is, that yes, with the appropriate upscaling equipment, you can improve on the tv's upscaler quite significantly.

I see absolutely no improvement (it's actually slightly worse) when feeding Sky to my Panny 50PX70 from my Ex75, this is a slightly older DVDR which only does 1080i but I doubt this makes much difference - I see no improvement on 720p either.

The SD picture on the PX70 is pretty good anyway so I'm not surprised I don't get an improvement, I think I'd have to go for an expensive video processor to see anything significant.

From my experience you really need to spend on a decent DVD player to get upscaling better than the what the scaler in the TV can delivery. On most upscaling DVD players, use the HDMI connectivity but only a 576p setting to give the better picture and let the TV do the work.

As always though, I would recommend that people try the different settings for themselves and make their own mind up.

I certainly agree that you should try the different settings to find which gives the best result. Thats what I did and found that the 1080p setting gives the better picture on my tv.

I also have a toshiba ex1 hd dvd player - considered by many to be one of the best upscalers around for standard dvds - and it is better than the Panasonic but only just.

I don't know anything about the EX75 but the EX77 did get excellent reviews, especially for its pq - thats why I bought it.

Anyway, just did a comparison between the Sony's integrated tuner and the Panasonics own upscaled freeview and The Sony pq is softer and less detailed - although certainly acceptable - just not as good.

Hi,

I have a couple of questions on this subject I would appreiciate some help with.

I have a Panny TH37PX80 tv and Panny SCPTX7 upscaling DVD. The PX80 is not full HD, the PTX7 can do 1080p unscaling.

So the question is this.... on the DVD player what do I set the output to, 576p, 720p, 1080i or 1080p?

The second question again related to the setup of the PTX7 and the HDMI. There is a option to configure the HDMI for component video or RGB, would I be correct in assuming RGB?

Regards,

Paul

Try all the settings and see which YOU like best, there's no 'right way', it's a personal setting.

It's like asking how loud you should set the volume, it's your choice.

The thing to do is try all the different modes and see which is best. On my Panny 50PX70 and EX75 I find the best is 576p (though little in it) but you should try them all (I think your DVD player may upscale better than my DVDR but I'm only guessing) - if you can't see any difference then it doesn't matter.

On the subject of RGB or component for HDMI it really shouldn't make any difference (much less important than for analogue component and RGB) but again try it and see.