1080i ... only for games, or dvds too (confusion)

I am a huge movie fanatic, and I want the best quality dvds without buying an expensive HD-DVD or Blu Ray player. I understand that in stores, they sell "Upconversion dvd players for NEAR-HD quality." Of course, it says it'll upgrade your quality to 1080i. I know in the xbox360 settings, you can change your option to display 1080i, which I do. Now, Does this 1080i ONLY do it for games, or does it do it for movies as well?

If the signal is only for games, and still keeps the dvds at a 420p quality, I'll be more than likely buying an upconverting dvd player. If someone can tell me that the 360 does indeed show moveis at 1080i, then I will be a happy man. Thanks to all who can give me the advice on this.

sorry no,i dont think itupconverts your dvd to 1080i. in-fact i dont thinkthe up-converting dvd players do iteither. I think the "near-hd quality"thing iskinda a gimmik. i have a ps3 and play blu-ray disks on mine and there is such a big difference. the way i understand it is that dvds just dont have enough room to hold hd quality. so if you dont want to drop a load of cash on a blu-ray playeri think your going to want to buy a up-converting dvd player. ive also heard rumors of ablu-ray player price dropping soon to. so you might want to wait for that. also you would get 5 free blu-ray movies with the special there running. if you do wait make shure you dont get hd-dvd, because its losing to blu-ray terribly.

hope ive been helpful.

If you use the VGA cable DVD's are upconverted to 720p, but don't confuse upconverted DVD's as being the same as true 1080p HD material, there is a world of difference...

I am a huge movie fanatic, and I want the best quality dvds without buying an expensive HD-DVD or Blu Ray player. I understand that in stores, they sell "Upconversion dvd players for NEAR-HD quality." Of course, it says it'll upgrade your quality to 1080i. I know in the xbox360 settings, you can change your option to display 1080i, which I do. Now, Does this 1080i ONLY do it for games, or does it do it for movies as well?

If the signal is only for games, and still keeps the dvds at a 420p quality, I'll be more than likely buying an upconverting dvd player. If someone can tell me that the 360 does indeed show moveis at 1080i, then I will be a happy man. Thanks to all who can give me the advice on this.

pantomime725

also, the HD-DVD player add on for the 360 is $199, not much more than a good upcoverting DVD player

Think of up-scaling/converting as a way to prevent a movie from looking worse on a larger screen, rather than making the movie look better than it ever has. A 480p image can lookawful if scaled poorly on a large higher-resolution display. Up-scaling attempts to minimize that degredation in apparent quality. I suppose it is somewhat analogous with anti-aliasing in video games. AA can make a lower resolution game look better, but it still doesn't match a natively higher-resolution game.

Taking a 720x480p video and blowing it up onto a screen with 1920x1080 lines of resolution is a tricky thing and not every scaler is equal. Some HDTVs handle the scaling better than others, and some actually scale better than some up-scaling DVD players. Just experiment to find what works best with your equipment.

I am a huge movie fanatic, and I want the best quality dvds without buying an expensive HD-DVD or Blu Ray player. I understand that in stores, they sell "Upconversion dvd players for NEAR-HD quality." Of course, it says it'll upgrade your quality to 1080i. I know in the xbox360 settings, you can change your option to display 1080i, which I do. Now, Does this 1080i ONLY do it for games, or does it do it for movies as well?

If the signal is only for games, and still keeps the dvds at a 420p quality, I'll be more than likely buying an upconverting dvd player. If someone can tell me that the 360 does indeed show moveis at 1080i, then I will be a happy man. Thanks to all who can give me the advice on this.

pantomime725

The 360 will only have 1080i quality for games, its dvd player willonly support 420p.We ended up, after we got a 65in HDTV, getting aupconvert dvd player (on sale for $80 at Best Buy from). It works great and it is one of the only ways we could get 1080i/1080p quality for our tv without a bluray or hddvd player.And the upconvert dvd player is def. cheaper than the HDDVD player addon for 360. Unfortunatly it helps alot to chip in the extra money to get a HDMI cable if you tv is compatible

Think of up-scaling/converting as a way to prevent a movie from looking worse on a larger screen, rather than making the movie look better than it ever has. A 480p image can lookawful if scaled poorly on a large higher-resolution display. Up-scaling attempts to minimize that degredation in apparent quality. I suppose it is somewhat analogous with anti-aliasing in video games. AA can make a lower resolution game look better, but it still doesn't match a natively higher-resolution game.

Taking a 720x480p video and blowing it up onto a screen with 1920x1080 lines of resolution is a tricky thing and not every scaler is equal. Some HDTVs handle the scaling better than others, and some actually scale better than some up-scaling DVD players. Just experiment to find what works best with your equipment.

Hashbrowns

thats all true, however you cant upscale a dvd with component cables. There are a few dvd players out there that will upscale with them, but you will most likely have to purchase them off ebay. I think the industry was concerned ppl would record pre-upscaled material, and that in turn would hurt blu-ray/hd dvd.

[QUOTE="pantomime725"]

I am a huge movie fanatic, and I want the best quality dvds without buying an expensive HD-DVD or Blu Ray player. I understand that in stores, they sell "Upconversion dvd players for NEAR-HD quality." Of course, it says it'll upgrade your quality to 1080i. I know in the xbox360 settings, you can change your option to display 1080i, which I do. Now, Does this 1080i ONLY do it for games, or does it do it for movies as well?

If the signal is only for games, and still keeps the dvds at a 420p quality, I'll be more than likely buying an upconverting dvd player. If someone can tell me that the 360 does indeed show moveis at 1080i, then I will be a happy man. Thanks to all who can give me the advice on this.

RocklandUSA

The 360 will only have 1080i quality for games, its dvd player willonly support 420p.We ended up, after we got a 65in HDTV, getting aupconvert dvd player (on sale for $80 at Best Buy from). It works great and it is one of the only ways we could get 1080i/1080p quality for our tv without a bluray or hddvd player.And the upconvert dvd player is def. cheaper than the HDDVD player addon for 360. Unfortunatly it helps alot to chip in the extra money to get a HDMI cable if you tv is compatible

the dvd player does upscale dvds, but there is law against devices upscaling through component cables. Component cables are non-hdcp, although i cant understand why vga cables are allowed.

[QUOTE="RocklandUSA"][QUOTE="pantomime725"]

I am a huge movie fanatic, and I want the best quality dvds without buying an expensive HD-DVD or Blu Ray player. I understand that in stores, they sell "Upconversion dvd players for NEAR-HD quality." Of course, it says it'll upgrade your quality to 1080i. I know in the xbox360 settings, you can change your option to display 1080i, which I do. Now, Does this 1080i ONLY do it for games, or does it do it for movies as well?

If the signal is only for games, and still keeps the dvds at a 420p quality, I'll be more than likely buying an upconverting dvd player. If someone can tell me that the 360 does indeed show moveis at 1080i, then I will be a happy man. Thanks to all who can give me the advice on this.

kevy619

The 360 will only have 1080i quality for games, its dvd player willonly support 420p.We ended up, after we got a 65in HDTV, getting aupconvert dvd player (on sale for $80 at Best Buy from). It works great and it is one of the only ways we could get 1080i/1080p quality for our tv without a bluray or hddvd player.And the upconvert dvd player is def. cheaper than the HDDVD player addon for 360. Unfortunatly it helps alot to chip in the extra money to get a HDMI cable if you tv is compatible

the dvd player does upscale dvds, but there is law against devices upscaling through component cables. Component cables are non-hdcp.

The upscaling law may be true, but trust me. Things look a hell of a lot sharper when you use a HDMI cable instead of the standard. Ive tested it and I can tell the difference

[QUOTE="kevy619"][QUOTE="RocklandUSA"][QUOTE="pantomime725"]

I am a huge movie fanatic, and I want the best quality dvds without buying an expensive HD-DVD or Blu Ray player. I understand that in stores, they sell "Upconversion dvd players for NEAR-HD quality." Of course, it says it'll upgrade your quality to 1080i. I know in the xbox360 settings, you can change your option to display 1080i, which I do. Now, Does this 1080i ONLY do it for games, or does it do it for movies as well?

If the signal is only for games, and still keeps the dvds at a 420p quality, I'll be more than likely buying an upconverting dvd player. If someone can tell me that the 360 does indeed show moveis at 1080i, then I will be a happy man. Thanks to all who can give me the advice on this.

RocklandUSA

The 360 will only have 1080i quality for games, its dvd player willonly support 420p.We ended up, after we got a 65in HDTV, getting aupconvert dvd player (on sale for $80 at Best Buy from). It works great and it is one of the only ways we could get 1080i/1080p quality for our tv without a bluray or hddvd player.And the upconvert dvd player is def. cheaper than the HDDVD player addon for 360. Unfortunatly it helps alot to chip in the extra money to get a HDMI cable if you tv is compatible

the dvd player does upscale dvds, but there is law against devices upscaling through component cables. Component cables are non-hdcp.

The upscaling law may be true, but trust me. Things look a hell of a lot sharper when you use a HDMI cable instead of the standard. Ive tested it and I can tell the difference

I believe it, hdmi is a digital connection while component is analog. Not only that, with component cables, the signal starts digital, gets transfered to analog and back to digital. Although on some tvs, ppl dont notice a difference, and on others it makes a huge difference. Usually lcd tvs look way better with hdmi.

Thank you for all of your help. Unfortunately, my HDTV does not support VGA :(

The tv I have is http://www.amazon.com/Philips-60PW9363-Widescreen-HDTV-Ready-Projection/dp/B0000ABPL5

I don't want to go with the HD-DVD player that microsoft has. I'm just not about going with HD-DVD, personal opinion. It seems like most of you arn't really liking the "upconversion" dvd players... so I guess i'm just sticking with the 'ole 360 standard dvds :(

Thank you for all of your help. Unfortunately, my HDTV does not support VGA :(

The tv I have is http://www.amazon.com/Philips-60PW9363-Widescreen-HDTV-Ready-Projection/dp/B0000ABPL5

I don't want to go with the HD-DVD player that microsoft has. I'm just not about going with HD-DVD, personal opinion. It seems like most of you arn't really liking the "upconversion" dvd players... so I guess i'm just sticking with the 'ole 360 standard dvds :(

pantomime725

well the upconversion dvd players are good, but if you just wait a bit you can probably get a blu-ray player that upconverts regular dvds for a reasonable price. Its just a matter of time.

For those of you WITH the dvd upconverting (or have knowledge of them) .... if it's a 1080p upconverting dvd player... (again, my tv is 1080i).... can it still do 1080i? i know this one is off topic of 360 material, but you all seem smart with this stuff and seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask.

Ex. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Philips-Up-Conversion-DVD-Player-DVP5982-37/sem/rpsm/oid/184178/catOid/-12873/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Thank you for all of your help. Unfortunately, my HDTV does not support VGA :(

The tv I have is http://www.amazon.com/Philips-60PW9363-Widescreen-HDTV-Ready-Projection/dp/B0000ABPL5

I don't want to go with the HD-DVD player that microsoft has. I'm just not about going with HD-DVD, personal opinion. It seems like most of you arn't really liking the "upconversion" dvd players... so I guess i'm just sticking with the 'ole 360 standard dvds :(

pantomime725

If you really want an upscaling player, you have to do it right. The average joe upscaler for $100 and under probably isn't that great anyway. Also, all the ones you buy at stores will only upscale over HDMI, they'll have component, but that's only for 480p. You may be able to convert HDMI to DVI if HDCP isn't required if your DVI (if you have one) isn't HDCP.

A quality upcaler in the budget range are Oppo players: http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html

That's their 720p/1080i one with the Faroudja imahing chip for $160, it has DVI and a DVI-HDMI cable. They have a $150 version without that chip, and they say the difference might be only noticeable on a large big screen tv in certain difficult imaging tasks or dvds with designed video tests that really push how well a player works. (Not sure if this player requires HDCP with DVI, it's probably in the FAQ)

But overall nothing can compare to a real HD-DVD. And before HD-DVDs people were paying $1500 for the best upscalers.

DVD upconversion is nice, and it beats regular old SD DVD, but it is limited. The image is recorded in digital 480p, which is incidently what the X360 internal DVD player is capable of playing all DVD's at. When you use an upscaler, the player is "filling in the blanks" for the non-allocated pixels on the displayed image. In other words, if the previous pixel is sequence is 8, 6, 4, 2 (this is hypothetical) then the upscaler will fill in the spaces in between with 7,5,3 in order to use all available pixels. While the image generated is infact 720 or 1080 in pixels, the source doesn't actually have the data.Therefore, it isn't as good or tight a picture as a true HD source, like HD-DVD or Blu-ray. The X360 HD-DVD player also upscales DVDs, which can allow you to compare the two sources directly and see the difference, which can be striking. The source material also makes a big difference, as some things are more easily upscaled. For instance, movies with lots of CGI and artificial backgrounds (say, 300) are likely to look almost as good from a DVD upscaler as a true HD source. A more realistic film, (say The Departed) will not.

The stuff about HD signals over component cables is a real quagmire. You can send HD signals (1080p) over component (The XBOX 360 HD-DVD player does!). Most new TV's, and many new DVD players will not send or accept the signal, because the manufactureres have restricted them. This has to do with manufacturing agreements. The only legal issues that arise are terms of use agreements, and this is more likely to affect broadcasts than prepackaged media. The HDCP hardware is not currently in use, and their are no (announced) plans to use it, though industry pundits predict it will become active in 2010 or 2011.

As for the difference between 1080p over component or HDMI: This comes down to personal choice. Their is little difference in actuallity, though HDMI will offer a signal with less variability and is therefore techniquely probably the superior technology. The difference is not nearly as profound as many people suggest, and either is fine option. HDMI is simply future proof.

DVD upconversion is nice, and it beats regular old SD DVD, but it is limited. The image is recorded in digital 480p, which is incidently what the X360 internal DVD player is capable of playing all DVD's at. When you use an upscaler, the player is "filling in the blanks" for the non-allocated pixels on the displayed image. In other words, if the previous pixel is sequence is 8, 6, 4, 2 (this is hypothetical) then the upscaler will fill in the spaces in between with 7,5,3 in order to use all available pixels. While the image generated is infact 720 or 1080 in pixels, the source doesn't actually have the data.Therefore, it isn't as good or tight a picture as a true HD source, like HD-DVD or Blu-ray. The X360 HD-DVD player also upscales DVDs, which can allow you to compare the two sources directly and see the difference, which can be striking. The source material also makes a big difference, as some things are more easily upscaled. For instance, movies with lots of CGI and artificial backgrounds (say, 300) are likely to look almost as good from a DVD upscaler as a true HD source. A more realistic film, (say The Departed) will not.

The stuff about HD signals over component cables is a real quagmire. You can send HD signals (1080p) over component (The XBOX 360 HD-DVD player does!). Most new TV's, and many new DVD players will not send or accept the signal, because the manufactureres have restricted them. This has to do with manufacturing agreements. The only legal issues that arise are terms of use agreements, and this is more likely to affect broadcasts than prepackaged media. The HDCP hardware is not currently in use, and their are no (announced) plans to use it, though industry pundits predict it will become active in 2010 or 2011.

As for the difference between 1080p over component or HDMI: This comes down to personal choice. Their is little difference in actuallity, though HDMI will offer a signal with less variability and is therefore techniquely probably the superior technology. The difference is not nearly as profound as many people suggest, and either is fine option. HDMI is simply future proof.

wenzke

You dont need the hd dvd add on to upscale dvds, you just need a non component hd capable connection.

You dont need the hd dvd add on to upscale dvds, you just need a non component hd capable connection.

I can't say for sure that you are mistaken, but I findyour statementunlikely. The HD-DVD add-on upscales DVD playback, and it does that through a component connection. Thisfact alone demonstrates that it is possible to upscale through component cables. I have not tried to upscale with the native DVD drive of the X360 since I have the HD-DVD drive. However, the only way to test your statement would be to attempt to upscale using an elite model connected to an HDTV through HDMI.I believe that MS stated they were not changing the native X360 DVD drive for a better one. If I had to pick between a $479 elite upgrade in order toupscale, (If what you say is true) or a $200 HD-DVD player which can upscale, and play HD-DVDs, well, I think the math on that is easy. Now, if the original poster doesn't have a 360 yet, then it is worthwile to figure this out.

[QUOTE="kevy619 "]

You dont need the hd dvd add on to upscale dvds, you just need a non component hd capable connection.

wenzke

I can't say for sure that you are mistaken, but I findyour statementunlikely. The HD-DVD add-on upscales DVD playback, and it does that through a component connection. Thisfact alone demonstrates that it is possible to upscale through component cables. I have not tried to upscale with the native DVD drive of the X360 since I have the HD-DVD drive. However, the only way to test your statement would be to attempt to upscale using an elite model connected to an HDTV through HDMI.I believe that MS stated they were not changing the native X360 DVD drive for a better one. If I had to pick between a $479 elite upgrade in order toupscale, (If what you say is true) or a $200 HD-DVD player which can upscale, and play HD-DVDs, well, I think the math on that is easy. Now, if the original poster doesn't have a 360 yet, then it is worthwile to figure this out.

There's no way the HD-DVD drive enables upscaling of DVDs over Component. All the HD-DVD add-on is an external HD-DVD rom drive, connected via USB, it has no video processing, the 360 is still the player and is the one upscaling, so playing a DVD in the add-on makes no difference from the internal drive. If you have VGA, the regular 360, it will upscale to whatever you are outputting.

Now, you can play HD-DVDs in HD over component, it doesn't have the same restrictions right now as DVDs do over component, I know, totally backwards isn't it.