astroglide's home theater: what i own, what i would buy today

[Josem]

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If I have a dvd player with HD upconversion, does that mean I can watch dvds in HD quality on my DVD player?

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http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=na...hd+upconversion

First result: "HD upconversion DVD players don't add resolution, they transfer the movie data digitally and pre-proccess the data like an HDTV would. Transfering the signal digitally increases picture quality because there are no digital-to-analog conversions (or vise versa). Pre-processing the movie data so that the presentations resolution is more algined with an HDTV sets native resolution also increases image quality and is somthing that the tv does anyway. "


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Is this different than an HDDVD/player?

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Yes

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Do I need special cables for this?

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No

[gusmahler]

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If I have a dvd player with HD upconversion, does that mean I can watch dvds in HD quality on my DVD player?

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http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=na...hd+upconversion


[/ QUOTE ]Your first quote was confusing because it was self-contradictory. So I'll try to explain it again.

A new HDTV today is either 720p or 1080p (some CRTs are 1080i, but I don't think anyone here is thinking of getting a CRT, so we'll ignore that). But a DVD only contains info at 480i. So to show the DVD on the TV, you need to convert the info from 480i to 720p/1080p. All TVs are capable of doing this conversion. However, some people believe that the scaler in certain DVD players do a better job at converting 480i to 720/1080p than the TV does.

As I said, some people see the difference, some don't. Personally, I've never done the comparison.

As for a special cable for upconverting players, you either need component cables or HDMI cables, which aren't really "special."

[gusmahler]

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Is this different than an HDDVD/player?

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Yes


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To elaborate: HD DVD is a completely new format for movies. The movies on an HD DVD is stored at 1080p (high-definition).

HD DVDs cannot play in a regular DVD player. (To be exact, they do sell "combo" discs that has a regular DVD on one side and HD DVD on the other side. The HD DVD side will not play on regular DVD players.)

HD DVD and Blu Ray are the two competing new formats for pre-recorded HD content on optical discs. They are not compatible with each other, though LG does sell a hybrid player that will play both formats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD