Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Upconverting DVD players

But STILL no DVD-A. Gah. I understand why, but it's frustrating from a customer viewpoint.

So are you thinking about that over the Panny Nick?

Nope, still looking at the Panny S97. I like the idea of something like the Toshiba XS52 DVD recorder with hard drive and HDMI, but I don't know anyone that has one and can inform me how the PQ is on a projected screen. A few people over at AVS have one, but they all seem to be using it with plasma screens. As you know, a 100" screen shows any artifacts and upconverting problems way more than a 55" plasma...

I will be buying stuff this week, so I think I will just stick with the Panny S97, and leave the DVD writing to my PC... Don't need the hard drive either since I will be using my Dish DVR. I guess that it is last minute gitters. Kind of like when I bought my Axioms. I had it all planned out and just wanted to make sure that I was doing the right thing. The Axioms were a big success, so I am guessing that the S97 will be too (when matched with the Z3)...

I see this thread is still active...and I just purchased an LG DV7832 (Canadian model...same as Zenith 318 in the US) on the weekend.

My initial impressions (keep in mind that I'm upgrading from a 5 yr old Sony progressive!!) are VERY positive. I connected to my LG DLP with the supplied DVI-D cable. Upconversion is a noticable improvement...especially the leap from 480p to 720p (720p to 1080i is not so noticable). So far, I've left it at 720p.

Watched "Ray" on the weekend...the first hour on the old Sony, then the rest on the new LG. There's a lot of dark scenes and did notice some black crush. But still better than before.

One HUGE improvement I noticed was the layer change. When the old Sony changed, sometimes I'd wonder if it had died (OK, OK, it was more that I'd WISHED it would die!!). On the LG, if the receiver display hadn't flashed from DOLBY DIGITAL to Neo: 6, I would never had known!! Boy, this 21st century stuff is the cat's a$$.

I still have to mess around it, though. I've found different firmware revisions to fix various problems (white crush being the most common). Even though I noticed the white crush, it certainly was a lot better than what I had before!!

And I want to compare the DVI output to the component output (supposedly, it upconverts even component output!). So I'll keep you guys posted.

A friend just bought the same LG dvdp and is using the component video to 'upconvert' on his Toshiba rptv.
Not surprisingly, the image change was extremely mild and was about the equivalent of turning a 72dpi jpg into a 200dpi jpg. Edges were rounded and the image took on more of a soft film quality, but as for 'higher resolution', not a chance.
The upconverted image doesn't hold a candle to a 720p HD image. It did cut off an inch or two of picture at the bottom though.

I can't say what the quality would be like for any front projectors. It still comes down to the upscaler and it ability to take a lesser resolution and format it to fit the projector output. Using something like the LG may produce better results than the upscaler onboard the projector but from what i've seen, it is not anywhere near as good as people are reporting. Upscalers are limited to the information in the original lower resolution material and that is the bottom line.

I have the 318 that Alou mentioned. It is an awesome player for $200. My biggest gripe is full screen material is stretched. But I use another DVD player for full screen material so it isn't a problem. Results vary from display type and typically most users have found that the 1080i gives the best PQ over 720p on the Zenith (I can attest that 480p is quite poor). However, if your display is native 720p and you have the Zenith/LG you might as well use the 720p. Mine is one of the older ones that upscales over component. The new Zeniths have this feature disabled (gotta love Hollywood). The more recent ones produced only upscale over DVI/HDMI. Most people think that PQ on the Zenith over component is better than with DVI, although I remember Kris Deering's Secrets showdown said otherwise. Chess, you might double check to make sure that your friend's unit will still upscale over component. His might not.

Chess I agree with you under certain circumstances. On a large display (I have only a 36" tv) upconverting will probably not approach HD. With high quality DVD transfers (that sounds strangely familiar on this forum ) I would say the image on my tv is roughly 80% what true HD looks like. But again it depends on screen size and tv display type. So results will vary. One of my roommates was watching "V: The final series" on DVD last night, and I was impressed with how clear it looked. For a lower budget tv movie from the 80s, it sure looked sharp.

I was talking with Kris Deering of Secrets about my Zenith. He likes the PQ but does suggest I look at the Panny S97s. So perhaps when my budget recovers from this HT purchase, I might look at upgrading that. By the way, Kris says he likes the Axiom speakers. He says pretty much what everyone on this board says about them. Somewhat bright on certain material and room acoustics makes a difference but he thinks they are a solid speaker.

Yes, I've read many comments about user's not pleased with the results of upconverting throught the components. I can tell you that through the DVI connection, I've experienced none of the problems your friend has...the image is sharp and crisp and it didn't cut off any of the picture. But keep in mind that I'm upgrading from an ancient Sony, so your mileage may vary... I will do some tests running through both DVI and the components and let you know the results...and just for fun, I'll keep the ol' Sony as my "reference" player.

And I suspect that my happiness with 720p is the fact that my DLP's native resolution is 720...1080i would most likely be downconverted to 720("i" or "p"?).

Also, there are many firmware upgrades out there that fix a variety of symptoms...but none that fix ALL problems...for both DVI and component outputs. See this link for further info.

Gentlemen,

I quickly scanned the recent posts to this thread and noticed discussion about upconverting across the component inputs. My understanding is that the majority of upconverting DVD players out there will not pass the upconverted signal across the component outputs. They will only do so across the DVI or HDMI outputs. There are exceptions, such as the Momitsu models, but they are not the norm. It all has to do w/ the movie studios wanting to maintain control over the content and whether it can be captured in a higher res than 480p.

I learned this from reading over at the AVS Forum Thread on these players.

Your right Turbo, the Zenith at one time when it first came out had this ability, however, new models are restricted. Unless you can get an older firmware, your out of luck. As far as I am aware, the Momitsu, maybe the Bravo, and a few other Asian built off-name models will allow this conversion.

Yes. The present day dvd players do not upconvert over component vid, however one or two early models did. My friend bought this LG as it was listed as having the 'old' firmware which did do upconverting via the component cables.
Several ppl with older front projectors with only component in have long sought after these units for this reason.
It is possible that his unit was sold to him w/o this feature (hence fraud) but there is a slight difference in the picture quality, so i'm doubting it.

I would love to see one of the newer dvdp do upconverting via the dvi or hdmi connection. My own rptv has the dvi onboard so i can test this myself...if i buy an upconverting player anytime soon.