DVD Upconversion Methods...

So I finally bought a 26" LCD HDTV. Previously I have owned a 57" rear projection HDTV. Going through my DVD archive I'm a little perturbed.

My downconverted 24p projects from the EX1 look awesome. I'd say they look indistinguishable from HD. I'm using a Toshiba HD-DVD player which is known for top-notch upconversion. HOWEVER, my 60i projects look worse than MiniDV!

This is frustrating because on my older set this footage looks fine upconverted. I *believe* it's a native interlaced display. So my question is do these players handle upconverting progressive sourced footage(even though it's converted to 60i for the DVD standard) better than interlaced-sourced material or am I doing something wrong?

Does anyone have luck with upconverted interlaced footage looking good on an LCD HDTV? Does using Black Magic Design/similar hardware offer better quality downconverting? I ask because I am about to start a major project and planned to shoot 1080/60i but now I am second guessing my decision because of this. And if the footage looks this poor on my 26" display I can only imagine now crappy it looks on a 65".

60i HD footage with the EX1 hooked to this TV looks great. Even in SP mode. So I'm thinking maybe it's the player's inability to upconvert interlaced footage well?

[Adam Reuter]

I found an old test DVD and sure enough proper progressive scan converted footage (even though DVD spec is interlaced I figure a flag is set for progressive that the player reads) and some reverse pulldown is going on.

I like the look of 60i. I don't like the resolution loss of 720/60p. So I think what I may do is shoot 60i and hire a conversion company with a Snell & Wilcox machine to give me a standard def master. Software conversion isn't cutting it and I've definitely seen better commercially released 60i DVDs on this TV than what I can get with my own tools.

Man does that 24p footage look good though! Jeez...

By the way I forgot to mention that 30p is not an option for me as the project may be sold internationally and from what I've read 30p to PAL is a no-go.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Adam,

I don't know your particular HDTV model, etc. - what I know for sure though is this:

- with the awesome EX imaging, forget about interlaced, and stick with progressive (24p in your case, 25p in mine)...

Piotr

[Vincent Oliver]

Originally Posted by Adam Reuter

By the way I forgot to mention that 30p is not an option for me as the project may be sold internationally and from what I've read 30p to PAL is a no-go.

Shoot in 30p, PAL TV and DVD players have no problem playing "NTSC", but NTSC TVs can't handle PAL.

I have just released my latest DVD "a guide to digital printing & scanning" this was all shot in NTSC and had no complaints from here in the UK - so far over 45,000 copies have been distributed and sold.

[John Poipie]

Try this software. Iam using it frequently.
Red Giant Software: Magic Bullet Instant HD Advanced 1.0