flat screen TV
 

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone encounter the same problem with flat screen tv? Last weekend, I bought a 20 inch HDTV and a regular DVD player using the HDMI connection, my video didn't look crisp or sharp like a regular tube tv. Is there something special I have to do or use to render my video better for these type of TVs? I know in time, everyone will be replacing their old tv set with a flat screen and they will notice the difference in quality. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated :)

-Joe

If its an HDTV, its going to want an HD signal. For example, if you have a 720p HDTV, a 720p picture is going to look its best on it. Since you have more lines of resolution on the tv than you have with an SD-DVD some sort of upscaling is being performed somehow somewhere, even if it is just line doubling. Also, most flat panel TVs are natively progressive scan, which means some sort of de-interlacing is also being performed.

More expensive HDTVs will do a better job upscaling the video and de-interlacing. However, if your tv is only 20 inch it probably isn't that expensive and doesn't do a very good job. There are some higher end DVD players out there that have upscaling built in for HDTVs. At home I have a 42inch HDTV- watching a DVD on a regular DVD player on it looks pretty crappy, but switch to an upscaling DVD player connected through the same exact inputs and it looks pretty awesome.

Thanks Adam for your comments. Therefore, I probably have to warn my clients in the future that advice you gave me, because I had a bride called recently saying that it looks blurry on her flat screen. So, I told her to play it on a regular tv set because it was not made for HDTV. I guess it went fine since she hasn't call me back yet. Can I ask you what type of up-scaling DVD player you're talking about? Thanks.

-Joe

It seems like most HD-DVD and BluRay players feature built in upscaling of SD-DVDs. I have a playstation 3, which originally didn't upscale DVD's, but now it does with the latest firmware update. I've seen other DVD players advertising that they offer upscaling, but upscaling DVD players cost quite a bit more than other players.

I've had to explain this to brides as well
 

I've run into this as well as we're slowly moving into the HD world. You have to explain to the couple that they will need an "UP converting" DVD Player with an HDMI connection if they will be using their flat screen. If not, the video looks like Hud! Best Buy and Circuit City have many up converting DVD players for around a hundred bucks so it's totally worth it.

Sorry guys, but upconverting, is just a cheap trick, and it doesn't work,
I've tried on my 50" plasma - Philips, LG and Sony - same thing, I couldn't see any difference between upconverting and my standard DVD player,
To get all the benefits of HDTV you have to burn the disk on either HD DVD or Blue Ray burner and then play it on compatible device;(another problem, two formats are not cross compatible, you have to know what DVD player your client has; now only the most expensive DVD players support both HD formats)
if the client has HDV camcorder, there would be another solution too,
Shoot, post, print to tape and enjoy until the time, when HD will be in every home;
my guess would be couple years
cheers :)

My friend who bought a 3500$ HD 40 inch flat-tv, experiences a "trailing" or delaying effect when watching SD tv (during movements, especially faces). Anybody knows why?

hmmmm
 

See with my 50 inch plazma, using an upconverting DVD player with an HDMI connector looked pretty darn good, much better than through my regular DVD player. I'm not sure which setup Bubba is using but mine is definetely a major improvement over picutre and quality. Anything Standard Def, especially standard television looks really really bad on my plazma. Sometimes it's hard to watch television on it. I'm in the same HD boat as everyone else, Blue-Ray or HD DVD, what's it going to be?

thanks guys, I have seen the upscaling at my local electronic store and they had the Matrix movie playing on a 42" HDTV and using the upscaling DVD player, it looks awesome. Like Adam said, the bigger the tv size, the better in quality you will get. When I bought the 20" for my office to show my clients but after seen what I saw, i didnt' like it. Therefore, if I invest in the 42" HDTV, I rather have that in my house than my office :) For now, I just have to warn my clients and wait until the blue-ray or HD DVD player gets cheaper!

Perhaps the reason that Buba didn't see a difference between an upscaling and non upscaling player is the TV's he was using already had built in upscaling. Many TV broadcasts and video sources are still in SD, so some HDTVs offer built in upscaling in order to help these SD sources look better. Hooking an upscaling player up to a TV that already does upscaling you won't see much of a difference. It doesn't matter where the upscaling takes place, in the player or the TV as long as its upscaled.

Another possible explanation for the discrepancies in Buba's experience vs other peoples is that many upscaling players still have standard composite and S-Video outputs. In order to take advantage of the up-scaled video the player must be connected via HD connections, such as HDMI or component. It won't matter if the player is upscaling or not if its only connected via composite or s-video.