Getting the best out of SD DVDs on LCD TVs

[g3org3y]

LCD TVs appear lovely with a proper HD signal into them. However, (imvho) they're quite a bit worse than standard CRTs with an SD signal piped through.

I've got a lot of DVDs that I don't really want to rebuy on Blu-Ray. Any advice on getting the best out of the DVD/LCD viewing experience.

I hear there are 'upscale' players that are supposed to fill in the gaps and give a pseudo HD appearance. Worth a look?

[probedb]

You need a good deinterlacer. If the player can't do this well then it'll look awful when it's upscaled.

That's why I ended up with an Oppo BR player, very good deinterlacing

[FlossyThePig]

What TV?
What player?
and
How are the two connected?

When I got my Panasonic LCD the deal included a Bluray player. I connected them using an HDMI cable. I connected the old DVD player/VCR using a SCART cable. Picture quality of a DVD played on the Bluray player was vastly superior compared to playing the same DVD on the DVD player. I'm sure the interconnect was the main cause of the difference.

[OldSkoolRS]

Some players are better than others at upscaling and deinterlacing (both of which required to take a PAL DVD from 576i to 1080p for example). On a larger projector screen it's even more apparent which device gives the best result: I've tried different players and external video processors. In my case I found that my Oppo BDP93 does a pretty good job with DVDs, better than the projector itself (JVC X35) and better than my previous Sony BluRay player (which gave exactly the same picture quality on BluRays).

However, using my Oppo allows a setting called 'source direct' which means I get the signal output as near as possible to what is on the disc. Then I use an external Lumagen video processor to do the upscaling and deinterlacing. Although I mainly bought the VP for it's calibration features and CMS that my projector doesn't natively have, the Lumagen gives an even better result than the Oppo's own upscaling. Even on a near 10' wide screen I can watch DVDs and enjoy them. However, despite this high end upscaling DVDs still don't look as good as BluRays, so the ultimate answer is to get the BluRay version if quality is paramount.

EDIT: I meant to add that when I route those DVDs (or Freeview from a PVR) via the Lumagen to my 5 YO LCD TV the picture is much better than the SD TV channels from it's own built in tuner.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Tuesday 9th April 17:10

[Road2Ruin]

You must be doing something wrong DVDs look great on my 37" Panasonic 1080p. This is however played through a Bluray player. On the upscaling issue though TVs obviously do this by themselves to a better or worse degree as they always have to display the picture in their native format. On modern TVs there are a number of frame and image compensation settings (some which work better than others from my experience) often it's a case of just playing around to see what works best.

[g3org3y]

It's a Tosh XV555 (full HD) in 37 inch flavour liked to an old Pioneer all in one DVD/amp 5.1 system.

Given the age of the DVD player, there's no digital out, only SCART which is connected to the TV via a Cambridge Audio gold connector.

It's not bad, but I'll be honest I think it looked better on the old (Panasonic) CRT.

Is there computer software that does a decent upscale/deinterlacing job? Already have my desktop computer linked up to the TV as a monitor (DVI to HDMI connector). Might that produce a better picture?

[probedb]

g3org3y said:

It's a Tosh XV555 (full HD) in 37 inch flavour liked to an old Pioneer all in one DVD/amp 5.1 system.

Given the age of the DVD player, there's no digital out, only SCART which is connected to the TV via a Cambridge Audio gold connector.

It's not bad, but I'll be honest I think it looked better on the old (Panasonic) CRT.

Is there computer software that does a decent upscale/deinterlacing job? Already have my desktop computer linked up to the TV as a monitor (DVI to HDMI connector). Might that produce a better picture?

Well you're not using a digital connection for a start. So that DVD picture is first converted to an analogue signal, then your TV has to convert it back to a digital signal, process and upscale it.

Buy a new player. I'd say even the cheapest £20 DVD players with an HDMI output will look better than what you have now.

[Road2Ruin]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I agree, my bluray playing DVDs looks great.

[OldSkoolRS]

The other point is whether the existing DVD player is using RGB via scart or just composite video? The former can still look quite decent (though granted an upscaling player with HDMI is likely to look better in any case).

[RizzoTheRat]

Some DVD/bluray players upscale, some TV's upscale. I believe if they're both doing it it's a bad thing.

I use a PS3 as player and it gives a great quality picture from SD DVD's. You can pick up second hand ones pretty cheap and with a media server NAS drive or PS3 Media Server on a PC they're great for streaming video too.

[C&C]

Road2Ruin said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I agree, my bluray playing DVDs looks great.

^^^^
This.

The upscaling built into my TV is less than great, and this is a Panasonic 55 inch VT50, so pretty much top quality screen, however, load the DVD into a decent Blu-Ray player (in my case Panasonic BDT500), and the quality takes a massive junp. Still obviously not as good as using Blu Ray source, but very watchable. Watching anything SD relying on the TV to upscale results in you constantly thinking about how rubbish the picture is.
Decent Blu Ray player connected via HDMI is your answer.

[g3org3y]

Thanks for the advice chaps