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DVD Upconvert: Optimizing Your DVD Viewing Experience
By willbry | January 27, 2008
DVD Upconvert: Optimizing Your DVD Viewing Experience
So you’ve got your high definition television and your vast DVD collection and want to know how to optimize your DVD viewing experience. Whether you are using a quality DVD upconverter (such as the Oppo DV-981HD), a Blu-Ray player (such as the Panasonic DMP-BD10), an HD DVD player (such as the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player), or a plain old DVD player, here are a few steps you can take to optimize the experience of viewing your old 480i DVD collection on an HD television.
DVD Upconvert: Connecting the Hardware
The first step you’ll want to take is to insure you are using quality HDMI connections between all components. You need a digital connection between your DVD player source and your HD television to keep the signal digital between components. As previously discussed, if you are using another connection, such as S video or a component connection, the digital signal from the DVD player is converted to analog as it travels across the cable and then converted back to digital by your HD television. This digital to analog to digital conversion inevitably leads to a loss in quality.
Optimize your viewing experience by selecting a quality HDMI cable; beware cheaper HDMI cables that will compromise your viewing experience. Always remember: you get what you pay for. Invest in quality and you will have a much higher quality viewing experience.
DVD Upconvert: DVD Player Settings
Aspect Ratio: Check your DVD player’s configuration settings and ensure you have selected an aspect ratio of 16:9 for the DVD player’s output (which is feeding your HD television screen). This setting is usually located somewhere in the setup menu of your DVD player under video output. If you are unable to locate this setting, check your owner’s manual. If your DVD player is very old, this may simply not be an option (I would highly advise considering an upgrade if this is the case - see the links above for recommendations on quality DVD upconverting players).
Without setting the output aspect ratio to 16:9, your DVD player may be configured to use 4:3 aspect ratio output, which is the resolution of older analog (non-widescreen) televisions. This results in the wrong aspect ratio going to your HD television (images may be stretched tall and thin, or squashed short and fat - yuck!).
Progessive vs. Interlaced: Test each of these settings to see which results in the best picture. While it is true that progressive scan usually results in higher quality video, configuring your DVD player to use interlaced while your HD television handles the progressive scan translation may result in a better viewing experience. Test each configuration setting and use the one that looks best to you. There is no general rule that applies to all DVD players and all HD televisions for this setting.
DVD Upconvert: HD Television Picture Settings
As a general rule of thumb, most HD televisions come from the manufacturer with a picture setting that is too bright. If the current picture setting of your HD television is set to something like “vivid” or “dynamic”, adjust to a slightly darker setting, such as “cinematic” or “movie”.
To truely enhance your viewing experience, invest in DVD calibration, using something like the The Ultimate DVD - Home Theater Fine Tuning Made Simple. This product was designed to assist you in optimizing your HD television and, by extension, your viewing experience.
DVD Upconvert: Optimizations Summary
To optimize the viewing experience of your existing DVD collection on your HD television, take the following steps:
- Use quality HDMI connections between all components.
- Configure your DVD player to use a 16:9 aspect ratio.
- Test both progressive and interlaced settings on your DVD player to see which works best for you; don’t assume progressive is the best, you may be surprised to learn interlaced results in a better video.
- Adjust your HD television’s brightness to something darker than its default setting.
- If quality genuinely matters to you, invest in DVD Calibration tools to further enhance your viewing experience.
Until next time, enjoy a higher quality viewing experience. . .
Topics: dvd upconvert |
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