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DVD Upconvert: Quality Matters, Part I
By willbry | January 13, 2008
DVD Upconvert: Quality Matters, Part I
This is a two-part series examining the Video Scaler’s role in DVD Upconversion. Part I provides a basic overview of the video scaler, and compares the viewing experiences of a good video scaler with a bad video scaler. In Part II, we’ll discuss some examples of the good kind.
When evaluating whether a DVD Upconvert player is the right option for you, your final decision comes down to a question of quality: the quality of the video and, indeed, the quality of the overall viewing experience. The most critical factor that determines the quality of your viewing experience with a DVD Upconvert player is the Video Scaler.
The video scaler is the hardware that converts video signals from a lower resolution device (such as your basic 480i DVD) to a higher resolution device (such as a 1080p LCD or plasma television). The video scaler uses highly complex algorithms to determine how each pixel is upconverted to the higher resolution.
In order to complete the DVD Upconvert process, the DVD Upconvert player completes additional image data by evaluating the pixels on the existing DVD, and then predicting how the surrounding pixels should appear on your higher resolution HDTV. The DVD Upconvert player then generates the final image that you see on your HDTV.
DVD Upconversion can greatly enhance the viewing experience as a DVD upconvert player with a powerful video scaler allows DVDs – who have a resolution of 480i – to be viewed at a much higher resolution that more closely matches the resolution of your HDTV. (As previously discussed, Upconverted video is usually only available with digital connections- such as DVI or HDMI).
A critical point to understand is that there are some upconverting DVD players on the market that cannot upconvert well at all. These poorer quality players may use low-quality video enhancement hardware to simply enlarge video pixels from the DVD to fill-up the HD screen. The video scaler in these devices is simply inferior. Using one of these players, you will see artifacts such as video pixelation, color shifts, jagged lines, and “ringed borders” created by the inferior upconversion.
On the other hand, a quality DVD upconvert player (such as the Oppo DV-981HD) greatly enhances and extends your DVD viewing experience by providing a quality image more closely aligned with your HDTV. The colors are more vivid, the images more detailed – all the things you’d expect from your HDTV are simply there.
The difference in quality? The video scaler. Stay tuned for more information on the qualities and characteristics of high performing video scalers in the world of the DVD Upconvert player in Part II of this two-part series.
Until next time. . .
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