Panasonic 55K Upconversion help.

[chinkecheese]

I don't understand, I have my brand new dmp bd55 however it doesn't seem to upconvert any of my dvds. Is there a button I need to press? Or is it automatically setup?

I'm using an HDMI Cable connected to my AQUOS HD 1080P TV.



thank you

[BIslander]

I don't understand, I have my brand new dmp bd55 however it doesn't seem to upconvert any of my dvds. Is there a button I need to press? Or is it automatically setup?

I'm using an HDMI Cable connected to my AQUOS HD 1080P TV.

What's the setting for your HDMI output resolution?

[chinkecheese]

What's the setting for your HDMI output resolution?

1080p

10char

[BIslander]

1080p

10char

1080p should do it. Not sure what 10char means, though.

[MrBoylan]

I don't understand, I have my brand new dmp bd55 however it doesn't seem to upconvert any of my dvds. Is there a button I need to press? Or is it automatically setup?

I'm using an HDMI Cable connected to my AQUOS HD 1080P TV.

thank you

Why do you believe your player is not upconverting your DVDs?

Upconversion will simply take the 480i native DVD resolution, de-interlace it and upscale it to 1080p. It will not change the shape of the image, e.g., remove the black or grey side bars on 4:3 material. Is that what you were expecting to happen?

-CB

[MrBoylan]

1080p should do it. Not sure what 10char means, though.

I think there is a 10 character minimum on forum posts - "1080p" didn't make it.

-CB

[chinkecheese]

Why do you believe your player is not upconverting your DVDs?

Upconversion will simply take the 480i native DVD resolution, de-interlace it and upscale it to 1080p. It will not change the shape of the image, e.g., remove the black or grey side bars on 4:3 material. Is that what you were expecting to happen?

-CB

There are no grey or black bars. Could that be a problem? And when I'm watching the DVD, it's just like watching a youtube video online in fullscreen mode. It's very very hard to see. Almost gives you a headache.

So, on your blu ray player, when you put in a DVD does it look remotely like a blu ray disc? Like image quality wise, or is result (blurry, impossible to see) consistent with everyone else?


thanks.

[MrBoylan]

There are no grey or black bars. Could that be a problem? And when I'm watching the DVD, it's just like watching a youtube video online in fullscreen mode. It's very very hard to see. Almost gives you a headache.

So, on your blu ray player, when you put in a DVD does it look remotely like a blu ray disc? Like image quality wise, or is result (blurry, impossible to see) consistent with everyone else?

thanks.

A DVD will never look like a Blu-ray Disc no matter how good your upconverting processor is. It's impossible to restore all of the missing detail when you start with less than 1/6 the detail of a 1080p image (DVDs have approximately 346,000 pixels vs. over 2 million pixels in a Blu-ray Disc). And this is not to mention the higher color detail available in Blu-ray.

But neither should a DVD look like YouTube video. The only DVDs I have seen that look outright bad on the BD35/BD55 are ones that are non-anamorphic widescreen, like The Abyss: Special Edition. But there's not much you can do about this on ANY DVD or Blu-ray Player as these are much lower in resolution than even standard def DVDs.

Specifically what DVDs are you playing that look this bad? I'd guess that you have a bad (defective) player if your DVDs look like bad YouTube video.

I assume Blu-ray Discs look OK?

-CB

[chinkecheese]

Saying it looked like a youtube video might have been too far.
What I'm saying is that I don't think there is an improvement over my regular dvd player vs. my dmp 55 as far as playback quality goes.


I'm trying to watch Rick Steve's Europe, it's a TV show on PBS. I bought the discs.

But also, Lord of the Rings Return of the king didn't look good at all even for a newer dvd.

So, is it safe to assume that DVD upconversion happens automatically? I'm going to test my dvd player vs my bluray player side by side to see if there is any sort of improvement.


Also maybe i'm getting the wrong idea.
Say if you were watching a Youtube video, at default resolution (without hitting full screen) the quality of the video is watchable. By hitting full screen, the quality significantly gets decreased because its being fit to full screen.

Is my blu ray player supposed to do exactly that? Or is it supposed to refine the image as well?


thanks again for reply


edit--

I just found out that if I use my composite cable, it's 10x better than using my HDMI cable when upconverting.

Any ideas?

[MrBoylan]

Saying it looked like a youtube video might have been too far.
What I'm saying is that I don't think there is an improvement over my regular dvd player vs. my dmp 55 as far as playback quality goes.


I'm trying to watch Rick Steve's Europe, it's a TV show on PBS. I bought the discs.

But also, Lord of the Rings Return of the king didn't look good at all even for a newer dvd.

So, is it safe to assume that DVD upconversion happens automatically? I'm going to test my dvd player vs my bluray player side by side to see if there is any sort of improvement.


Also maybe i'm getting the wrong idea.
Say if you were watching a Youtube video, at default resolution (without hitting full screen) the quality of the video is watchable. By hitting full screen, the quality significantly gets decreased because its being fit to full screen.

Is my blu ray player supposed to do exactly that? Or is it supposed to refine the image as well?


thanks again for reply


edit--

I just found out that if I use my composite cable, it's 10x better than using my HDMI cable when upconverting.

Any ideas?

First of all, if you're using a composite cable, then the player is not upconverting anything, it's outputting the program at 480i and your TV is upconverting to its native resolution. If using HDMI, then the player is upconverting to 1080p. Are you sure your TV is a native 1080p set (native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels)? What's the TV's model number?

In terms of your other question, yes upconversion to 1080p (or whatever is your selected output resolution) is automatic. It enlarges the image from 720x480 pixels (interlaced) to 1920x1080 pixels (progressive) by interpolating missing data between the known pixels. All players do this a bit differently, but the Panasonic players are definitely among the better ones at standard def upconversion.

Also, if you're not seeing black or grey bars on the side for this program (Rick Steve's Europe), then you're watching it wrong. The original series was shot (and the DVDs are presented) at 1.33:1. This means the content is native 4:3 material (not 16:9, which is your TV's aspect ratio). If you're seeing the program on the entire screen (no black or grey bars on the sides) then the program is being stretched and/or zoomed to fit the screen and you will definitely get distortion, either excessive pixelation from zooming in on the content or incorrect/fat geometry of the image, neither of which is ideal. What aspect ratio have you selected on the Sharp TV?

And BTW, both the PBS set and the LOTR disc (if it's the early single disc version of the film) are not the best discs to test for video quality as each squishes about 3 hours (or more) of video content onto a single DVD. If it's one of the extended editions of LOTR:ROTK, then it should be OK as it breaks the film in half over two discs (or two disc sides, depending on the version).

If it's a "full screen" version of LOTR:ROTK (as indicated on the disc packaging), then it should also have the black bars on the left and right. If it's a "widescreen" version of the film, then it should have black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. If it has *NO* black bars on either side, then again, you're distoring the picture either by zooming it in, stretching it, or both.

Buy, hey, if you like the way DVDs look connected by composite cable to your TV instead of HDMI, then by all means do it that way. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that your TV would be better at upconverting the SD content to 1080p than the player is (again, if it is a true 1080p TV and assuming these are store-bought DVDs), but set it up however you like and however it gives the best picture to your eyes.

But I would be curious to know:

• TV model number?
• Aspect Ratio/version of LOTR:ROTK DVD (Full Screen or Widescreen)?
• Are you seeing black bars on LOTR:ROTK either on the top/bottom or sides?
• What wide mode or aspect ratio are you using on the TV when viewing DVDs?

Regards,

-Chris