720P vs 1080P NEED ADVICE

[zepman1]

I would get the 1080p if it was me. I am in the market shortly for another tv, probably 50" plasma or LCD. The premium for 1080p is not what it used to be, and I would like to maximize the performance of Bluray and my cable tv. You will never regret getting 1080p, but might regret not getting it.

On another note...

Can someone please explain/clarify the benefits of upconverting standard DVD's with a bluray player? It does not make sense to me how this is improving anything.

I have a 720p 50" LCD. When I watch DVD's from my standard DVD player, doesn't the TV have to convert everything to the its native resolution of 720p? So it upconverts the signal already. What is an upconverting DVD player going to add to that?

And besides, upconverting adds no additional information to the signal, so how does it improve it anyhow? If the picture is 480p on the disc, there is no more resolution available than that. If anything wouldn't the upconverting process be adding artifacts to the picture that should not be there?

[GMichael]

You are correct. It's just that the BR player does a better job of upconverting than most TV's. Be sure to set the output of the BR player to match the natural res of your TV. It doesn't help to convert 480 to 1080 just so that your TV has to convert that to 720.

[zepman1]

You are correct. It's just that the BR player does a better job of upconverting than most TV's. Be sure to set the output of the BR player to match the natural res of your TV. It doesn't help to convert 480 to 1080 just so that your TV has to convert that to 720.

Thanks, that is sort of what I thought. I guess it just depends on the relative quality of the upconverting in the TV versus the bluray player. Probably makes no difference with the budget players, but maybe some gains when using higher performance models. Kind of like comparing DAC's in audio.

And yes, that makes sense to upconvert to only 720p or you are just over-processing the picture.