I've been considering buying a stand-alone Blu-Ray player to connect to a 32" HDTV. Unfortunately the HDTV is limited to 720p. (32" was the biggest I could fit into the entertainment center and my wife was not amused by my suggestion to toss the entertainment center and buy a 60" TV.) Right now I simply use Verizon FIOS via HDMI and the picture on the HD channels is fine. My question is would I see improvement in the picture if I were to buy a Blu-Ray player and connect via HDMI, even though it wouldn't be displaying at 1080?
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General Blu-Ray question
- Thread starter old-wiz
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I'm not sure what you're comparing here. If you mean comparing a standard DVD player to the Blu-Ray player, then yes, the image from a Blu-Ray player playing a blu-ray disk at 720P will look better on a 32" 720p TV than a standard def DVD player playing a standard def DVD. If you mean will it look better than the HD 720p TV picture you are receiving over FIOS, then the answer is probably not.
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I have a 50" Samsung plasma TV that I bought before TVs that big were 1080p. Although it does do 1080i, most TV stations only broadcast in 720p. Anyway, I can tell very noticeable difference when playing a Blu-Ray movie than just HD TV from Comcast. I mean it is a pretty big difference.
Thanks for the replies.
When I play standard DVDs, it goes into the TV via s-video and it seems almost as good as the HDMI HD from FIOS. Perhaps the TV (A Samsung LN-T3242H) is upscaling the 420 from the DVD player to 720?
When I play standard DVDs, it goes into the TV via s-video and it seems almost as good as the HDMI HD from FIOS. Perhaps the TV (A Samsung LN-T3242H) is upscaling the 420 from the DVD player to 720?
On a 50" TV, I would certainly expect the difference to be conspicuous, particularly because even at the same resolution, TV has to be more aggressive in its use of compression. On a 32", the difference should not be as obvious. Howver, even on a 32" HD TV, the difference between standard DVD over s-video and Blu-ray on HDMI should be readily visible, even allowing for up-conversion on the standard DVD.
If you are watching DVDs via S-Video you aren't even seeing them at their full resolution. S-Video has a maximum resolution of 480i (interlaced). Standard DVDs support 480p (progressive) output. Unless you have a really old DVD player that doesn't support progressive output, you might try connecting your DVD player with component cables instead of S-Video. You can get component cables, if you don't have them, for almost nothing from monoprice.com.
If you think your standard definition interlaced s-video DVD is nearly as good as HD, then I suspect something is wrong with your setup and you aren't really seeing anything in HD anyway. There should be a significant difference in quality. I have a LN-S3251, and I see a huge difference between standard and high def video.
Your Samsung LN, as a 720 progressive display can only display 720p video. All other video input has to be upscaled or downscaled, and de-interlaced to match. That is either be done by the TV itself or by the output device (like a cable/satellite box).