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[gofreak]

I cant tell the difference between a DVD upscaled by Xbox Media center 720p/1080i and 480p

My Sony Wega Super Fine Pitch HDTV set is kinda small so that may be the problem.

The size of your display may be part of the problem - you'd certainly appreciate more resolution on a big screen or projector - but I don't think XMC is really a good way to judge the merits of DVD upconversion. All DVD upconversion is not created equally - I doubt your Xbox's upconverting quality is anywhere near as good as a fast PC with FFDShow or a Faroudja scaler.

With upconversion on FFDShow on a PC, I can only personally attest that there can be a dramatic difference. Maybe I'm noticing it more because it's on a projector, but even taking screencaps of before and after displays a big difference. Obviously results depend on the source - not all DVD transfers are of a high quality - but it continually amazes me how more detail can be brought out of a standard DVD with upconversion. The latest Star Wars DVD, upconverted, is breathtaking. Is any of this as good as a hidef DVD? No. But it's the next best thing, and a nice way to offset the "hurt" of switching to a new movie format (you'll probably only end up replacing your favourite movies, if that, or one's with bad DVD transfers).

I took some screencaps a while ago of "before and after" with upconversion using ffdshow, but I can't put my hands on them now. But, for example, where the texture of frodo's clothes in LoTR was blurry at the normal resolution in one shot, the same shot upconverted revealed the actual weave in the cloth. You could see individual hair where before they were blurry. The difference was great, imo.

 

[trmas]

unless the government forces everyone to switch

They are. All OTA broadcasts in the next few years will be HD. It was supposed to have already happened, but the infrastructure was not in place to support it. Now, that isn't as much of an issue.

In the next few years, you will not be able to get a new TV that isn't HD capable in some way.

 

[Blimblim]

The size of your display may be part of the problem - you'd certainly appreciate more resolution on a big screen or projector - but I don't think XMC is really a good way to judge the merits of DVD upconversion. All DVD upconversion is not created equally - I doubt your Xbox's upconverting quality is anywhere near as good as a fast PC with FFDShow or a Faroudja scaler.

With upconversion on FFDShow on a PC, I can only personally attest that there can be a dramatic difference. Maybe I'm noticing it more because it's on a projector, but even taking screencaps of before and after displays a big difference. Obviously results depend on the source - not all DVD transfers are of a high quality - but it continually amazes me how more detail can be brought out of a standard DVD with upconversion. The latest Star Wars DVD, upconverted, is breathtaking. Is any of this as good as a hidef DVD? No. But it's the next best thing, and a nice way to offset the "hurt" of switching to a new movie format (you'll probably only end up replacing your favourite movies, if that, or one's with bad DVD transfers).

I took some screencaps a while ago of "before and after" with upconversion using ffdshow, but I can't put my hands on them now. But, for example, where the texture of frodo's clothes in LoTR was blurry at the normal resolution in one shot, the same shot upconverted revealed the actual weave in the cloth. You could see individual hair where before they were blurry. The difference was great, imo.

Hmmm. Where to begin?
Ffdshow is only useful for true interlaced material (like games, non series tv shows and home movies for example). LOTR and Star Wars are 23.97 fps progressive dvds, so you just need either a reverse telecine algorithm (if you capture from a standalone dvd player and use the PC to upconvert) or nothing if you use a software dvd player on the PC (since it won't have to telecine it to 29.97 fps, and then convert to progressive again).
When you use a line doubler or quadrupler, it first creates a progressive image, then upscales it. It mights help a bit for the details because there won't be the interlacing flickering anymore, but it won't create details that are not there in the first place

 

[Blimblim]

They are. All OTA broadcasts in the next few years will be HD. It was supposed to have already happened, but the infrastructure was not in place to support it. Now, that isn't as much of an issue.

In the next few years, you will not be able to get a new TV that isn't HD capable in some way.

Not everyone here lives in the US you know. It will be a looooooong time before even 5% of the europeans have a HDTV. For the moment the only HDTV capable sets you can find here in france are either DLP, plasma or LCD. I don't think there is even one HDTV CRT set available here yet.

 

[gofreak]

but it won't create details that are not there in the first place

I said it brought them out, not created detail that wasn't there. And it really does.

LoTOR and Star Wars (and more) do look a lot better with their resolution scaled to 1280x720 or 1920x1080. They're not interlaced sources, obviously, but the difference is certainly there.

 

[trmas]

Sorry Blim, I know squat about Europe. However, a good upscaler like a Faroudja chip in the newer DVD players makes a huge difference with the newer DVD's that use a lot of CG. For example, Appleseed, the Incredibles, Star Wars, LoTR, Spiderman 2, etc all look markedly better on my DLP with an upscaled picture. They look even more amazing on the Sharp LCD with higher resolution capabilities. Older movies like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones don't.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Hard to say at this point whether or not you will be able to watch upscaled DVDs through analog component video cables on PS3....

Most likely, the answer to that would be no,but there is a (IMO slim) chance you will be able to watch upscaled DVD movies through analog component on PS3...


P.S. You got APPLESEED??

Where?


Is it subbed? Dubbed?

Was it ever officially released in the US?

 

[trmas]

I got Appleseed at Best Buy, but also saw it at Target of all places. It has an English track, Japanese track, and English subtitles with Japanese. And it's freaking awesome!!

I got it a few weeks ago.

 

[Kleegamefan]

OH FUCK!!!

Appleseed GET!!!