# Upconverting DVD players



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Over the weekend I decided to pick up a Toshiba SD-5980 upconverting DVD players. It converts DVD's to 720p or 1080i using the HDMI output.

I was a little skeptical at first. I'm not really big on upconverting anything to HD but the player was cheap ($99) and I thought I would give it a try with my Sony 57" RPTV.

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The darn thing works well. Even though there is really no increase in resolution, the upconversion smooths the picture out nicely. No scanlines are visible at all (I can see them in 480p) and it's really hard to tell that any upconversion is taking place. What I really like the most is that sharp edges of objects look smooth and clean.

The only thing that bothered me is that the progressive scan output looks worse than the interlaced output. From what I understand, it has always been a problem with this player. Once I switched to interlaced and let the Sony RPTV handle the conversion to progressive, the PQ looked excellent.

I've been reading up a bit and apparently the chipset used in Panasonic DVD players do a much better task at upconversion. On the other hand, the Toshiba's also do well under certain circumstances.

After watching a few movies this weekend, I think I will keep this thing around for a while. It's really quite wonderful watching DVD's in 1080i. Last night I popped in the Superbit DVD of "Men In Black". Wow! If I didn't know better I would have swore it was true HD. This player also has a card slot on the front so you can view pictures from a digital camera in HD. The slot will accept nine different cards.

Even though these players aren't perfect, they do a good job. If you have the means to pick one up, give it a shot. It does take some experimentation but once you find the settings that work, you might find yourself watching your DVD's all over again just to see them in sudo-HD.

More info about the player: http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvd/product.asp?model=sd-5980


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Welcome to the Up-converters club. 

I love my Samsung DVD-HD931.

Brings back memories.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=30409


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Sorry I'm late to the party. I've been reading some of the threads here and at AVS. Just never got around to picking one up until now. I'm very surprised on how well they work.

Another drawback that I forgot to mention in my earlier post. 4X3 DVD's are stretched to fit on a 16X9 display. Yuck! Makes it impossible to use the zoom mode in the player to watch non-anamorphic widescreen DVD's. Would be nice to be able to do it in 1080i but oh well. Another thing is that there seems to be no way to upgrade the firmware.


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## deraz (Sep 25, 2004)

Chris - where did you find it for $99 ? Doing a quick scan on the internet looks like it sells for around $125.

I wish it offered DVDAudio and/or SACD, but I guess that is asking a lot for the price.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

deraz said:


> Chris - where did you find it for $99 ? Doing a quick scan on the internet looks like it sells for around $125.
> 
> I wish it offered DVDAudio and/or SACD, but I guess that is asking a lot for the price.


Sorry I didn't specify. It was an open box item. Still worth $125 though.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Chris Blount said:


> Sorry I didn't specify. It was an open box item. Still worth $125 though.


Again, WHERE?


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Best Buy


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Deraz, I have seen the Samsung 841 for $99 as well at BestBuy and American TV.


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## MikeSoltis (Aug 1, 2003)

Don't get the Samsung 841 - the picture is OK but the downconverted audio out (for when you don't feel like turning on your receiver and are just going to listen through your TV) is positively HORRID - static and noise. This is a design fault (cheap chipset?) not a player fault. I'll probably get another Panasonic when my RP82 goes, but I've got 480p through the Faroujda chip in the player - didn't really see much improvement with the 841.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

All the Sony recorders, this year will upconvert (According to Sony trainers in March). The specs I've read on the new models indicate otherwise.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Anybody see this one yet? It is a DVD recorder / VCR combo and both the DVD-RW and VHS player are up-converted and both VCR and DVD are connected thru the same HDMI cable.

http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=DVD-VR325%2fXAA


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

When I decided to get back into DVD wayching again with the two majors doing all you can watch for a flat fee per month ($15 HollywoodVideo)($25/mo Blockbuster) I felt it time to get a new DVD player and went for an LG model that was upconvert and HDMI output. I had to use the HDMI-DVI converter cable but the quality is a significant improvement over my old Y,Cr,Cb -player. 
Chris- one debatable reason you experience a better look with the interlaced output is because your monitor is more compatible with interlaced scan as opposed to progressive pixel based imaging. In my case the best picture is the 720P output since my native res monitor is 720Px1280. The image is clean and the colors are very natural. I also have an LCD with native 720x1280 (Panasonic FPTV) screen but the image is not as natural as the DLP (DWIN TV3e)


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

Sony RDRVX715H 160GB HD and DVD recorder with HMDI about 700, Sony DVPNS70H player with HMDI about 150


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