How does Blu-ray player upconverting work?

Question

i saw a few Blu-ray players in the store today that said:

Upconverts DVDs to 1080p

Well, if I buy a blu-ray player and it upconverts my old dvds to 1080p, why would I every buy the higher priced blu-ray discs???

Do blu-ray discs go beyond 1080p???

man, sometimes this stuff is confusing.

Answer 1

Native 1080p resolution is always better than upconverted. Also blue ray discs are capable of higher audio quality and more channels as well, which regular dvds aren't even with a blue ray player.

Answer 2

The point is that upconverting to 1080p is done artificially and not naturally through the blue-ray player's 1080p decoding process. So, you would probably want something that is naturally done whether than artificially; the process looks better because of the natural occurence done throught the process.

Blue-ray discs are encoded at a maximun scan rate of 1,920 vertical lines and 1,080 horizontal lines of resolution in the better (progressive) scanning process.

Answer 3

Aside from all the tech talk. Blu-ray upconverts regular DVDs to a more defined picture. In other words it doesn't really make a regular DVD into 1080p resolution, it only adds artificial lines of resolution to give it a sharper image.

The video, and especially the sound of a Blu-ray movie is unbeatable.

Answer 4

It is confusing, and the ads don't help since they MAY not lie, but can be misleading to consumers.

First point .. Blu-ray is native 1920x1080p ... the same as the maximum resolution consumer HDTVs (so called "True HD" ... a misnomer since 720p is also HD).

Now, why buy higher priced Blu-ray disks and not just watch DVDs?

It might help to consider that a DVD is native 720x480 pixels (NTSC). To upconvert that to fit a "True HD" 1920x1080 pixel display, the number of distinct dots (each defined as a specific colour) has to be increased by 2.25x vertically and 2.67x horizontally. Upconversion, processes the information in adjacent dots in the original image to fill in the dots on the higher resolution display (or in even more sophisticated processors even incorporate information from adjacent frames). The quality of the result is dependent on the sophistication of the video processing ... done well the result is a noticeable improvement on the original, but done poorly and the result can be worse. In all cases the DVD image is technically now a 1920x1080 pixel image, BUT no matter how well processed it can't ever provide as detailed an image as a native Blu-ray image. You can't get something from nothing.

The question for most consumers is whether a Blu-ray disk is worth the premium cost relative to DVD. The answer is unfortunately not easy since all sorts of variables are involved.

For example, are you watching on a 720p or 1080p display? If the former, well upconverted DVDs will look quite close to a Blu-ray movie downsampled to 720p. Or, is the Blu-ray disk a good remaster of the original high quality film, or simply a Blu-ray reissue of the original DVD master (in which case it may be little better than the DVD at best). Or, is the screen large enough and are you watching close enough to be able to appreciate the increased detail in a Blu-ray disk. Finally, is it worth a premium price to watch a drama or comedy where the visual detail isn't that important (vs a visual spectacle type Sci-Fi movie for example)

So, the long answer to your question is Blu-ray is, and will remain, more expensive than DVD. Blu-ray will always provide at least some improvement visually and audio wise over DVD. Whether it's worth the extra cost for Blu-ray then becomes a personal decision on a benefit-cost basis.

In general many consumers have concluded that at current price differentials DVD is good enough, but as the price difference decreases this may change. My recommendation is to evaluate for yourself based on your equipment and viewing conditions by comparing several movies on both Blu-ray and DVD ... then act accordingly.

Hope that helps.