Should I buy an upconverting DVD player?

Question

I have a 20 inch LCD HDTV in my bedroom, and it looks great with HD material. and most DVD at 480p look great too, but on darker scenes, the picture sometimes appears grainy and even though my TV is calibrated, detail is lost at times. On movies like Underworld where it is dark the whole movie, that can be a problem at times. Oddly enough, my Superbit copy of underworld looks worse than the normal Underworld Evolution DVD. But its not alot of movies that look like that, for example the Transformers movie DVD looks pristine all the way through. But it still irks me quite a bit, would buying a cheaper upscaling DVD player be a good idea? and if i am not pleased with the results I could always take it back to the store

Answer 1

The issue you described with blacks washing out is due to the LCD, not the DVD player. Because LCD requires back lighting, blacks can be washed out, or grayed by the back-lighting.  

Plasma is better at displaying blacks because it does not need a back light.

The resolution provided by standard DVD is more than enough for a 20" LCD HDTV.  You did not mention the TV's aspect ration, is 16:9 or 4:3.  Up conversion will provide a 16:9 ratio when you playback 16:9 anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) DVD.

I have been thinking about the same purchase.  I have decided to wait a little longer for the BlueRay / HD war to end and just buy one of those.

I was at Best Buy the other day and saw a BlueRay movie playing and it looked incredible!

Answer 2

Specifically for the problem you have, should you buy an upconverting dvd player? maybe NOT.

Would I buy an upconverting player just for a much better picture quality? h**l YEAH!!

i bought a SONY upconverting dvd player for $90 and I'm loving every bit of it..it was a way cool investment. I can now sit out and wait for the HD and Blue ray battle to settle once and for all.

In the mean time, I'm enjoying awesome quality DVD movies.

Disclaimer* I have a 1080 p 42" LCD

Answer 3

I suspect it won't help you much. I say that for two reasons:

1) with good DVDs you get a "great" picture; and,

2) the dark scenes are probably grainy on HD material too.

I suspect it is the LCD itself, not resolution / poor video processing that does it. Low dynamic range on LCD panels is a common issue. This could be verified by seeing if you get the same effect with dark HD material as well as dark DVDs.

That said, if you want to try an upconverting player to see if you can benefit I don't think cheaper upconverting players are going to do anything (Your HDTV will do as good or better job).

If I wanted to try it I'd buy an HD-A3 HD DVD players (they just went on sale for about $130 in the US or $170 in Canada -- with free HD DVD movies). They are excellent upconverting DVD players (and less expensive than an Oppo (the best upconverting player).

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

With Toshiba HD players for less than $200.00 (180.00 thru amazon.com) for a 1080p player that upconverts and a 1080i player for less than $150.00 (129.00 thru amazon.com) and 2 free movies in the box with a mail in rebate for 5 more of your choice, that may be the way to go. I have an upconverting and I doubt that it was a good investment.