1080p upscaling

Brumboy · 26 Apr 2011 at 14:21

I'm just wondering if the 1080p technology that's featured in many blu ray players and even TV's is any good?

Is this as effective as it sounds? I've read on many sites selling these players & TV's that they literally upscale DVD's and even TV to 1080p video quality?

Is this too good to be true?

TheVoice · 26 Apr 2011 at 14:35

Results can vary I think. I use my PS3 for all of my media, which includes DVD, BD and HD and SD video files, and I'm always very happy with the results it gives me for SD stuff. The PS3 does an astounding job at making quite low-res stuff look fairly decent. This is on a Bravia 40" TV at 1080p too, so it's quite an achievement.

Granted, if you get close to the screen you're going to see that the detail isn't there, but from a normal viewing distance I have no complaints at all.

Incidentally, I've tried my Xbox 360 for comparison's sake, and wasn't as impressed with its output. I also had a Samsung home theatre system for a while that claimed to upscale DVDs, didn't think it did a particularly stellar job either.

shadow_boxer · 26 Apr 2011 at 15:03

Did you use PlayTV via PS3 to you Sony TV? What did you think of the SD channels compared to your TV's own built in frewview?

Which TV is it btw?

TheVoice · 26 Apr 2011 at 15:14

Never used PlayTV I'm afraid, I can't get a Freeview signal in my flat so I can't use the built in Freeview HD either, and my standard analogue reception is pretty poor too. It sucks, but the TV does at least have the facility to use iPlayer and Demand Five, so that makes up for it somewhat.

It's a Sony Bravia KDL-40EX403.

the wopster · 26 Apr 2011 at 16:49

it depends what you use,the scalers in a bluray/dvd player are no better than the scaler in yout tv but a good av reciver or dvdo Edge or Lumagen Vision will do a great job of upscaling to 1080p but you pay a top buck for them