upconverting dvd player?

i didn't know where else to ask this.
I am thinking about getting one of those upconverting 1080p regular dvd players (not hddvd or bluray). But i already have a dvd player, but it is not 1080p only 480p. i have a tv that has 1080p and if i got the upscaling dvd player, would i see a really big difference??

 

Yeah 480 to 1080p is a really noticeable difference. You might want to purchase the Oppo 1080p upconverting dvd player. Best upconverting dvd player (with a firmware upgrade) IMO.

 

Definitely get an Oppo. These are the best DVD players currently available. The only thing that would provide a better picture is an HD-DVD or Blueray.

 

If you are using a display device that is native 1080p I doubt you will see a noticeable difference. The reason is your TV is already upconverting everything to 1080p. The only way a difference would be noticeable would be if the DVD player in question does a better job of upconverting (which it may). The problem is will you be able to notice the difference, and if you can is it worth the money you'll spend for the DVD player in the first place. For the money I would shoot for a second generation HDDVD player that does real 1080p, as they upconvert also.

This upconverted difference would be most notable on larger displays and projectors.

 

Don't all PC/notebook DVD drives upconvert to the resolution of your monitor (Be it CRT or LCD)?

 

This is not a question with a definite answer.

It will totally depend on your hardware as in:

The quality of the scaler in your TV/Monitor and the quality of the scaler in the dvd player.

In general TV's dont have good scalers but with all the HD stuff newer sets have gotten much better. So probably whats more important than the resolution is the scan type (progressive or interlaced) if its a HD set you absolutely want progressive.

If you have a computer to play them thru, thats the best a video card scaler in a computer is ages better than a built in scaler in a TV/Monitor and still much better (and more customizable) than a hardware scaler in a dvd player.

 

not the drive but the video card is responsible for this and its drivers. It wont upconvert at all if you dont wish it you, you have to set it up as so.

 

Okay so I have a Go7400, Core 2 Duo and DVD drive using Media Player Classic K lite mega pack. How would I go about making sure it is configured correctly to playing DVD's at my monitors native 1280x800 (16x10 so there will be slight black bars)?

 

Get some nvidia drivers that have the option for aspect scaling it will scale to fit the screen as large as possible without distorting it so if its 4:3 on a widescreen monitor it will have black bars on the sides, if its widescreen on a 4:3 monitor it will have black bars on top and bottom.

In the newer drivers the option is under "change flat panel scaling" and you would put something like "stretch to fit screen but retain aspect"

the other 2 options would be "do not stretch" this is called 1:1 mode it will keep everything in the original format so if you play a 400x300 video on a 1920x1080 screen you will just have a small box in the middle with black on all sides. The last option is "stretch to fit screen" it will fit it to the screen and stretch it out of proportion depending on the resolution of your screen and the source.

 

Whoops I see I worded my question wrong. I didn't mean external monitor I ment the LCD attached to my laptop. I just wanted to make sure I was configureinging it correctly.

In Nvidia control panel I went to:

Display>Change Flat Panal Settings

It then gave me a page with a greyed 1280x800 resolution I cannot change (It is my native).

It also has greyed (use nvidia scaling)

So I am guessing it is already set up then.

 

That means your current drivers dont allow you to change it. nvidia scaling means the video card is doing the scaling however it probably means its in the stretch to fit screen mode since there was no mention of aspect scaling.

external monitor and lcd attached to your laptop are the same thing btw. Any display device other than your attached screen

 

Maybe you should look into an HD-DVD player because it also acts as a upconverting player such as the Toshiba A30