Upconvert on Reciever or DVD Player?

[PTDOCTOR]

Hey,

I have been trying to figure out the answer to this question through searching posts, but this forum is so extensive it takes forever to read through everything.

Anyway, I am trying to decide between the Pioneer Elite 81 or 82 recievers, with the 82 having the Faroudja upconverting and the 81 not having it. Do I spend more for the upconverter on the 82 or should I just buy an upconverting DVD player like the OPPO? Does a reciever upconvert "better" than a DVD player or vice versa? Any reason to have both an upconverting reciever and player?

I would be grateful for any replies or directions to the proper thread.

Thanks

[mauitime]

Thanks for posting my next question! I'm looking at the Denon receivers but still I'm in the same boat. Hope somebody replies that knows the answer! :)

[jjdaniel]

Reviving a old thread from the dead...

I'm in the same boat. I'm a newbie, but have been doing a lot of reading, and I haven't seen this topic answered anywhere.

I would like to send my TV the best possible signal, rather than have it upconvert the signal. My line of thinking is to get a upconverting receiver, so that all inputs are upconverted. If I get an upconverting DVD player instead, well, then only one input is upconverted. But the receiver could upconvert my cable, a PVR, etc.

I haven't bought a PVR, DVD player or receiver to go with my new 37" LCD. I saw plenty of upconverting DVD players, but not too many PVRs, so I started shopping for an upconverting receivers - and there aren't too many.

So is my line of thinking way out to lunch then? I've seen a lot of threads saying "let the TV do the upconversion for you" - but I doubt my TV could match a good Faroudja or Mediatek chip.

[ruk1234]

I have the 82 reciever and the denon 2809 dvd player I use the dvd player to up convert dvd and not the reciever! Both units have the Fajurioa (spelling) chip. I was told that the denon was better at doing that! So my answer is depends on the quality of the dvd player if both have the fajurioa (SPELLING) chip wont matter much evan if both upcovert at the same time ! I could not tell a huge differance allthough that is not a good idea. One down side of that reciever is that If you are only running a HDMI out to tv and nothing else if you have say a componet or composite device running into the 82 and have vid conversion off for the dvd (saying that you watched a movie last) you need to turn vid conversion back on in the 82's menu to see a picture for anything not using HDMI into the reciver!

As a side note I think that the Denon 2909 droped in proce GREAT player if willing to spend the $$$

[louthewiz]

A direct connection will always yield best results in any application,
video switching avrs are a convinience but a direct feed will always be best,
As for video upconversion get an upscaling dvd player since they are inexpensive or an HD dvd player since the prices are starting to come down...

[tweeterex]

I would like to send my TV the best possible signal, rather than have it upconvert the signal

why? many tvs have very good video processors and would likely do a better job than a basic processor in an inexpensive dvd player.

[tostitobandito]

[QUOTE=jjdaniel]So is my line of thinking way out to lunch then? I've seen a lot of threads saying "let the TV do the upconversion for you" - but I doubt my TV could match a good Faroudja or Mediatek chip.[/QUOTE]

A lot of TV's, especially the higher end ones, have chips that are better than the ones in the vast majority of the consumer receivers and dvd players that upconvert.

[SiriuslyCold]

I kinda wonder too, if a good standalone scaler like DVDO iScan costs around 1k and more, they must cut some corners to have scaling capabilities in a ~ $500 receiver (that also has to account for 7 amplifiers, decoders and audio processors)

more reading http://www.rfowkes.com/html/component_approach.html

[jjdaniel]

My TV isn't high-end - it's a Viewsonic 3752W LCD, I picked it up for $1k CDN at Costco a few weeks back. I'm building my home theatre from scratch, and I'm on a tight budget. The Viewsonic is actually quite good for the price. However I tried it with anything but an old (6-7 yrs) Pioneer DVD player, and there were noticable jaggies. It could be (and probably is) the DVD player, it could be the TV internal scaler - I haven't tried it with any "modern" equipment.

I'm on a tight budget (hence the inexpensive TV). I haven't tried an upscaling DVD player or upscaling receiver. The plan is to buy an upscaling DVD player and see how much the picture improves. If it is significant, I would consider an upscaling receiver for my other components (see below) - *but* they are pricey and rare, and perhaps not worth the investment considering how little I spent on the TV (and how much of my total budget it would eat up. That's where some opinions are appreciated!

The planned set-up is as follows, if it helps people with giving me advice. These choices are all based on research I've been doing on this forum and a few others (but this forum is by far the best! talk about information overload!):

1) Start with an upconverting DVD player (so I can test it to see what effect upscaling has on picture quality with my TV, as mentioned above). I was set an the Oppo 97x series, until I saw the Sony DVPNS75H on sale. It is on for $99.99 ($50 off at Future Shop) - cheapest I can get the Oppos is $167/$220-ish for the 970/971; which is a significant jump in price.

2) DVD-recorder with hard drive. Either the highly regarded Pioneer 640H-S for $399 ($50 off at Future Shop) or the Toshiba RD-XS35 for $350 ($100 off at Best Buy), which I have to do more research on.

I know the Panasonic DMREH55S is great, but pricey - about $150 than the Pioneer (which itself is pushing my budget)!

3) Receiver and 5.1 speakers. This is where I'm not sure whether I'll get an upscaling receiver, or "regular". Results depend on my upscaling DVD test.

If it matters, 90% of the time I'm watching SD cable through a digital box. Picture quality ain't bad, actually, but I'll still get a HD digital box for the few networks that use that HD programing.

[jjdaniel]

[QUOTE=SiriuslyCold]I kinda wonder too, if a good standalone scaler like DVDO iScan costs around 1k and more, they must cut some corners to have scaling capabilities in a ~ $500 receiver (that also has to account for 7 amplifiers, decoders and audio processors)

more reading [/QUOTE]

Interesting reading. While I'm not in the position to sink that kind of cash into a stand-alone vid processor, I can definately see where the author is coming from.

[tbase1]

It's always best to upconvert from one unit instead of going from one to another ,and then to the display. The only way I would use the reciever is when I need video switching. A out board scaler is always better ,because you get better control over the upconverting and quaility of the image.

[jjdaniel]

As I understand it though, outboard scalers are quite pricey - most likely outside my budget. A quick perusal of the video processors part of the forum was showing typical prices around $1k and up.

Anyway, I picked up the Sony upscaling DVD player yesterday. I'm hooking it up tonight to see if it does a better job of scaling than my TV does. We'll see how that experiment goes!