Compared to a couple older dvd players I have, the PS3 does a great job upscaling, making older dvds look hi def, or more like high def at least. Does anyone know of a device that'll perform similarly with cable or satelite tv? I currently have charter cable that has 20 or so high def channels, might switch to direct tv to get more.

There are a number of standalone video processors, but the best "bang for the buck" offering is probably the DVDO Edge. It will even offer better deinterlacing and scaling of DVD's than the PS3 does (the chipset used is the same one in OPPO Digital's DV-983H and BDP-83).

Gonk,

Have you had any experience with the Edge on cable or satellite? The OPPO BDP-83 will take care of DVDs and BD but like Grog I think there is a huge potential for improvement of TV (standard and high def) with an outboard scaler. I just can't figure out if the improvement will justify the cost of the Edge. Thanks for the info!

I haven't used the Edge. It should provide results comparable to the 983H when handling 480i sources (taking into account the central factor of source quality - good/bad DVD transfers, excess compression in cable or satellite broadcasts, and the general limitations of VHS).

I have used the Onkyo 885's Reon scaler with a few sources. One thing I found was that it was difficult to get my Scientific Atlanta to output a "source direct" signal - in fact, it was impossible to output 480i via HDMI, and doing it via component forced me to sacrifice pillarboxing of 4:3 content (something that the 885 couldn't automatically do for me, although the Edge may be more capable in that regard). The 885's Reon also takes a while to lock onto new video resolutions, which irritated my wife so much that I was forced to lock the cable box into a single output resolution (which greatly reduced the opportunities for using the Reon processor). When I was able to get all the stars to align, the Reon did a noticeable better job of deinterlacing than my cable box did, which was nice for watching SD channels.

For HD channels, video processing requirements should be less significant. I believe that the Edge does offer some noise reduction features, which could be useful for HD content (especially when a cable or satellite provider has turned up the compression).

Thanks Gonk for the info. I'm watching mostly HDTV and very little SDTV so if there is not that much improvement for HDTV that leaves SDTV and my aging VCR that would benefit from an Edge. Sounds like my earlier estimation of need for an Edge was a bit overstated. The need for a video processor should also be partly dependent upon the video processor in your display. From what I've read the processor in my Kuro 50" is pretty good further diminishing the need for an outboard processor.

Thanks for recommendation - I’ve been looking into the dvdo – wouldn’t mind test driving one. Seems like it may work well for a given setup but someone else with a different tv and/or cable box might be unhappy. Also seems it’s difficult or impossible to get accurate and usable specs on any “upscaling” or “video processing” device. PS3 says it “upscales to 1080p” and in my opinion it works fairly well. Onkyo 805 also said “upscales to 1080p”, and it does nothing at all to improve picture quality. They’re using “upscaling” to mean it can take a signal in on component and send it out on HDMI.
Dvdo got decent reviews and seems reasonably priced enough, but most things audio/video are headed downward in price right now, and my money says that economically things are going to keep getting worse for quite a while. Thinking of switching cable providers to get more hd content and then re-evaluate the dvdo.

"Upscaling" literally means converting a lower resolution signal to a higher resolution. It typically assumes deinterlacing (allowing 480i signals to become 720p, 1080i, or 1080p). The term itself doesn't offer any specifics on the quality of that upscaling - after all, my HD cable box also "upscales" standard definition broadcasts, but you won't see anything on Scientific Atlanta's spec sheet that lists "really dreadful deinterlacing" as one of the 8300HD's features. (It probably should, but I suspect their marketing department would balk at that...)

You can find detailed video test procedures here and there (one of the oldest is Secrets of Home Theater's DVD benchmarks, which puts a fair bit of attention on proper performance with MPEG decoding and with deinterlacing), and those can shed some light on the quality of a component's video processor, but a lot of it comes down to reviews. The Onkyo 805 uses a Faroudja chip for its video processing. That's pretty old tech these days, and it's very possible that your TV's built-in video processor can match it. (Oh, yeah, let's not forget that every HDTV you look at will include the ability to deinterlace and scale video inputs.)

The ABT2010 video processing chip in the DVDO Edge is a platform that I've spent some time with and even had a chance to do some casual comparisons to the Reon chip (which is used in Onkyo's 905 and 906 receivers). The Reon is a very capable chip, but I find that the 2010's processing tends to win out - at least for my tastes. The PS3's video scaling and deinterlacing has come a long way since it launched, but from what I've heard about it a good Reon or ABT2010 implementation can still outperform it.

Interesting. I spent a while looking into switching over to satellite tv instead of cable to get more high def content, and the extra money per month to get more high def then I get w/cable (30 channels) multiplied out over the 2 yr contract they make you sign works out to about as much as a dvdo costs. So now I’m back to looking at them.
Problem so far no one has a return policy. I called amazon.com and they have a 50% re-stocking fee plus shipping, or almost 4 hundred to send it back. Ouch. None of the other on line stores mention returns, and no brick stores in my area. I’m pretty sure it’ll make an improvement, but 7 or 8 hundred is a bit much for pretty sure.
I have a Samsung LN-T4671F which I’m happy with. Charter cable hd dvr. hd 1080i looks great, but if Forest Gump had this set up he’d say the standard def “is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get” I’ve played with the picture settings a bit and usually standard def stuff can be made to look better, until you change the channel. So I pretty much leave stuff on auto.
Still hunting around on dvdo…

This is a truly hairbrain thought, but I wonder if there might be the potential for utilizing the USB input on an OPPO BDP-83 to apply it's audio and video processing capabilities to a signal from another device.
I guess the trick there would be getting the source material into a media file to begin with.

The USB port only works for mass storage devices, so you couldn't have a device with a video output signal carried over USB - it would have to be a USB hard drive or other storage device with a USB interface. Not a great solution for watching TV or playing video games, and if you are archiving stuff from an older format (VHS, VideoCD, etc.) you could potentially archive to a USB hard drive instead of DVD-R...