i have a ps3 hooked up to my 720p HDTV and i was wondering how the image quality of a blu-ray disc compared to that of a upconverted dvd on an oppo digital player shown on a 720p 50in plamsa. do you think there would be a big difference between the blu ray disc an the upconverted dvd? how about 2nd generation blu-ray discs and the oppo?

also, do you think sony will ever release firmware to make the ps3 upconvert dvd's? if so, when?

thanks again.

I've been meaning to ask a similar question. Since Oppo upscales to 1080p...and...since my Sony 60 inch SXRD will play 1080p...and since blu ray is at 1080p, the question is: Will there be any improvement (over Oppo 1080p--> SXRD 1080p) if going to blu ray--> SXRD.

I understand that hdmi 1.3 will afford 5.1 (or later 7.1) to the TV, about which I don't care.

This may be an elementary question, but it has been plaguing me. TIA

When comparing an upconverting DVD player like the 981HD to an HD disc player, you have to remember one thing: upconversion isn't magic, and a true HD source should always look better.

does anyone know when or if the ps3 will upconvert via firmware upgrade?

gonk wrote:

upconversion isn't magic, and a true HD source should always look better.

Yes, should look better. I guess it wwill be important to try to do an A-B comparison prior to buying.

Three of us have seen an upconverted picture from an Oppo 981 at home on a 720p 42-in Pioneer Elite plasma and the same screen fed Blu-ray at the dealer's. While not a side by side, we all agree that the Blu-ray picture was sharper than the upconverted Oppo image. BTW, the interesting thing was that when the Blu-ray fed both the 42-in Pioneer and the 50-inch 1080p Pioneer, we could not see that much improvement in detail from about 8 feet away.

Thanks for your input (pun not-intended)

RCF,

Thanks for sharing your real world test between 720p and 1080p sets with a Blu-ray player and the Oppo 981. I took a look at the Pioneer 50" 1080p plasma with a Blu-ray disc and then a standard dvd as sources. At my seating distance of 10' I didn't get several thousand dollars of "Wow". As a matter of fact I couldn't see any difference. That was a good day because I realized I was going to save some major coin when I replace my aging 42" Hitachi plasma with either a Pioneer or Panasonic 50" 768p plasma. Your test adds weight to the argument that 1080p is probably wonderful, but only for those that sit at the right distance from certain screen sizes.

Exactly, HD DVDs on my 50" 720p Samsung HL-P5085W DLP look noticeably better than DVDs upscaled via my Denon 2910 or Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player.

sehnzeleid,

Its good to know a HD-DVD will look better than a upconverted standard DVD on a 720p set. I suppose I will wait out the format war or until true univeral HD/Blu-ray players become more common. But first things first, I need to buy a new plasma that will accept digital input...