HD, upconvert, progressive scan, videocard?

[lakedude]

I just got a nice 50" Sony plasma TV with a res of 1366 by 768. It is hooked up to my computer via DVI and it looks great. My friends tell me I need to invest in an "upconverting" DVD player but when they describe what an "upconverting" player does it sounds like hogwash to me.

I think (but I'm not sure) that my computer's internal DVD player combined with the video card should be able to display a current generation DVD (not blue ray or DH DVD) as good as it can look. If so that means I don't need an upconverting DVD player right?

Also since the display is 768 sending a 1080 signal is pointless correct? A 720p signal would be about perfect right?

TIA!

 

[RichPLS]

What video card are you using now?

 

[lakedude]

Currently using x800xl AIW on one system and 7800GT on the other.

 

[RichPLS]

I believe that card uses a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter and is pretty good quality, but not true 720P or 1080P quality.
What really matters tho, is that you say it looks great! that is all that matters.

 

[MadCraiZ]

If you get ffdshow, you can clean up your dvds to make them look sharper/cleaner/whatever. Not sure if you need a hardware based mpeg2 encoder or not. Check it out @ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow

 

[ExaByte]

Also since the display is 768 sending a 1080 signal is pointless correct? A 720p signal would be about perfect right?

TIA!

Not quit.....

Native resolution is 768 but.....

From sony's website:
Sony PFM 50C1 Plasma TV Display
Preset Signals
NTSC, PAL, SECAM, NTSC4.43, PAL60, 1080/24PsF, 1080/50I, 575/50P, 480/60P, 1080/60I, 720/60P

I think your TV has a chip that does the scaling for you (Fahroudja chip)
and will handle the 1080i

 

[nickpan]

which cards give true 1080p quality then?


Thanks

NIck

 

[Crashman]

Tell your friends they're idiots. The true proof is in the fact that they haven't even considered what they're telling you.

Upconverting uses a singnal processor to make a low-resolution image appear less pixelated on a higher-resolution digital display. That's what a graphics processor on a video card does too. So you can tell them that. When they say "Get an upconverting DVD player" tell them "My video card does the upscalling through hardware processing" If you really want to impress them, look up the specific processes involved and use those words...like "Why would I want that when my graphics chip has the ultraknacker imagewhacker engine"? When they're confused, you win!

 

[Crashman]

WTF? All my video cards since the late 90's have been able to produce a crisp 720x1280 image. If the same is true of a DVI output, that's as good as 720p gets!