[vick2006]

I have been looking for the longest time for an upconverting DVD player that has analog coaxial cable input...

I would like to go from the regular analog cable in my apartment to an upconverting DVD player and then out through HDMI-to-DVI cable to my LCD monitor. Has anyone seen an upconverting DVD player with Coaxial input?

[CDATech]

No, I haven't...hmm

[Compiler]

DVD players don't have "inputs". Now, a VCR/DVD combo has such options.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1201307506904

But usually, only the DVD output will be through a DVI/HDMI connector. But it WOULD make things easier for connections/cabling to have broadcast & DVD play back through a single cable. On both of my old DVD/VCR units - there is dedicated DVD output and mixed output for composite.

[vick2006]

I think I may have found one finally... not expensive, but I would have preferred something cheaper...

LG DR787T

Do you guys think this one will work?

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?Inv...i_sku=DR787T-R
http://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuIma...L49-5032-g.JPG

I see analog coaxial inputs in the pic in the 2nd link, but will they work to input cable? I assume that's what they're for...

Thanks for the quick replies, by the way.

[tomdkat]

Looks like a good unit.

Check out the owner's manual (link to PDF file directly) to see if there will be any issues with the upconversion applying only to DVD playback or anything like that. You can also access the manual (and other PDF files) on this unit at the manufacturer product page.

Great find!

Peace...

[vick2006]

Thanks for the links! On page 13 of the manual, I found this...



Looks like it'll work! I can't wait to get one of these some time in the next few weeks and try it out...

[tomdkat]

That covers the physical connections. I would contact LG to make sure the unit will upconvert video coming from the internal ATSC tuner.

Good luck!

Peace...

[Compiler]

Upconversion is only for DVD playback. Big screen HD-TVs have scalers.

No need to upscale since there are HD channels on the air now and in the near future, no more SD broadcasts.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Compiler

Upconversion is only for DVD playback.

Did you find something in the manual that states the upconversion feature is limited to DVD playback only?

Big screen HD-TVs have scalers.

Yep and not all are created equal. I don't know how good the upconversion of this particular LG player is and I don't know how good it will be compared to the HD display he will be connecting it do.

No need to upscale since there are HD channels on the air now and in the near future, no more SD broadcasts.

In the near future, the analog broadcasts will be digital and not necessarily HD.

Peace...

[Compiler]

- Any thing on the market that is a "Broadcast Upconverter"?

Upconversion is a chip that takes a digital signal and creates extra pixels as best it can. Hence, some are better than others. Rather hard to "upconvert" a messy analog signal. The chips are on the DVD side of players.

- One of the big points of Digital is that IT IS HD... but yeah, some HD broadcasts/cable looks like crap.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Compiler

- Any thing on the market that is a "Broadcast Upconverter"?

I believe some external scalers, like the iScan, might qualify as such. It won't have a built in tuner but could take the signal from a TV tuner of some kind and convert it to just about anything video resolution you want, de-interlaced or not.

Upconversion is a chip that takes a digital signal and creates extra pixels as best it can. Hence, some are better than others. Rather hard to "upconvert" a messy analog signal. The chips are on the DVD side of players.

Upconversion is a process that is implemented in hardware or software. As for the "messy" analog signals, component video is an analog video connection so anyone connecting a DVD player, cable box, or satellite receiver via component video connections to a HD display is passing analog video to the HD display for upconversion, de-interlacing, or both, and then finally display. Upconversion of analog video happens far more often than you would think.

One of the big points of Digital is that IT IS HD... but yeah, some HD broadcasts/cable looks like crap.

Digital is simply NOT analog. A 480i or 480 signal passed via HDMI to a HD display is a digital signal that isn't HD.

A number of HD broadcasts are simply NTSC signals upconverted to HD resolutions and then broadcast, which is why they as usually pillarboxed or windowboxed.

Peace...

[Compiler]

When coming off the DVD disc itself, the image data is completely digital and easy to manipulate. Once it's left the box or into an analog signal, its no longer "pure" data.

AFAIK - There are no consumer based upconverters for broadcast... which is generally pointless considering how cheap HD cameras are nowadays.

<quote> A number of HD broadcasts are simply NTSC signals upconverted to HD resolutions and then broadcast, which is why they as usually pillarboxed or windowboxed.</quote>

Why bother broadcasting an upconverted video when the HD-TV has the ability to scale? It would save them money to broadcast the digital signal in 480. Any broadcasting station should be able to afford some HD-Cameras. Even consumer grade cameras start as low as $400. Canon's $3200 HD pro camera is very cheap for a TV/Video studio.

You can have 1080 res and still not be widescreen. And there are different aspect ratios of TV, Movies, modern TV broadcast as well as the TVs themselves... so there is always the letterbox/pillerbox issues. Some TVs are set to slight zoom to help hide them or use other ways to optionally deal with black space.... which doesn't bother me.

.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Compiler

When coming off the DVD disc itself, the image data is completely digital and easy to manipulate. Once it's left the box or into an analog signal, its no longer "pure" data.

Yep, this is true (at least for analog video connections). I imagine that's why external scalers that are able to scale and de-interlace "poor" video material well cost so much. The iScan scaler I mention above is not inexpensive at all. Of course, I don't think anyone would expect a scaler of any kind to be able to convert a horrendous analog video image into a pristine digital video image but some are able to do some remarkable work with the video they are presented with.

AFAIK - There are no consumer based upconverters for broadcast... which is generally pointless considering how cheap HD cameras are nowadays.

Again, if you connected your cable box or satellite box to a scaler via HDMI or component video connections, it can upconvert and de-interlace that video and send it to your display for your viewing. Modern HD displays that have a native resolution of 720p, 1080i, or 1080p will take video coming from analog video sources, convert the video to digital and upconvert the video to the display's native resolution. So a modern HD display could possibly be thought of as an "upconverter for broadcast" video material.

Why bother broadcasting an upconverted video when the HD-TV has the ability to scale? It would save them money to broadcast the digital signal in 480. Any broadcasting station should be able to afford some HD-Cameras. Even consumer grade cameras start as low as $400. Canon's $3200 HD pro camera is very cheap for a TV/Video studio.

Well, the station broadcasting the video won't necessarily be the agent that filmed the video, in the first place. I imagine stations that broadcast upconverted NTSC do so to offer more "HD" content even though it's not native HD content. By definition, HD content is in a 16x9 format so almost anytime you watch a HD program that has black bars on the sides (pillarboxing), it's most likely an upconverted NTSC image you're looking at.

You can have 1080 res and still not be widescreen. And there are different aspect ratios of TV, Movies, modern TV broadcast as well as the TVs themselves... so there is always the letterbox/pillerbox issues. Some TVs are set to slight zoom to help hide them or use other ways to optionally deal with black space.... which doesn't bother me.

The pillarboxing issue is different than the letterboxing issue. Letterboxing will ALWAYS be an issue unless the video material is in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Most movies on DVD (e.g. "Hollywood films") are in 1.85:1 or wider (2.35:1 is common and the native HD formats, HD DVD and Blu-Ray, have ratios of 2.40:1 or wider). So this content will always have letterbox bars. On some displays, overscan will hide the bars but some video is also cropped from the sides.

Pillarboxing is the result of the video being in a 4:3 format and the black bars are added to the sides to "fill" the 16:9 display area. This is a completely different animal than letterboxing.

Getting back on the topic, I'm interested to find out if the LG unit above would restrict the upconversion feature in any way.

Peace...

[Compiler]

Just because a broadcast is in PILLBOX - it doesn't mean its simply an NTSC upscaled source. If a TV show, such as FIREFLY - which was NOT made in SD, just because its being broadcast or played on a Blue-Ray players will NOT make it letterbox. Joss wanted FireFly to be widescreen, but stupid FOX wanted 4:3. (One of many stupid things of FOX)

Or how about Star Trek, TOS: where they used FILM to make the show. It has been cleaned up, re-processed and looks better than it ever did before.... no wide screen.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Compiler

Just because a broadcast is in PILLBOX - it doesn't mean its simply an NTSC upscaled source.

By definition, HD is in a 16x9 format. All HD displays on the market are in a 16x9 format. Therefore ANYTHING that is native HD will be in a 16x9 format. The aspect ratio might be greater 1.78:1 and that will result in letterbox bars but none of them will be pillarboxed.

If a TV show, such as FIREFLY - which was NOT made in SD, just because its being broadcast or played on a Blue-Ray players will NOT make it letterbox.

I'm not saying ANYTHING on a Blu-Ray or HD DVD disc WILL have an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 by virtue of being on a Blu-Ray or HD DVD disc. I'm saying it's common for movies to be in the wider aspect ratio on Blu-Ray or HD DVD. For example, Training Day was released on DVD in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio but was released on Blu-Ray and HD DVD in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. Serenity was released on HD DVD in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, just like on the DVD release.

Joss wanted FireFly to be widescreen, but stupid FOX wanted 4:3. (One of many stupid things of FOX)

Are you sure about that? According to IMDB, Firefly was shot in 16x9 format. If Firefly was broadcast over the air letterboxed, this is why it was.

Or how about Star Trek, TOS: where they used FILM to make the show. It has been cleaned up, re-processed and looks better than it ever did before.... no wide screen.

I've never seen Star Trek, TOS so I know nothing about how it was broadcast. I HAVE seen parts of some shows broadcast in native HD, like ER, American Idol, etc, and those all filled my 16x9 screen. Why? Because they were native HD broadcasts.

Peace...