XBMC DVD Upscaling on HDTV

[CzarJunkie]

Been using XBMC for upscaling DVD to 720p over the last week or so (only found this out by accident when streaming an img file from my server), anyway some DVD images do upscale but some don't. Any idea why that is?

Thanks

[Anakin]

CJ, dont have an answer for that, but do you ever find that some DVD's will upscale to 720P and other dont.

[maltloaf]

lol didnt he just ask that ?

[Shambles]

I'd like a pint of whatever Anakin's drinking

[CzarJunkie]

lol didnt he just ask that ?

I think I did m8......

I think I know now, although it's a stab in the dark really, of the DVD img's I've tried it appears the ones which don't work have been re-encoded or created from something other than a DVD source. I'm still looking into it.........

[Anakin]

Too much festive booze I had last night.

[harryb]

it doesn't make much difference anyway, to me... I thought I'd be impressed

[CzarJunkie]

It makes a difference, it' not going to blow your mind but it is an improvement.

[flipper321]

it doesn't make much difference anyway, to me... I thought I'd be impressed

Remember that most HD screens will upsample themselves - just in most cases most people find the Xbox better at it then their own screens internal processors.

[harryb]

its kinda good and bad, you see a lot of flaws in the picture when it gets upped to hd res.. but true, on a well done DVD, it does look nice.

[CzarJunkie]

Remember that most HD screens will upsample themselves - just in most cases most people find the Xbox better at it then their own screens internal processors.

But surely it will only upscale if your DVD player has the capability of upscaling and if it's connected to your TV via a component cable?

[flipper321]

Not at all - if your screen is lets say 1280 x 720 then it's going to have to upscale in some shape or form to display DVD sources...

Decent screens will be better at it than others - a high-end upscaling DVD player however will normally be better than any screens own processing.

[CzarJunkie]

Not at all - if your screen is lets say 1280 x 720 then it's going to have to upscale in some shape or form to display DVD sources...
Decent screens will be better at it than others - a high-end upscaling DVD player however will normally be better than any screens own processing.

ok, I have a decent DVD player connected to my HDTV via svideo, when I play a DVD I get a good quality picture. However when I play the same DVD thru XBMC (my xbox is connected using component) the TV switches to 720p and I know this because it displays the HD setting everytime it changes. The difference is very noticable, so if it works as you suggest, why the difference?

You'll have to excuse my ignornace as I don't know a great deal about HD or any of the other shite, but I know when I see a difference.

[flipper321]

Because the XBox is upscaling much better than your screen.

[CzarJunkie]

My TV has a resolution of 1366 x 768, so when I'm playing DVD from my standalone player that's the resolution it's being upscaled to presumably. I think I understand that. If that's true what's the point of HD? What else does HD bring to the party?

Again, excuse my ignorance.

[flipper321]

HD is great when the SOURCE is HD - DVD as a source is not HD so needs upscaling -

HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks have the original source in better defined HD resolutions - as does the Xbox 360 and as will Sky HD.

[CzarJunkie]

Ok, that still doesn't explain why when played thru xbmc my TV recognises the source as 720p, yet not thru my DVD player. If, as you say, the dvd player is doing the same job as XBMC (but not quite as well), why isn't my TV recognising the feed from my dvd player as 720p?

I understand that the DVD player won't send thru a HD feed when the source isn't HD, but I'm puzzled as to why my TV thinks the same feed from XBMC is HD.

[maltloaf]

whats probably happening is this...

The xbox is generating a true 720p picture from xbmc and sending it to the lcd which is just displaying it. The xbox itself is scaling the image in (very good) software because it knows it needs to fit to the res you have selected. XBMC scales to whatever res it can limited by your settings (cable, dash and xbmc)

The dvd player is sending a picture to the lcd, depending on the disc, which is most likely 480 or 576 lines, so some conversion is done on the fly in the lcd itself. This may be the difference or it could be one of a few other things.

[flipper321]

Not what I'm saying - unless you're DVD player is an upscaling DVD player (which I'm now guessing it isn't!) it will just output an SD signal - your screen/TV then upscales to it's resolution but tells you you've got an SD source.

The Xbox upscales to 720p and outputs this so your screen recognises it as an HD source.

Edit: Sorry - Malty beat me too it - we're saying the same thing

[CzarJunkie]

Ahh, ok, the penny has dropped. Thanks guys, I can now rest easy tonight.