Unconverting DVD players - Anyone check them out?

[Hulk]

Has anyone AB'd one of these. First trying it not upconverted and then upconverted on a good quality HD monitor?

Or even a computer monitor.

I'm wondering if this is hype or reality.

[wkulecz]

As far as I can tell none work unless you have HDMI inputs, so I can't try since our 65" Toshiba has only Component inputs. The price premium for these has dropped a good bit so I checked into it when our old player died. But I'm too cheap to pay anything extra for a feature I can't use, glad I read the fine-print.

If your HD display has a good scaler I doubt the one in the DVD player would be better -- Our Toshiba does a remarkable job on up converting standard TV channels, but is old enough I would have tried it if I could have.

--wally.

[Hulk]

Thanks for the advice Wally. I'm putting a Home Theater together now so every option is available. I was thinking front projection but now I'm thinking LCD in the 50" range since I'll be sitting about 8 or 9 feet from the screen.

I think most large LCD's have HDMI input so when I buy I'll just plug a few different DVD players in and see if I can tell any difference from player to player.

[wkulecz]

Check the input otions carefully. My brother-in-law just got a new Sharp LCD HDTV. Nice set, but it only has 1 HDMI, 1 Component and one S-video/Composite. Barely adaquate and the cable company set him up not even displaying high-def! I hooked him up to use Component to the DVD player so he can use it's 480p (which made far more difference than I'd ever expected when we first got our set), HDMI for the cable box and Composite for the VCR. Barely adaquate for a typically minimal setup most folks would have.

--wally.