Have a older 480p Yamaha DVD player hooked up to my Sony 40" XBR7 LCD TV. Would upgrading to a 1080i up-converting player with HDMI hookups make a big difference in PQ? Would going to a BRD player make a difference viewing non BRD DVDs?

 

Correction. Up-convert to 1080p

 

I would say your Sony TV is pretty good at upconverting. You might gain some benefit from one of the top upconverting players, but I don't think it would be worth the money.

 

You might get some gain, but why waste the money, just get a BR player that will up-convert in most cases better than a up-converting DVD player.

 

After spending some time with Google, it seem that the TV will do a excellent job of up converting to 1080p.
So the only question is should I buy a Blu-Ray player?

 

If you're set can do 1080p you should buy one, from what I've seen the picture blows away DVD with upconverting. I still don't have BR player, TV doesn't do 1080p.

 

I have a PS3 and HD DVD, and there is a significant difference between upconverted DVD and true high definition. Blu-ray prices, both for players and movies, have come down.

 

Picture quality on most blu rays looks great, however some blu ray discs I have found if they were not native 1080p to begin with the remastering does not show much of a difference, does not go without saying that some of the older titles picture quality is in fact better than new release titles...go figure I guess it's a hit and miss thing???

 

I just wish they were all shot in the same aspect ratio ie: 2.35:1, 2.40:1, 1.85:1 etc...I don't like stretching the picture to always fill my screen, it almost always seems to anamorphically distort the picture from original.