I found this thread interesting.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=477740

The cliff notes are that these players are probably not necessary because the DVD is still 480i and the scaler in your TV is probably the same or better than what is in the DVD player.

I suggest you test your PQ with your DVD player's scaler on and off to see what produces the better pic.

Comments?

 

Just to add to my cliff notes, the mid->higher priced up converting players can help make a difference if you output 1080i to the TV. This is due to the observation that TVs have a better time scaling from 1080i.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has tried their up-converting players in different modes.

I'm probably not going to get a new DVD player since the HD stuff will be here in a year or two.

 

A 480p DVD on my HDTV looks like ass. Upconverted to 720p and/or 1080i makes a dramatic difference.

IMHO, it's worth it.

 

Upconverting DVD players are nice but with the upcoming release of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, I'm not going to invest in one now.

 

I have the same samsung model scrib has and it was just over 100$; not much of an investment really. I look at it as something I'll need over the long term so my old DVD's won't be worthless when HD-DVD comes out.

 

I keep mine at 1080i and it looks great. Definitely a huge improvement.

 

Agreed. I have a Zenith DVD upconverting player that I got over a year ago for well under $200 and it does much better than my old DVD on my plasma.

As for HD DVD....those players are not coming out until summer (at least the last time that I checked), that date is very likely to be pushed back further (they were supposed to be out for Xmas '05), and the prices are going to be very high for the early adopters. I don't watch a ton of DVD's so I can manage to wait to see how the HD-DVD/BluRay thing works out....

 

And it's not like these tings cost a ton of $$$. As Zero said... $100.

 

I prefer the look of a non-upconverted signal but it all depends on what your TV does to the signal. A lot of sets upconvert EVERYTHING to some fixed resolution, many times 1080i. If you TV does so, then using the convertor in the DVD player might produce better results than using the one in the TV. I don't see how you can prefer to watch an interlaced (1080i) picture tho...

But if your TV will show progressive images, straight 480p should look better than any upconversion - it's just making shit up.