Video Upconversion

[uncleAl]

I thinking of updating my A/V reciever to one with upconversion to 1080p. My choise is the ONKYO TX-SR706. My question is if I feed this new reciever with a component video signal form my VCR or regular satellite will it give me a HD picture? I don't always believe what I read that's why I'm asking this question on this forum.

[dougdrake]

You won't get a high-def picture. A picture is only as good as its source material, and upconverting VCR (which is about 240i) or regular satellite will not yield high definition - the original material isn't shot in high-def, so the equipment is just interpolating the signal and filling in the missing resolution with artifical signal information. The only way to get a high-def picture is to have a hi-def source (at least 720p or greater).

[toddvj]

You won't get a high-def picture. A picture is only as good as its source material, and upconverting VCR (which is about 240i) or regular satellite will not yield high definition - the original material isn't shot in high-def, so the equipment is just interpolating the signal and filling in the missing resolution with artifical signal information. The only way to get a high-def picture is to have a hi-def source (at least 720p or greater).

Well, that's true to some degree. You will probably see a bit of an improvement, but it won't be night and day. DVDs, etc, will look pretty good when scaled to 1080p. VCR tapes, not so much, they might even end up looking worse (flaws will be more evident, no 3/2 pulldown flag, etc).

On another note, you have a VCR that outputs component video?

[carbon summit]

I bought one of these a while back:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Composite-Video-or-S-Video-R-L-Audio-to-HDMI-Converter_W0QQitemZ350160755001QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?hash=item350160755001&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

It brought my Dish Network 480i picture up to 720p and it doesn't look too bad really. Everything is full screen now instead of 4x3 which I like and it was a cheap easy fix for the problem. I got it a while ago as a short term fix for me until Dish Network gets the HD thing going on more channels and then I might think about switching to real HD with them. But I didn't know if maybe Direct might take the lead in that area or even my local cable so I didn't want to renew my contract. When I got it nobody was too far along and apparently that little unit is doing an OK job because I have not been motivated to shop around for a better option and I'm sure all the carriers have improved a lot in the last year with what they offer for HD.

To be clear its not as good as true HD, my TV tells me its getting 720p but who knows. When I watch a DVD or blu ray at 1080p its night and day better.

My TV is a 52" 1080p with 120Hz so I'm sure real HD would be better but for the $50 I paid for that it works until a better option presents itself.

[carbon summit]

Here is some info on scaling:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=477740

That is the link it mentions below. This is from the 663 thread on the AVS forum:

2. Why buy the 663 over the 863?
Price. Why spend $400 more for one extra hdmi input, a negligible amount of power, a phono input, and upconversion to 1080p? It just isn't worth it, especially at this price point. See this thread for why upconversion/upscaling is generally a joke. Long story short: regular DVD content is 480i, your TV most likely already scales the signal anyway, everything else is just making up info where it wasn't before.

I never read the whole thing. Too long for my short attention span.

I have the Yamaha 663 and thought about getting the 883 because it has up to 1080p scaling but decided for the extra $400 it might not be worth it.

My blu ray is 1080p and whenever I do something with either Dish Network, Direct TV or cable I figured at some point they will get up to 1080p so why pay for a scaler? Just let the 663 pass the signal through to the TV. I can hook any thing to the 663 (component, composite, S video) and it will convert it to digital (not scale it to 1080p) and send it to the TV in its native resolution through a single HDMI cable. That is why I bought that converter thing I mentioned about. Just to get the Dish picture up from 480i to 720p. It was a big improvement without the a commitment to Dish Network.