Upconverting with the HR20

[stiffi]

Hello,

I have a question about upconverting with the HR20.

Currently I have the box feeding one 480p tv and one 720p tv. So, I have to turn off native and watch only on 480p most of the time.

I noticed something strange, though when I watch an HD broadcast on my 720p set. The picture looks almost the same when I go from 480p to 720p.

So, my question is, where is the improvement being made? Is my 720p set upconverting to make it look better, or does the HR20 automatically correct the format when a show is broadcast in either 720p or 1080i?

thanks for your help.

[veryoldschool]

Hello,

I have a question about upconverting with the HR20.

Currently I have the box feeding one 480p tv and one 720p tv. So, I have to turn off native and watch only on 480p most of the time.

I noticed something strange, though when I watch an HD broadcast on my 720p set. The picture looks almost the same when I go from 480p to 720p.

So, my question is, where is the improvement being made? Is my 720p set upconverting to make it look better, or does the HR20 automatically correct the format when a show is broadcast in either 720p or 1080i?

thanks for your help.
I'm not quite sure what you're seeing by "The picture looks almost the same when I go from 480p to 720p."
Clearly an HD program in 720p should look much better than an SD in 480. Now "my TV" will scale and SD up to screen size and not look "that bad" as the TV has a good scaler.
For the second half of your question:"or does the HR20 automatically correct the format when a show is broadcast in either 720p or 1080i".
If you have it set to 720p output, there is no conversion for HD 720p and it is down converting 1080i to 720p.
If you are watching an SD program, and the HR is set to 720p, then yes, the HR is upconverting the 480 to 720p.

[stiffi]

The situation I was describing is as follows:

I set the output to 480p, and display it on a 720p capable display.
Then I watch a program broadcast in either 720p or 1080i.

I then go back and forth with the format button on the HR20. To my eyes, the program looks almost as good on the 480p setting as it does on the 720p or 1080i setting.

[Mike728]

Are you watching a HD broadcast when comparing? If so, how is the HD TV connected?

[stiffi]

Are you watching a HD broadcast when comparing? If so, how is the HD TV connected?

I am watching an HD broadcast, and it's connected via HDMI.

[veryoldschool]

The situation I was describing is as follows:

I set the output to 480p, and display it on a 720p capable display.
Then I watch a program broadcast in either 720p or 1080i.

I then go back and forth with the format button on the HR20. To my eyes, the program looks almost as good on the 480p setting as it does on the 720p or 1080i setting.
"I think" the down converted HD looks "not bad" because there was a lot of information to start with, that your TV is able to "make up" for that the HR has discarded.
Starting with a 1280 x 720 image and dropping bits to 720 x 480 and the adding bits back to 1280 x 720 should work better than starting with a SD from the SAT that is 480 x 480 which gets scaled up. Clearly this has less bits and requires much more scaling than the down scaled HD to 720 x 480.

[stiffi]

"I think" the down converted HD looks "not bad" because there was a lot of information to start with, that your TV is able to "make up" for that the HR has discarded.
Starting with a 1280 x 720 image and dropping bits to 720 x 480 and the adding bits back to 1280 x 720 should work better than starting with a SD from the SAT that is 480 x 480 which gets scaled up. Clearly this has less bits and requires much more scaling than the down scaled HD to 720 x 480.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I assumed my TV was upconverting, but I didn't realize it did that great of a job!

I thought I had found some magic feature of the HR20 where it could dynamically switch the output format, based on what kind of display was connected on the other side. I guess not.

Anyway...For those of you in a similar situation (outputting to 2 displays that aren't equal) rest assured, that watching in 480p is not bad if you have a decent upconverting display.

[JohnDG]

Done some searching, but I'm not seeing an answer to this question:

When scaling 480i to 480p, does the hr20/21 perform reverse 3:2 pulldown on the interlaced signal when converting to 480p?

Also: when down converting 1080i to 480p, what are the scaling steps?

jdg

[rynberg]

Why are you doing this? Why not just run s-video to the non-HD display and leave the HR20 at 720p???

[Stuart Sweet]

Exactly. No matter what res you use on your HDTV, the output from s-video or composite is always 480i, as thate is the only resolution supported by those connection.