In my quest for a blu-ray player, I am seeing a lot of them with the term "upvert" standard dvd's.

Now I know that a lot of stuff is being released these days that was never shot originally in High Def, so I am thinking that most of the Blu-ray DVD's being released are from source material that was "upverted" in picture sharpness and audio.

Does anyone here have any first hand experience with any players that "upvert" standard DVD's on the fly while watching a movie? How well do they work? Enough for the extra money in price?

thanks

I'm certain that every Blu-ray Disc player out there has some sort of upconversion feature for DVDs. Nearly all Blu-ray Disc media is from an HD or film source, and is presented in High Definition, save for some bonus material that may have originated in standard def.

Blu-ray players usually do a better job at upconverting standard definition DVD video than do DVD players. I have done comparisons myself with a Sony PS3 vs. a Sony DVD player both upconverting the same source material to an HD video projector through HDMI cables.

The PS3 was notably cleaner and sharper than the DVD player's upconverted output. Neither one could hold a candle to native Blu-ray Disc HD source material of the same title, however. Clearly superior in resolution with far sharper and cleaner details and colors, the Blu-ray Disc won hands-down in comparison to both upconverted DVD sources.

There's supposed to be a new software that will actually dramatically improve less-than-standard standard DVD transfers. Iirc, it's Toshiba's software, and nobody is actually using it yet as far as I know.

And I agree with Trek, the PS3 does better at upconverting than "standard" upconverting DVD players.

There's supposed to be a new software that will actually dramatically improve less-than-standard standard DVD transfers. Iirc, it's Toshiba's software, and nobody is actually using it yet as far as I know.

And I agree with Trek, the PS3 does better at upconverting than "standard" upconverting DVD players.

That's because a PS3 IS a Blu-Ray player, with the same HD capabilities as a stand-alone BD player. It also plays standard Blu-Ray discs.

You should see how good my copy of "Star Wars:Episode IV - Revisited" looked on a PS3 and a wide-screen television. Even the "legal" release of that film didn't look as good.

That's because a PS3 IS a Blu-Ray player, with the same HD capabilities as a stand-alone BD player. It also plays standard Blu-Ray discs.

You should see how good my copy of "Star Wars:Episode IV - Revisited" looked on a PS3 and a wide-screen television. Even the "legal" release of that film didn't look as good.

I'm aware of the PS3 capibilities, I'm talking about something new. I read a blurb somewhere a few weeks ago about a new software that will dramatically improve "standard" DVD's when they're upconverted on blu-ray players, I'm pretty sure Toshiba developed it. But again, as far as I know, nobody is using it yet, including Sony.

I'm aware of the PS3 capibilities, I'm talking about something new. I read a blurb somewhere a few weeks ago about a new software that will dramatically improve "standard" DVD's when they're upconverted on blu-ray players, I'm pretty sure Toshiba developed it. But again, as far as I know, nobody is using it yet, including Sony.Any chance the article/blurb say that the software could be uploaded to a player on an update?

Any chance the article/blurb say that the software could be uploaded to a player on an update?

Yep. It didn't say how long till it hits the market, but implied it would be very soon.

From what I have heard, the Toshiba development is a non-realtime solution that has to pre-process the disc title and use software conversion to upscale the image. So, you would load up the disc. then wait for the upconversion process to take place, then watch the film.

I would just get a Blu-ray player and be done with it.