Yo-

Just finished hooking up my new Panasonic DVD - S77 UpConverting DVD player to my new Hitachi 57 inch Ultravision HD RPTV -

All I can say is WOW!!!

The picture is great - it is so near HD quality that it has me in tears-

Got it off of Amazon for $210 shipped and I couldn't be happier or more satisfied-

I had gotten the Denon 1910 a couple of weeks ago - and took it back due to the Macro Blocking and generally poor performance - the Panny is definitely superior in all ways to the Denon-

Mike

Yo-

Can anyone tell me the difference between 720p and 1080i-

TIA

Mike

Hm... Doesn't that DVD has resolution like 720*480? How could it ever be like 1920*1080 HD? Maybe you felt so because of the new Hitachi 57-inch RP.

Yo Kenny-

The s77 will upconvert to either 720p OR 1080i (and does a great job of it btw) - I was just wondering what the difference between the two were (actually looks better at 720p - to me)

Mike

Hm. It does not enhance images of the source, but just displays them better. For real 1080i/720p, consider something like this.

http://www.mitinc.co.kr/mitinc/e_sit...rod_mdp130.jsp

It's in Korean but seems to summarize HDTV formats.

http://www.mitinc.co.kr/mitinc/info/info_about3.jsp

About 1080i:

http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/1080i.cfm

http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5107912-1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080i

http://technology360.typepad.com/tec...ry_of_hdt.html

1080i
1080i means that the resolution of the picture is 1920 vertical pixels by 1080 horizontal pixels and i stands for interlaced scanning. Interlaced scanning is based on the principle that the screen shows every odd line at one scan of the screen and then all the even lines in a second scan.

1080p
1080p means that the resolution of the picture is 1,920 vertical pixels by 1,080 horizontal pixels and p stands again for progressive scanning. This format works on the same principle as 720p; the only difference is that in this type there are more pixels and the resolution is better.

16:9
16:9 is aspect ratio of movie screen and widescreen DTV formats used in all HDTV (High Definition TV) and some SDTV (Standard Definition TV); it stands for 16 arbitrary units of width for every 9 arbitrary units of height.

4:3
4:3 is aspect ratio of traditional squarish National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) TV screens; it stands for four arbitrary units of width for every three arbitrary units of height.

720p
720p means that the resolution of the picture is 1,280 vertical pixels by 720 horizontal pixels and p stands for progressive scanning. Progressive scanning offers a smoother picture as 720 horizontal lines are scanned progressively or in succession in a vertical frame that is repeated 30 times a second.

Yo-

As an update to my s77 after one month-

The burn in process continues - and the picture just seems to get better with use!! I have tried 720p and 1080i and find the 1080i to be better IMO-

Am very satisified with this purchase at Amazon.com for $210 US - shipped-

Mike

Does the Hitachi RPTV support 1080i HD natively? (Perhaps an obvious thing since you said it's HD RP.) Why not compare some real HD sources with DVD-upconverted sources? I tried to compare here on my LG 2320T but I can't say yet which is better. I can't even tell whether HD broadcasted TV programs look a lot better than SD digital programs (either through HD tuner or satellite receiver.) Maybe 23-inch LCD monitor's not enough to feel such differences easily but it's easy to notice quality differences when I play MPEG-2 HD files (in full 1920*1080i resolution) from PC, much better than anything from DVD-Video disks.

That 57-inch RP must be at least 6 times as big as my LCD in viewing area and 20-30 times as big in volume. The main I have avoided projection TVs was size and weight as it's usually only me alone that have to move those frequently in and out of home. It was difficult enough to move 29-inch CRT TVs and monitors (three I had but all given nearly for free or thrown away as well as many other TVs and monitors I once had.)

On a big screen, displaying true 1080 resolution, the difference between HDTV source material and upconverted DVD's is obvious. Many people have only really watched movies that are broadcast in HD, but are in fact just DVD's upconverted. True HDTV is shot in 1080 video, and it is breathtaking.
As Kenny pointed out, upconverted 480p is still just 480. Many DVD's are not even close to 480, due to compression. If you watch a DVD player with DVI output and upconversion, the real benefit that you will see is just due to the DVI connection itself. Other differences may be due to the quality of the player itself.

On a good monitor, it all looks great.

On the right screen, you can also see a difference between component input and DVI input, but the difference is slight. The main difference is that component is analog, and subject to the artifacts/interferance that DVI is not.

Many people cannot see a difference between 720p and 1080i, but many also find 1080i to look "smoother". Again it probably depends on the monitor.

Yo-

Thanks for all the imput guys-

The picture is superior to my old JVC progressive scan using componant outputs/inputs - and is more than likely due to the processing within the circuit and componants of the Panasonic s77-

I still believe that it is the best $210 I have spent on an audio/video componant in years-

Mike

It's still a DVD player. One of the most expensive DVD players. I mean DVD players years ago were for over US$1,000 (at least in South Korea.) Now DVD players with DivX support cost US$50.

I can't find out why DVI-D doesn't work for my Samsung STB/DVD-P to LG 2320T monitor. Component and composite work but not DVI. Since I have only one component cable, I tried to use DVI-D for STB/DVD, component for satellite TV, DSUB for PC, composite for 2.5-inch Dvix-P, and so on.

Whatever the resolution is the number that represents it is the number of horizonal lines. 720 has 720 lines that run horizonally, 1080 has 1080.

where the difference comes in is the p or the i
p= Progressive, every line is displayed on every scan
i=interlaced, odd lines are displayed on odd scans, even on even scans. Interlaced effectively takes 2 scans to display the image one time.

Depending on the power of your source input interlaced may look slightly better(yes cheaper dvd players will have a problem displaying even at 480i at times when action/movement/lots of color are on the screen).


In a wired magazine a few months back they reviewed what they called the "Rich Man's" dvd player. It was called that for a reason, cost was something like $5,000. I don't know all the detailed specs on it offhand. But it did have a built in upconverter to 1080p, component outputs, dual dvi outputs(required for the apple cinemadisplay to run at full capability, 30" lcd computer monitor, but a very nice one) and a single hdmi output. It also had 2 seperate lazers, 1 optimized for reading cds, the other optimized for reading dvds, the single lazer used in almoast every other dvd player can never read both cds and dvds as effectively as a unit that has a seperate one for each, this also improved the life of the dvd player. It was about twice the high and slightly deeper than an average dvd player, mostly for cooling purposes. It ran at full processinc power all the time. A normal dvd player will get screen jitters, or display the dark areas more of a gray when its reached its peak processing power and can't keep up with what its suposed to be displaying. Some midrange dvd players will pause for a fraction of a second while its bumps up the processinc power if the scene in a movie is too much for it to handle at its normal processing rate.

If you have everything top of the line,and have eyes good enough to see the difference, progressive will always look better than interlaced.

One way to see how fast your scan rate is on the display is something a lot of us probalby did when we were kids. Stand back about 15-20 feet from the display(or as far as your room will let you) and blow through your lips with them closed, but relaxed so you ge that sound something like a boat motor. You will visually see your display flipping with a slower scan rate(its really bad on some older pc computers). You can also get the same effect chewing on ice or something like that if theres other people around and don't want them to see you do it.

Now I don't know why this does what it does, but normally the human eye can't see a break in the picture for anything more than15-25hz(cycles per second) but for some reason you can see it even on much higher refresh like 75hz+ when you do what i described above.

how does it compare to the Zenith DVB 318?

you tell me, here's an example of the two...can you tell the difference?

http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/zoeken.html

you should check out this player...

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html#

it goes for $199.00 or even less sometimes.

check out the review:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...h&articles=all

it was rated 4th best player, beating Denon costing much..much more!!!
you player was rated 5th best!!!

but what sets the appodigital player apart....are:

Overview:

DVI (Digital Video Interface) output to eliminate flickers and to produce more clear pictures

* High resolutions include 480p, 540p, 576p, 720p, 1080i
* Up Convert from 480i to 720p/1080i
* DCDi by Faroudja. Video is analyzed on a single pixel granularity to detect presence or absence of angled lines and edges, which are then processed to produce a smooth natural looking image without visible artifacts (jaggies).
* Plays DivX® 5, DivX® 4, DivX® 3, and DivX® VOD video content (in compliance with DivX Certified™ technical requirements)
* Plays XviD and .SRT, .SMI, .IDX and .SUB formats
* Per-pixel Motion Adaptive De-interlacing
* Patented FilmMode Processing C Used for proper de-interlacing of 3:2 and 2:2 pull down material


Functions:

* DVD Video/Audio, Divx/MPEG4, VCD, SVCD, CD, HDCD, DVDR/RW, CD-R/RW, Kodak Picture
* Super Error Correction with Twin Laser and Intelligent Laser Wavelength Control
* PAL / NTSC discs
* Automatic Screensaver
* Parental Control Function
* Menu Driven Setup Screen
* Region Selectable 0 to 9 0=region free


Video:

* 108MHz/12bit Video D/A Converter
* DVI Output
* NTSC / PAL Output
* Screen Aspect Ratio 4:3 and 16:9
* Smart Video: Sharpness/Contrast/Brightness/Saturation Adjustable
* Multi-Angled View
* Multi-Language for On-Screen-Display
* Converts Pal to Ntsc and Ntsc to Pal


Audio:

* 192 KHz Sampling Frequency, 24-Bit High Quality Audio DAC
* Dolby Digital Down-mixed 2-Ch Stereo (L. R)
* Built-in Dolby digital Decoder, Dolby Digital (AC3) 5.1 Channel Output
* Built-in DTS Digital Decoder, DTS 5.1 Channel Output
* Dolby Digital/DTS/LCPM Bitstream Output
* 3D Surround (Virtual Surround): Concert, Live, Dance, Techno, Classic, Soft


Power Supply:

* ~~110V - ~~250V, 50Hz/60Hz AC Universal Power Supply
* Automatic Short Circuit Protection


Connectors: Gold Plated

* Analog (Mixed 2 Ch) Stereo (Left, Right) Audio
* S/PDIF (IEC-958) Coaxial/Optical Digital Audio
* Component Video/Composite Video/S-Video
* DVI
* 5.1 Channel Audio


not bad eh!!!

Yo swifty7-

As a matter of fact - I did look at the Oppo - for exactly all the reasons that you state-

The reason I went with the Panasonic was the comparison chart on the company site that sells the Oppo - looked pretty close to me - so I went with the Panny - if only for the great results I have had with their other products-eh?

Also the Panny has HDMI out and if I recall the Oppo has DMI out - so I got the whole digital thing with one hookup-

Mike

yeah, unfortunately the Oppo has only the DVI output, but it has a bunch of other very usefull features, it might even support HDWM9 in the future with a firmware upgrade.