Sony DVPNS76H Upscaling DVD player with HDMI

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HDMI & Upscaling

So, the component video outputs in actual viewing are either pretty much identical or actually worse than the Pioneer, not so good after spending hard earned money on this thing. But that was running at the bog standard 576p, normal DVD res. and running that via old school analogue cables too! The real reason for buying this unit was to use the all digital connection of HDMI, and pair that with in player scaling to HD resolutions of 720p or 1080i.

So, now that I have received my HDMI cable (Just $10.50 Australian, delivered, from US outfit SVideo, I recommend them) I have now been able to see this unit in a much better light. I have configured the HDMI input the same way I did so with the component one, with the THX optimizer found on many THX discs (Star Wars Ep I thru III for example). Not hugely accurate, I know, but pretty good.

Comparisons with the previous shots from the component tests. You will notice some difference cropping on some of the component shots to the HDMI ones... I got over zealous with my cropping earlier, sorry. I may go back and fix them all one day... maybe. Also, the fullsize versions of the HDMI shots are now scaled to 1366 pixels across (the native res of the screen) as I figured a) the other images are just huge, and b) An image with any more res than the original screen size is a bit silly really.

 

Pioneer DV466 576i Sony DVPNS76H 576p (Component) Sony DVPNS76H 720p (HDMI) Sony DVPNS76H 1080i (HDMI) Sony DVPNS76H 576p (HDMI)
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Closeup comparisons

Using the same closeups as in the component test we have:

Oh... DOH! I forgot to upload the images... I shall do so as soon as possible. Sorry :(

HDMI & Upscaling conclusions

So, 'in the flesh' I have to say that HDMI just at native res looks better than component, and with less tweaking of the config values to do so. Then after upscaling everything does indeed look smoother, more detailed, and just nicer to watch. Although I, like others, have found little difference between 720p and 1080i, at least on my display, which while it can take the 1080i image, scales it back down to its native res of 768px. So, 1080i is scaled down by my set, while 720p is scaled up a little, I'm guessing you may notice a nicer image on a screen which can actually natively display 1080i, but on a set limited to 720p there's not benefit going up to 1080i.

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