BluRay with a 1080i TV

BlueFox
BlueFox Posts: 15,251
edited July 2009 in Electronics
My TV, Hitachi RPTV 57" digital monitor and ISF calibrated, only does 1080i, and it will be a few more years before I get rid of it. Also, upconverted DVDs look fantastic on it.

My question. Is there a BIG differance in picture quality with a BluRay at 1080i versus an upconverted DVD at 1080i? I do not mind buying a BluRay player if it will be worth it, but if the differance is negligible then I can spend the money on something else.
Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
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Comments

  • leroyjr1
    leroyjr1 Posts: 8,785
    edited July 2009
    Definately worth the purchase. The picture is great with a 1080i/720p TV. It's hard for me to watch regular dvd's after buying blu-ray.
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  • kawizx9r
    kawizx9r Posts: 5,150
    edited July 2009
    +1 leroyjr1

    My wife insists she can't see the difference but for me it was like going from regular cable, to digital cable's HD channels. I compare those channels to DVD, and as for blu ray? Well blu ray blows it out of the water imo.
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  • Knucklehead
    Knucklehead Posts: 3,602
    edited July 2009
    yes, yes and yes! you will enjoy blu-ray!
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited July 2009
    You guys are trying to make me spend my beer money!! ;)

    Thanks.
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
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  • thuffman03
    thuffman03 Posts: 1,325
    edited July 2009
    If you have the $$$ get the Blue Ray player. Make sure you get one that will do upconverting on your DVD's also. I am not up on what is out there since I am waiting for my DVD player to die before I replace it. Though most now might do that also.
    Sunfire TGP, Sunfire Cinema Grand, Sunfire 300~2 (2), Sunfire True Sub (2),Carver ALS Platinum, Carver AL III, TFM-55, C-19, C-9, TX-8, SDA-490t, SDA-390t
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited July 2009
    I have a Toshiba 57" RPTV set that is also 1080i, and HD content on both Blu Ray and HD DVD look fantastic. I have a Toshiba XA2 that does a great job of upconverting regular DVDs, but doesn't compare to true HD content.

    Bottom line, you can't put in a picture what isn't there to begin with.
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  • reeltrouble1
    reeltrouble1 Posts: 9,312
    edited July 2009
    blue,

    I figure its about the sound for you. Sure a nice pic is great. Wally World has an inexpensive Magnavox Blue Ray I use with my Elite which is 1080i, like you I was a late adopter, I got my player on sale for 125.00 and it looks really good with BR and upconverts nicely. Works everytime and load times are reasonable.

    I figure we will see some big price drops in the better players as all the handshaking is worked out, this thing sounds fine, looks awesome and I can wait for a fancier machine of course no self-respecting videophile would be caught dead with it as it is to BR what the OppO is to SACD players for high rez comparison.

    RT1
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited July 2009
    reeltrouble1 wrote: »
    I figure its about the sound for you. Sure a nice pic is great.

    Yes, both. I know the sound will be better, but I am not going to upgrade to BluRay just for better sound. The picture has to be better, and the sound is like a bonus. Of course, now I have to find a player that will decode to PCM, and make sure my AVR will accept PCM over HDMI. I would prefer not having to buy 5 high quality anaog ICs.
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
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  • leroyjr1
    leroyjr1 Posts: 8,785
    edited July 2009
    Better sound, better picture, better get one.
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  • slowpolky
    slowpolky Posts: 714
    edited July 2009
    do not buy the magnavox bluray player . I had one

    It sucked so bad
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  • cnh
    cnh Posts: 13,284
    edited July 2009
    BlueFox wrote: »
    Yes, both. I know the sound will be better, but I am not going to upgrade to BluRay just for better sound. The picture has to be better, and the sound is like a bonus. Of course, now I have to find a player that will decode to PCM, and make sure my AVR will accept PCM over HDMI. I would prefer not having to buy 5 high quality anaog ICs.

    Hi Bluefox,

    I can speak directly to this. I run an older Toshiba RPTV/HDTV with 1.1 HDMI standard and a 1080i maximum resolution. I also have a PS3 set to 1080i. And yes, you CAN see a difference between upconverted DVDs and a Blu-ray! IS it as great a difference as 1080p blu-ray...? No! But I'd say it's at least 2 x 3 times sharper, crisper image.

    A simple test for you would be to view an HD sporting event in 1080i over the air then slap an S-DVD of a classic GAME in an upconverting DVD player and see what you think. Because that would be similar to comparing DVD to blu-ray on your set!

    To me the PS3 delivers a sharper, cleaner more detailed picture from blu-ray in 1080i. Having said that it will be even better in 1080p...at least twice as sharp!

    cnh
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  • Erik Tracy
    Erik Tracy Posts: 4,673
    edited July 2009
    I did a direct comparison of Pirates of the Carribean:Curse of the Black Pearl on DVD vs Blu-ray.

    The DVD played in my Sony DVD player and I let my 50" Panasonic Plasma do the upconverting to its native 1080p resolution.

    The Blu-ray played in my PS3.

    I manually synchronized both movies to play at the same time and I switched back and forth between the two.

    The DVD at first seemed really good, then I switched to the blu-ray and literally gasped out "WHOA".

    Better color, sharper resolution - no contest.

    H9: If you don't trust what you are hearing, then maybe you need to be less invested in a hobby which all the pleasure comes from listening to music.
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  • Lib0rat0r
    Lib0rat0r Posts: 28
    edited July 2009
    I'm surprised to see how little mention sound is getting here. A DVD has a capacity of 4.7 GB single layer and 8.54 GM double layer, while Bluray Disc has 25GB single layer and 50GB double layer...that is a huge difference! The extra capacity on the Blu ray disc is used to store a much higher quality picture and less compressed sound. The audio and sound stored on a DVD is limited due to size, where a Blu ray allows for much crisper, realistic, and life-like sound.

    I noticed a HUGE difference. DTS HD-Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD are significant improvements over the sound codecs commonly found on DVDs. This is all my opinion of course, but I find the sound improvement alone to be worth the upgrade.

    The picture quality is undoubtedly better, and I can barely watch DVDs anymore...but I thought I'd add the topic of audio to this discussion
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited July 2009
    Lib0rat0r wrote: »
    The picture quality is undoubtedly better, and I can barely watch DVDs anymore...but I thought I'd add the topic of audio to this discussion

    Thanks. I was not really concerned about sound since I knew the audio would be better even if my TV only did 480i. I didn't want to spend the money if the picture was not much better.

    Anyway, I ordered an Oppo BD83 from Amazon. That should hold me for a year or so. Now I am ready for Watchmen, the new Star Trek, and the latest Terminator. Those will be my first new release BluRay purchases. Of course, I have to decide if I want to replace any existing DVDs with BluRay versions. Decisions. Decisions.
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
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  • cheddar
    cheddar Posts: 2,390
    edited July 2009
    When making replacement decisions for your dvds, make sure the improvement is worth it. Older DVD titles need to be remastered properly for the higher quality of blu-ray video and audio. Otherwise, the extra resolution just ends up exposing all the flaws in a poor quality dvd master. Read the reviews on blu-ray.com and highdefdigest.com or the tiered lists on avs to see if the PQ and AQ is worth the money before you replace.
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