Upconversion-
An upconverting DVD player, for the uninitiated, is like a supercharger for home theaters. The player takes the DVD's meager 720x480 (480i) resolution and jacks it up to 720p or 1080i.
Upscaling-
Mom used to say, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.” Upscalers are no exception. The single most crucial component (i.e., the “brain” of the player) is the video-processing chip. The task of ensuring that what you see on the HDTV screen accurately depicts the source material of what’s on the DVD is incredibly complex. Lesser chips need not apply.
The two main duties of the video chip are deinterlacing and scaling. But first, how about a crash refresher course in video resolution? Video on DVD is in 480i resolution, in which 30 still frames are displayed on a TV in two fields of 240 horizontal lines, every second. The “i” stands for “interlaced,” which means the entire frame of video is composed of the two passes of alternating horizontal lines of resolution interlaced together. A resolution of 480i was sufficient on smaller TVs, but the flaws in the interlaced, lower-resolution video become more apparent on larger displays. Increased space between the alternating scan lines can produce a flicker, and details suffer.
Factors such as fast on-screen motion, rapid scene transitions, and video noise from the source material can produce the aforementioned jaggies, visible pixilation (i.e., the “screen door effect”), and color shifting. A powerful, well-integrated video processor will eliminate, or at least minimize, these eyesores.
CONCLUSION
The BD30 upconverts SD DVD signal to 1080P but does not upscale the eyesores.
