New TV (DLP)!!

[Mintmaster]

Also, I suppose I should point out that I'm not just talking about my Xbox when discussing the difference between 480p and 720p on my display. I have a PC hooked up as well, and there is some alising on vertical lines when running WMV-HD video with a 480p output, where as it goes away when running 720p. Again, the difference is modist, but all the same I have to dissagre with your suggestion that one would be better off sending 480p to an ED display rather than 720p.

As Russ said, it's all about the scalers. Here, it seems like the scaler in your TV is much better than the software scaler Media Player uses to fit the WMV-HD video to the computer resolution that corresponds to 480p output. What resolution is that by the way? Not 640x480, is it?

 

[RussSchultz]

Don't see the graphics card analogy. How is NTSC any more aliased?

The issue is that NTSC has a limited bandwidth that falls well below what a 848x480 device can really display.

By sending a higher resolution, and letting the device downscale to 848x480, you end up with more information than if you downscaled to 480p and sent that.

I wouldn't say the 480p image from a DVD player "spanks" the S-Video output, but that opinion I guess.

480p doesn't have that much more information than S-Video. 720p or or 1080i/p would have more information to 'saturate' the 480p display and get the most from it.

I also find the benefits of upscaling DVD players rather limited except for clearer menu text, but that's another topic.

Yes, but that's because the content on the DVD was filtered to fit within NTSC/PAL bandwidth.

 

[kyleb]

Also, I suppose I should point out that I'm not just talking about my Xbox when discussing the difference between 480p and 720p on my display. I have a PC hooked up as well, and there is some alising on vertical lines when running WMV-HD video with a 480p output, where as it goes away when running 720p. Again, the difference is modist, but all the same I have to dissagre with your suggestion that one would be better off sending 480p to an ED display rather than 720p.

As Russ said, it's all about the scalers. Here, it seems like the scaler in your TV is much better than the software scaler Media Player uses to fit the WMV-HD video to the computer resolution that corresponds to 480p output. What resolution is that by the way? Not 640x480, is it?

Nah 720x480 is what I meant by 480p (and I media player doesn't give the correct aspect ratio when outputing that resolution so I used media player clasic). I suppose that would be a little more that would be a little more than the 704x480 a cable box and such would output when running in 480p. Regardless, I'm not sending as much information as the screen is cappable of displaying with that so even if the scalers are equal in ablity, I'm pretty sure 720p would still be the better option.

 

[caboosemoose]

Well, IMHO if you live in europe buying a big HD DLP TV or Plasma is pretty pointless. SDTV looks absolutley shite when blown up large on those screens. You're better off with something like a decent 32" CRT set. Plus, for watching DVDs, a good projector attached to a PC via DVI wastes any DLP TV or Plasma. Simply 50x more cinematic.

Obviously a projector is less flexible in useage terms, tricky in the daytime etc. A 720p DLP projector + a 32" Sony trinitron would be my choice right now for all round viewing. But actually, I wouldn't buy now - I'd wait about a year to a year and 1/2 for an affordable 1080p projector to turn up (I reckon LCOS projectors will force prices for high resolution units down fast), then you know you've got a device that isn't going to need upgrading in terms of resolution and will give you an awesome home cinema experience.