Watching 1080i material on a DVD.

[Sleestack]

Believe it or not, right now I'm watching 1080i iMax content on a double layer DVD. It isn't Blue-Ray and it isn't HD-DVD. I could be watching 1080p if I had 1080p content and a triple layer DVD. This is all on a $149 player. Will China accept all the licensing fees required to make Blue-Ray and HD-DVD their HD player standard? Don't know, but clearly some people there have something to say about it and they aren't small fish in the pond. Looking at this, I can tell you 480p upscaled to 1080i looks nothing like native 1080i material.

[brushro]

Believe it or not, right now I'm watching 1080i iMax content on a double layer DVD. It isn't Blue-Ray and it isn't HD-DVD. I could be watching 1080p if I had 1080p content and a triple layer DVD. This is all on a $149 player. Will China accept all the licensing fees required to make Blue-Ray and HD-DVD their HD player standard? Don't know, but clearly some people there have something to say about it and they aren't small fish in the pond. Looking at this, I can tell you 480p upscaled to 1080i looks nothing like native 1080i material.
-Does that mean all this upconversion ballyhoo is just that?

[Sleestack]

-Does that mean all this upconversion ballyhoo is just that?

Not completely, but it is definitely different from watching 1080i source material. I think upscaling is nice way to get your current DVDs looking a little better, but that's about it.