rockymtnman said:
What is the difference bitween switching and upscaling and up conversion?
- Switching: all receivers switch between sources. If you have a dvd player and a set-top box connected to the receiver, when you press 'dvd' the receiver switches to the dvd player; ie the video and the audio now comes from the dvd player. Press 'Video1' (if that is the input where the set-top box is connected) and now all the audio and video comes from the set-top box.
- Upscaling: Changing from one resolution to another. If eg you are viewing Standard Definition video from a DVD with a resolution of 480i and you have the receiver or dvd player set to upscale to 720p, then it adds lines to the image so that its resolution is now 720 lines instead of 480. The purpose is to match the resolution of the TV. Some receivers and dvd players include upscaling and all HDTVs scale.
- Upconversion: The technical term is actually 'transcoding'; ie changing from one format to another. Upconversion is sort of the simplified colloquial term that everyone uses instead. Upconversion is for the case where you have different source devices using different connections and you want to output using one common connection. For example, the dvd player is using s-video and the set-top box is using composite video but you have component video connections to the TV. The receiver can convert composite and s-video to component video.
Also, if I buy a receiver that has switching, do I need to get a dvd player that is already hdmi capable to have the hdmi quality?
The dvd player has to have hdmi outputs. If your receiver has hdmi inputs and outputs you can connect it to the receiver instead of directly to the tv and the receiver can switch between it and other connected devices. If you want to use HDMI output to the TV along with other devices that do not have HDMI outputs, then the receiver must also be able to transcode the other formats (composite, s-video, component) to HDMI.