Upconversion benefits

[besmail]

Hello,

I'm considering two Yamaha receivers (RX-V371BL and RX-V567BL). I'm not looking to setup 7 speakers so the 5 vs. 7 setup isn't of interest to me. The only major standout feature was video upconversion so I wanted to understand this a little better. First, I'm going to have a new Samsung LED D7000 which I believe does upconversion, along with a blu ray player that does upconversion already. I'll also have an XBOX running through component cables.

Given those devices, would I even see any benefit from upconversion? In particular, I was curious if upconversion would impact an income HD Cable signal via HDMI. I remember hearing this usually wasn't true 1080p. If it impacted my day to day tv, that might be worth it for me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PENG]

Hello,

I'm considering two Yamaha receivers (RX-V371BL and RX-V567BL). I'm not looking to setup 7 speakers so the 5 vs. 7 setup isn't of interest to me. The only major standout feature was video upconversion so I wanted to understand this a little better. First, I'm going to have a new Samsung LED D7000 which I believe does upconversion, along with a blu ray player that does upconversion already. I'll also have an XBOX running through component cables.

Given those devices, would I even see any benefit from upconversion? In particular, I was curious if upconversion would impact an income HD Cable signal via HDMI. I remember hearing this usually wasn't true 1080p. If it impacted my day to day tv, that might be worth it for me.

Thanks in advance!

The top Yamaha models have good VP in them so while they will unlikely help but won't make things noticeably worse either. The lower models will most likely degraded the video quality so it is better to turn off those features and just let your TV or BDP do the upconversion/upscaling. The Samsung 7000/8000 series should be able to do a decent job upscaling.

 

[MDS]

Hello,

I'm considering two Yamaha receivers (RX-V371BL and RX-V567BL). I'm not looking to setup 7 speakers so the 5 vs. 7 setup isn't of interest to me. The only major standout feature was video upconversion so I wanted to understand this a little better. First, I'm going to have a new Samsung LED D7000 which I believe does upconversion, along with a blu ray player that does upconversion already. I'll also have an XBOX running through component cables.

What you describe as upconversion is converting from one signal format to another - for example component video to HDMI. If you will have the receiver connected to the TV via HDMI and an XBox connected to the receiver via component video cables then you will need the receiver that supports upconversion (unless you want to also run component video from the receiver to the TV and be willing to switch inputs on the TV when playing the XBox).
It's a convenience feature that is very handy if you have many non-HDMI devices but an HDMI connection to the TV.

The kind of upconversion that the TV and BluRay player does is video deinterlacing and scaling - for example taking a 480i input (standard cable say) and deinterlacing to 480p and scaling to 1080p. The TV is going to do that no matter what because it can only display one resolution. If the TV's native resolution is 1080p, it will take any input signal it receives and deinterlace (if necessary) and scale to 1080p.

The TV usually does the best job, but you can certainly experiment and see if the receiver or BluRay player does a better job.

 

[PENG]

What you describe as upconversion is converting from one signal format to another - for example component video to HDMI. If you will have the receiver connected to the TV via HDMI and an XBox connected to the receiver via component video cables then you will need the receiver that supports upconversion (unless you want to also run component video from the receiver to the TV and be willing to switch inputs on the TV when playing the XBox).
It's a convenience feature that is very handy if you have many non-HDMI devices but an HDMI connection to the TV.

The 7000 series does have 1 component input so his XBOX will be fine. If he has a VCR like I do then he can use the composite video input. The upconversion feature could be useful in terms of potentially simplifying interconnections but not much more than that.

 

[bikdav]

That's What I Figured.

The kind of upconversion that the TV and BluRay player does is video deinterlacing and scaling - for example taking a 480i input (standard cable say) and deinterlacing to 480p and scaling to 1080p. The TV is going to do that no matter what because it can only display one resolution. If the TV's native resolution is 1080p, it will take any input signal it receives and deinterlace (if necessary) and scale to 1080p.

Unless I'm still missong something, you answered a big question that I had. I've always connected my DVD player's video directly to the TV instead of through the receiver. I figured that upscaling would be less problematic that way, but wasn't quite sure.

 

[besmail]

Two Examples

Thanks for the comments! Just to clarify some points I heard:
1.) If I had an entry level Yamaha receiver that supported upconversion, along with a fairly high end tv (Samsung D7000), I may actually receive a better picture by not utilizing the receiver's upconversion and relying solely on the tv. Would that be a fair assumption?
2.) If the receiver did not upconvert, I wouldn't even be able to run the XBOX via component to the receiver and then only have the receiver connected to the tv via hdmi?

My goal was to only have 1 HDMI cable running to the tv, but if point 1 is correct I'm also a little hesitant to rely on receiver upconversion.

Thanks again!

 

[MDS]

1.) If I had an entry level Yamaha receiver that supported upconversion, along with a fairly high end tv (Samsung D7000), I may actually receive a better picture by not utilizing the receiver's upconversion and relying solely on the tv. Would that be a fair assumption?

Remember the two types of 'upconversion'.

What you are asking is whether the TV or receiver will do the better job of converting a lower resolution to a higher resolution. My money is on the TV, but you can try it with the receiver doing the conversion and see if you notice any difference.

2.) If the receiver did not upconvert, I wouldn't even be able to run the XBOX via component to the receiver and then only have the receiver connected to the tv via hdmi?

This type of upconversion is converting signal formats - component to HDMI. If your receiver can do it, then you can use 1 single HDMI from receiver to TV while having the XBox connected to the receiver by component video cables.

If the receiver cannot do that upconversion, then you have to also connect the receiver to the TV by component video cables. When you select the xbox input on the receiver, you also have to change the input on the TV to the component video input (and likewise when you switch back to a component connected via HDMI to the receiver, you have to switch the TV back to its HDMI input).

Having a receiver that can do the signal format conversion for you simplifies things by allowing you to have only 1 HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV and you never have to change the input on the TV.