I recently had the opportunity to compare three DVD players in one sitting - two were standard proscan component output players, one was an "upscaling" player via HDMI (the Toshiba SD-5970). Complaints about the remote aside, I'd heard all sorts of great things about the picture quality of the Toshiba, so I wanted to see how well it performed.
I couldn't look at all images at the same time, but I had them set up so that I could just change the input on my TV to scroll between the three DVD player's output. The component-connected DVDs were upscaled to 720p by the TV set, while the HDMI-connected DVD was upscaled, of course, in the Toshiba player. I switched a back and forth couple of times between upscaling to 720p and 1080i, just to compare.
My experience was that the SD-5970 actually had the grainiest image quality of the three players, in any mode. This would seem to run counter to common sense, given that the connection was digital and should thus be, if nothing else, as good as the other DVD players. At 480i or 480p output (leaving the upscaling to the TV), the SD-5970 looked even worse.
Are the people who have reviewed these products just seeing what they want to see? Are these upscaling DVD players all a gimmick? Or is there something else at play? Anyone have a similar experience? Or, more interestingly, a good experience with one of these players?
