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Upscalers are NOT high definition

Don't get confused, a HDMI port alone does not make TV high definition

Don't get confused, a HDMI port alone does not make TV high def
Published on by on UK Free TV
We've come across a class of devices that seems able to confuse HDTV buyers. These are called "upscalers" and seem to miraculously produce high definition pictures.

HDTV usually requires a high definition input port, either a HDMI or a DVI connection. These ports allow the higher definition modes, 1280x720 and 1920x1080 to be displayed.

However, standard television is at a maximum of 720x576. This applies to analogue television, Freeview, cable and satellite (obviously except the HD services) and to DVDs. See www.ukfree.tv link icon A comparison of TV, HDTV and computer monitors for a comparison.

So, if you are buying a DVD player, Freeview box or similar it's worth buying one with a HDMI or DVI connector, as this will make the connecting the device to your HDTV very straightforward.

But there is no point buying "upscaler" devices that claim to increase the resolution they do not. All HDTVs will do the same resolution conversion for standard inputs.

If you want HDTV resolutions your options are:
  • Sky HD, only on selected channels
  • Virgin HD, only on selected channels
  • BBC/ITV Freesat, Spring 2008, selected channels only
  • BluRay/HD-DVD player with HD media only






Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom


Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Charlie
Friday 25 May 2007 5:10PM
Thats not quite accurate. Its true that simply stretching an SD signal to HD doesn't matter if its done on the device or the HDTV.

What matters is the actual hardware that does the scaling. A decent upscaler will run different algorithms on the image. The more complex the upsaling proccess the more prossessing power is required, making the device more expensive.

Some HDTVs, particually cheap ones have very poor quality upscalers built in.

It doesn't really matter if its the TV or some other device that does the upscaling. Its just that upscaling the signal before it reachs the TV lets you bypass the tvs built in upscaler.

I am sure for most people their HDTV does a good enough job. Of course as a manufacturer, claiming you Device upsacles, does of course let you charge more for it. Some are worth it and some arnt.

Charlie
Briantist
Friday 25 May 2007 5:17PM
Charlie: I'm sorry, but there are NO "algorithms" that will increase the amount of information in the original signal. I've NEVER seen a HDTV that has a bad upscaler built in, it's a blitter, an age-old computing concept!
Chris
Friday 1 June 2007 7:55PM
While I can't say Charlie is correct, the evidence of my own eyes on a Sony Bravia 32in TV shows that upscaled freeview via HDMI from a BT Vision box looks a damn sight better than the Scart output of the same box. Same with a Sony upscaling DVD player. And it's not just because the HDMI is digital - 576p on HDMI doesn't look as good.

Upscaling definitely makes a difference but, as you say, it doesn't not make things HD as there is no new detail. It could be that HD-ready TVs apply less processing (sharpness etc) to a signal coming in a res near the native res on the screen (720p in this case), which makes it look better.

Thoughts?


David Robinson
Sunday 3 June 2007 1:08PM
Brian, it is true that scaling is easy with today's technology and most HD ready TV's do it perfectly well. Does this mean that the processor boxes offered by DVDO etc. are worthless? Absolutely not.

Before an SD picture can be scaled, it must be converted from interlace to sequential. It is here that the cheap processors built into TV's tend to fall over. A critical test is fine detail in the picture that moves slightly e.g. if someone is wearing a patterned tie, or a handheld camera shot looking at fine detail. The detail will flicker and shimmer as the system tries to decide whether to treat it as moving or stationary. My DVDO scaler isn't perfect but it's MUCH better than my Sony Bravia working alone.

Good deinterlacing needs several fields feeding the filter simultaneously so that movement can be detected reliably. The DVDO needs, and includes, an audio delay to compensate for the video process. The Sony needs no such delay. You can draw your own conclusions.

As for resolution, a conventional 50Hz interlaced display will appear to have somewhat reduced vertical resolution. This is due to the combined effect of large area flicker, interlace flicker and visible line structure. This was established by subjective tests a long time ago. Removing these effects by deinterlacing and scaling will result in some subjective improvement in resolution, albeit only in the vertical direction.
David Robinson
Sunday 3 June 2007 1:21PM
Chris, I can confirm your findings about the Bravia. It seems to apply various amounts of peaking to the video response depending on which input standard it's receiving. Apart from the obvious distortion of edges, this also emphasises the MPEG compression artifacts with off-air digital reception. Only the 720p mode seems to work cleanly and transparently.
Briantist
Sunday 3 June 2007 1:59PM
David Robinson: However, no matter what you do it will NOT make a HD signal out of a SD source.
Ian
Thursday 7 June 2007 11:08PM
Where can I get an upscaler from?
Ian
Thursday 7 June 2007 11:26PM
Ok think I will just give Currys a call and see if I can return the TV. Just adds to the fact that I think all this digital crap and now HD crap is just a mony making scam.
Briantist
Thursday 7 June 2007 11:33PM
Ian: To be honest, I use Windows Vista with Media Center (Ultimate, but it's in the regular edition) with two DTT cards and a 500Gb USB2 drive, so I've got a perfect and DVI connected picture with a decent multi-GPU video card and it looks amazing, even with Freeview. I can download HD stuff over the net if I want to use it properly. I've even got the Media Center remote that glows! If you want it to look good, think DVI from a Media Center PC.
Briantist
Thursday 7 June 2007 11:35PM
Ian: .... and I can do cool things like take the digital recordings over my local area network (a cat 5 cable) and edit them, and then upload them to Google from my laptop.



video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1815884563738845754&hl=en-GB" flashvars="">





Much more fun than an "upscaler"!
Ian
Thursday 7 June 2007 11:41PM
and a lot more expencive, think I will just take it back under the sale of goods act, not fit for the job.
Briantist
Thursday 7 June 2007 11:47PM
Ian: All you need is a PC with www.microsoft.com link icon Vista Home Premium and a single USB or PCI DVB-T card. With a remote - you can get a big hard drive later and second DVB-T card later. Just connect using DVI or HDMI...
Ian
Friday 8 June 2007 12:19AM
Just spent £500 on a TV I am not about to get a new PC!
Briantist
Friday 8 June 2007 12:35AM
Ian: Why spend money on a great TV and NOT spend it on a good source?
Ian
Friday 8 June 2007 1:24PM
Because now the money has gone!
Briantist
Friday 8 June 2007 1:44PM
Ian: You can't really complain about the picture quality if you don't have a decent source signal!
Ian
Friday 8 June 2007 2:47PM
I just got of the phone to Currys and gues what, they display HD on ther TV's even though the bloke told me they were normal. waiting for manager to contact me.
Briantist
Friday 8 June 2007 3:06PM
Ian: I bet they are not digital, I bet they are analogue.
Ian
Friday 8 June 2007 8:43PM
Got a full refund.

Will eather go for a 32" CRT or just not bother, 95% of TVs are HD, but ther is nothing anyware to say SD reception will be pants.
Andrew Schofield
Thursday 2 August 2007 1:40PM
'HDMI upscaling' is a complete scam: my Toshiba player offers three resolution levels with absolutely zero discernible difference between them, whatever the source material (oh, and it won't play the new HD discs either), and with the output through the HDMI socket to the TV's HDMI socket
Jeff
Tuesday 16 October 2007 1:35PM
hdmi upscaling will be forgotten with in the next two years, for one it is a gimmick of no real valuer and two it will be surpassed by real hdmi broadcast which is going to be standard by 2010
Briantist
Tuesday 16 October 2007 1:48PM
Jeff: HDMI is a type of lead, not a broadcast format.
Paul Naish
Sunday 28 October 2007 10:28PM Padstow
I'd like to add weight to David Robinson's comments; to display 720/576i on a 1024p, the video must be upscaled and re-sampled. This does not, as Briantist correctly points out, increase the amount of information in the signal, it simply avoids ugly aliasing artifacts that would be present without this process.

However, the optimum point to do this is whilst it is still in the MPEG domain,and a good upscaler may use the motion vectors can help the interlace to progressive conversion as an intermeadiate field must be generated. If done after an intermeadiate analogue stage, the results can be quite disappointing, this is why upscaling in the DVD or STB & HDMI connection works so well. I've seen an ASDA 'ONN' LCD fed from a Panasonic upscaling DVD look superb, I've seen £1000+ LCD & plasma look c**p because the inbuilt upscaler has to make the best out of a SCART feed.

The high end Sony 100Hz CRT tellies had a 'i' to 'p' upscaler. They had some strange artifacts at times, but they are very comfortable to watch because of the high refresh rate.

Genesis Microchip/Faroudja video processing chip is reckoned to be the best upscaler
andy
Tuesday 30 October 2007 5:40PM
I HAVE THE ANSWER!!!!


how an upscaler works:

1. SD-DVD goes in
2. DVD player turns on
3. Magic happens
4. HD pictures come out



Simple
IAN
Wednesday 7 November 2007 12:48AM
i have a Lg 50 and the picture is crap
JUST GOT THIS 2 WEAKS AGO CRAP WITH FREEVEW CRAP WITH VIRGIN AND CRAP WITH
UPSCALE FREEVIEW DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW
Briantist
Wednesday 7 November 2007 6:33AM
IAN: Crap? In what way?
Nik
Tuesday 4 December 2007 8:15PM
If HD upscaling is so pointless then why did What Hi-Fi magazine give an award to a dvd upscaler.

Ive recently brought a Phillips DVP 5980 to replace me older dvd player and it puts out a MUCH better picture. Im running it on a 42 inch 1080p tv.

but its not rocket science that it isnt actually HD.. of course you need a HD source for that.
Briantist
Wednesday 5 December 2007 6:57AM
Nik: I have no problem with boxes with HDMI outputs, just pointing out that adding an upscaler to an analogue device won't give a HD picture.
Alan Moore
Wednesday 4 June 2008 6:01PM
There is nothing wrong with upscalers.Anyone who says you dont get a better picture must be blind,end of story.
Briantist
Wednesday 4 June 2008 6:04PM
Alan Moore: There are not high definition though.
Andrew
Tuesday 17 June 2008 7:59PM
Even Blu Ray discs that are of old films that sell for 25 quid are just upscaled versions of the original film that is marketed as hd(was never filmed in hd) but still looks better than dvd.
Decent telly and decent source you can have a mint picture whether or not it classed as sd or hd who actually cares.
Andrew
Tuesday 17 June 2008 8:10PM
Don't forget to use decent cables cos standard cables are absolute crap.decent source sent to decent telly with crap cables are totally pointless.
I have sky tv with qed scart cable to sony rdr-hx860 which upscales to 1080i then to toshiba 32wlt66 with ixos hdmi and every channel has a mint picture because of the upscaling process.
My dad has sky hd and hd channels are mint but every other channel is crap because it does'nt upscale.
Briantist
Tuesday 17 June 2008 8:48PM
Andrew: Movie film has always been higher definition than TV. If the original print of the film was used to create the HD version, then it will be HD. This is quite normal, and the telecine process will produce a much better version than on DVD. TV programmes sometimes were shot on film, but this was not usually preserved as this would have been copied to videotape for editing. So, old films on Blu Ray at least can be HD.
Briantist
Tuesday 17 June 2008 9:02PM
Andrew: Also, there is no point whatsoever paying for expensive cables that carry DIGITAL signals. Either they do, or they do not. I also think you will find that the "every one channels is crap" because it is not in HD, not because it is not "upscaled".
Andrew
Saturday 21 June 2008 11:37PM
briantist: i already knew that movies were much better quality than tv/dvd but they were never 1920x1080p(hd) and have been upscaled from their native resolution.
I also totally agree that expensive cables are waste of money but a £30 hdmi cable will provide cleaner sharper results than a £5 one.
I knew other channels were not in hd and not upscaled but all of my sky sd channels are upscaled by my sony RDR-HXD860 and are on par with sky hd channels(only compared with me dads) which proves(to me that is) that upscalers work to provide much better results at a fraction of the cost of going full hd which i think when analogue is switched off there is lot more bandwidth for full 1080p broadcasting which is when i will upgrade until then i'm well happy.
Look forward to more of your thoughts cos i reckon you know a thing or two.
Briantist
Tuesday 24 June 2008 6:24AM
Andrew: Even 35mm film resolution is way, way in excess of 1920x1080, most movies have been shot and printed on this film since 1892! This article puts it at 5300 x 4000 - this is the scale of resolution used for pic.templetons.com link icon How many pixels are there in a frame of 35mm film? - and digital cinemas work at 4096×2160. I'm sorry but you are 100% wrong about the HDMI cable. The information is DIGITAL, just 0 or 1s. Either they will be transferred 100% correctly or they will not. The idea that the picture could be better or worse is an analogue idea.
Andrew
Saturday 5 July 2008 5:53PM
Briantist: You even said it yourself either they will be transferred 100% correctly or not. Better quality cables will transfer more of the signal at 100%.Did'nt realise 35mm was so high quality and stand corrected.
Briantist
Sunday 6 July 2008 10:41AM
Andrew: Either it's 100% of the data, or it isn't. Anything less is a useless cable. The 'signal' does not matter, as long as it carrys 100% of the data. They are 0s and 1s, you can't have "a stronger one" or a "stronger zero". I
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