Denon AVRs and upconverting DVDs

[Dean]

I have an older 300 disc DVD player from Sony. It has component video out. I am getting ready to purchase a Denon AVR and a Panasonic Plasma 1080p 42" HDTV. Was wondering if I use an HDMI cable from the AVR to the TV, and if I hook up the DVD player to the AVR via component video cables, will the AVR upconvert my DVDs to 1080p? Will the Panasonic Plasma set do it?

I was considering the AVR-590, but was not sure if it will do upconverting of video. Does the 790 do this? I would buy the 790 (for about $150 more) if I knew it would do this upconversion, otherwise I'm fine with the 5.1 over 7.1. Does anyone know if either of these AVRs will do this upconversion? If they won't, does anyone know what my best solution would be for this issue?

Thanks.

BTW... wonderful forum!

Dean

[57]

1. AVR Upconversion? Depends on the AVR and the settings you choose in the AVR. This may not make any difference since the TV also converts to 1080P. See FAQs below:

2. TV Upconversion? The TV has no choice but to convert all inputs to its native resolution, which you say is 1080P.

See the Following FAQs:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=87543 On upconversion

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=73528 Native format

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741 Useful post - FAQs, Search Tips, Optimization, etc.

Since you don't appear to have an upconverting DVD player, I suggest you set it for 480P, set the AVR to passthrough the signals and let the TV upconvert to 1080P.

[Dean]

Thanks, 57!

Good FAQs. One question. You said I should pass through the AVR. Would it then be best to just go directly to the TV if it has component video inputs (which I'm sure it does), thus bypassing the AVR altogether? The only video source I use is my DVD collection which I purchased around 7 years ago (about a hundred movies). I would imagine the 590 or 790 AVRs are not going to upconvert as well as the TV. If at a later time I want to have more video sources running through my AVR, then, I suppose, just for cleaner setup, I could run the component video into my AVR and then go HDMI to TV.

What do you think of this idea of bypassing the AVR (for now anyway) to go directly from DVD player to TV via component video? The audio from the DVD player would go to the AVR, of course.

Thanks.

Dean

[57]

Either way is fine. You save a cable if you go direct. Eventually you may wish to have a BD player and then you can use HDMI and have HD audio to the AVR and probably better upconversion via the BD player. Check out the following list of AVR features:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76082

[Dean]

One other related question.

My current TV is a Toshiba projection TV that is 7 years old. My current DVD player is a Sony 300-disc that is 7 years old. I have about 100 movies all on standard DVDs that I bought about 7 years ago. I only have component out on my DVD player and, aside from one DVI in on my TV, there is component in, and so I use component cables between my DVD player and my TV. I believe my TV is 1080i. I seriously doubt it is 1080p. Either way, my question is if I am connecting this older DVD player to this older TV with component video cables, do you think any upconversion is going on inside my Toshiba TV?

And, more importantly, will any new 1080p HDTV do upconverting of this source, especially if I just go straight component video cables from this old DVD player to the new 1080p TV? In other words, if there is really no way that upconversion can happen with this type of setup, would I be better off getting a new Blueray/DVD 400-disc changer, for example, which will do upconversion itself, and then send that signal over HDMI to a new 1080p TV? My current DVD player and TV match really well. Should I get new ones that match as well? I'm thinking that my old DVD player and a new 1080p TV are not going to match at all.

If I run component cables from my old DVD player into a new Denon AVR and then go HDMI from the Denon to a new 1080p TV, will the TV do the upconversion then or not? Should I just keep what I've got until I can get both a new BD/DVD player and a new 1080p TV?

Thanks for all your help.

Dean

[Dean]

Well, I checked the manuals for my DVD player and my TV and found that the DVD player can be set to 480i or 480P and the TV takes sources of 480i/480P or 1080i. I could not find a thing in the TV manual about upconversion of incoming 480i/480P signals to 1080i. So, I doubt there is any way to upconvert using this TV. Are only newer HDTVs capable of doing this upconversion? The FAQs say the TVs have no choice but to convert to their native resolution, but, my older TV says it will display both 480 and 1080. Am I misreading something here?

Please help me understand this.

Thanks.

Dean