You guys need to learn about external scalers, which are much better and more versatile than the ones built into most T.V.'s.

For example, if you have a 1080p flatscreen set, that is actually the only resolution it displays. Anything you feed into it that is not 1080p is scaled up to this by a scaler built into the set. The "zoom," "stretch," etc. that is on these sets are basically the scaler controls, which most of the time is one button.

With an external scaler, you feed all video into that, it scales to 1080p, then that feeds the set. The controls on an external scaler are usually much more extensive, and the scaling software and hardware produces a better picture. For the ultimate in image quality, many videophiles get players with "SDI" modifications. "SDI" stands for "serial digital interface," the standard used in the broadcast industry. It is superior to HDMI (a subset of DVI) when used with an external scaler because it sends the digital signal output by the DVD player's MPEG decoder directly to the scaler. While HDMI is digital, video data read off of DVD's and Blu-Rays undergoes various degrees of processing (depending on the DVD / Blu-Ray player) between the MPEG decoder and the HDMI output. SDI (and for high definition, HD-SDI) wasn't used in consumer players because it has no protection scheme.

Popular brands of external scalers include Anchor Bay / DVDO / iScan (http://www.anchorbaytech.com/) and Crystalio (http://www.crystalio.com/).

Popular vendors for scalers and SDI modified players include Custom Home Theater (http://www.custom-ht.com/) and JVB Digital (http://www.jvbdigital.nl/) (while that are based in the Netherlands they do have a location in the United States).

(Sorry about not hotlinking, the forum URL tags didn't work properly for some reason.)

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
You guys need to learn about external scalers, which are much better and more versatile than the ones built into most T.V.'s.

For example, if you have a 1080p flatscreen set, that is actually the only resolution it displays. Anything you feed into it that is not 1080p is scaled up to this by a scaler built into the set. The "zoom," "stretch," etc. that is on these sets are basically the scaler controls, which most of the time is one button.

should have mentioned in my earlier post my set is 720/1080i  not p  ( interlaced /progressive)
would your post thus  refer to 1080i ?

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
You guys need to learn about external scalers, which are much better and more versatile than the ones built into most T.V.'s.

I looked at a couple of your examples...I am not willing to spend that much for the few non-anamorphic DVDs that I own. 

Quoting Unicus69:

Quote:
Quoting Grendell:
I looked at a couple of your examples...I am not willing to spend that much for the few non-anamorphic DVDs that I own. 

It is considered a "videophile" product, meaning it costs a lot. However, DVDO does make some lower priced models.

The scalers handle both anamorphic and non anamorphic. In fact, they are primarily designed for anamorphic sources. Some handle non anamorphic better than others.

Quoting Danae Cassandra:

Quote:
What I have learned here in this thread is that I should not try to buy a widescreen TV or a more expensive DVD player.  Ever.  I do not speak the language. 

Me and my $20 player will be over here with our red/white/yellow ended cable that you plug into the matching holes in the back of your square TV.  We'll just be watching all our movies with the black bars.

Seriously, the lingo is beyond me.  Any desire I had for widescreen just went out the window from learning how much I would have to learn to be able to buy it or work it.

Fear not! I gave up on the technicalities of this thread a few pages back...and in the meantime, I've been thoroughly enjoying my several widescreen TVs. So get out there and find one you like. They're very cool and you don't need to know all the lingo. I don't. 

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
Quoting Unicus69:

Quote:
Quoting Grendell:
I looked at a couple of your examples...I am not willing to spend that much for the few non-anamorphic DVDs that I own. 

It is considered a "videophile" product, meaning it costs a lot. However, DVDO does make some lower priced models.

The scalers handle both anamorphic and non anamorphic. In fact, they are primarily designed for anamorphic sources. Some handle non anamorphic better than others.

Any PC with a DVD drive will upscale and there are many DVD player that do as well. All Blu-Ray player will upscale. Personally I have an upscaling AV receiver that upscales everything to 1080P. It saves using an extra device and is useful for legacy sources including Cable TV.

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
(While HDMI is digital, video data read off of DVD's and Blu-Rays is converted to analog video before it is digitized and sent out over the HDMI cable.).

Do you have a source explaining this weird thing in more details? I have never heard about this before, and to be honest - find it extremely unlikely.

The PC monitor of mine is 4:3.., not that that would matter,, the PC DVD program player is Cyberlinks PowerDVD 7 ., Do I have the settings set up wrong?  The DVD is anamorphic playback on my TV system., but since we are not taking aspect ratios from that type of setup only a PC setup.., The question begs: How properly are we set up to take a screen cap measure the pixels and then over ride what the Studios and DVD release tells us in their source materials ??