Upconverting/Upscaling DVD players

[melon]

I wish I posted this before I bought everything, but here's my situation. I just bought an Insignia DVD player that came without an HDMI cable. The best way I had to hook it up and test it was with component cables. The first dvd appeared to be in 1080i but the quality looked like crap,very pixelated etc. I then tested the movie Saw II. Saw II would always play in 480 no matter what, it won't upscale. Whatever mode the player was in it always ran in 480.

So I have the following questions:

How much of a difference will HDMI cables make over component?

Is it the player itself? (Insignia is a Best Buy brand) and it was about 50 bucks. Should I get a better brand. They had a Phillips for about 75.

Why would Saw II not upscale? Are all standard DVD's compatible?

Are these things even capable of producing "near HD quality" or is that BS.

I'm not a expert on these subjects, but I do the best I can. Forgive me if my terminology is wonked. Thanks in advance.

your friend, Mike AKA watermelon man

[djb]

I wish I posted this before I bought everything, but here's my situation. I just bought an Insignia DVD player that came without an HDMI cable. The best way I had to hook it up and test it was with component cables. The first dvd appeared to be in 1080i but the quality looked like crap,very pixelated etc. I then tested the movie Saw II. Saw II would always play in 480 no matter what, it won't upscale. Whatever mode the player was in it always ran in 480.

So I have the following questions:

How much of a difference will HDMI cables make over component?

Is it the player itself? (Insignia is a Best Buy brand) and it was about 50 bucks. Should I get a better brand. They had a Splamlips for about 75.

Why would Saw II not upscale? Are all standard DVD's compatible?

Are these things even capable of producing "near HD quality" or is that BS.

I'm not a expert on these subjects, but I do the best I can. Forgive me if my terminology is wonked. Thanks in advance.

your friend, Mike AKA watermelon man

Mike, your Insignia DVD player, like most upscaling players only upscale via the hdmi connector. The component is only capable of 480P. When upscaling (with the hdmi), it's not going to look like HD-DVD or Blu-Ray but it can make standard DVD's look excellent when done right.

I use an Oppo 970HD & Oppo 981 and they work great. Another advantage of the 970 player is that it will output the raw 480i (if you have a better converter upstream)

[melon]

Thanks djb. I'll get an HDMI cable tomorrow and see how it looks.

[The Sav]

Not that it matters now since you probably already have your HDMI cable, but DJB is right. It's almost a requirement to have an HDMI cable with these components. Both my HDTV and my HD/DVD player requires an HDMI connection. And my VCR has an HDMI port. And we use that to go from the VCR to the TV. Even our VHS movies look a lot better than they would w/o the HDMI cable. And the DVD's are phenominal.

Good luck with getting it figured out, Mike. Let us know how things work out. :tipofthecap:

[melon]

I got the cable and it looks great now. Just watched Clerks 2!

[The Sav]

Well then it couldn't have looked that great... that movie sucks. :poke:

[melon]

I'm not sure what the fascination is with Rosario Dawson. Her looks are marginal at best.

[Boss]

Truer words have never been typed. Kevin Smith just has a major boner for her for some reason. I suppose that's about the best he can hope for.

[The Sav]

Yeah, that gal just oozes the word Skank. Almost as much as that whore/bitch Kat VonD.

[mysticllama]

I'm not sure what the fascination is with Rosario Dawson. Her looks are marginal at best.

She was pretty hot in Alexander.