Article by Kishor Nayak

You’ve almost made up your mind. Maybe you’ve narrowed your choice down to two or three perfectly fine players. The good news is that the hardest part is over. Now, you can look at the details. When it comes to media compatibility, more is definitely better. Even if you don’t currently need support for DivX, multiregion playback, SACD and DVD-Audio, and the multitude of recordable DVD formats, you might want some or all of them in the future.Because upconverting DVD players are all recent products, just about any model will have either a DVI or the newer HDMI output. Both connections facilitate a pure, digital-video signal from the player to the receiver (if equipped with DVI/HDMI input/output) or HDTV. HDMI gives you a digital video and digital multi-channel audio connection through a single cable. Unless you have a costly receiver with HDMI switching, you’re going to be running the video signal directly to the TV and the audio to the receiver. In this case, either a DVI or HDMI output on the DVD player will suffice. If your HDTV has only an HDMI input -and most of the latest models do – a DVI-to-HDMI converter cable is available.

Keeping the video signal in the digital domain during its trip from the DVD player to the HDTV will produce the highest-quality images. If you forgo DVI or HDMI in favor of even a good quality analog connection via component cables, the video signal goes through conversions from digital (DVD) to analog (component) and back to digital again (HDTV). Such conversions can produce signal noise and image degradation.

Another feature to keep an eye out for is DIY firmware updates. Firmware is the software that instructs the processing chip and determines the functionality of the DVD player. Companies such as OPPO and Philips offer online firmware updates for their products; some other companies offer updates at their service centers or just pretend their products are perfect. Updating the firmware yourself is a simple matter of downloading the file from a Web site onto a recordable DVD and running the program on the DVD player. It sure beats having to buy a new player every year.Deinterlacing and scaling are all well and good, but what are you looking for when it comes time to lay down some hard-earned cash for an upconverting DVD player? First and foremost, just in case I haven’t made this abundantly clear, the DVD player must have a well-integrated, quality video processor. A good rule of thumb is that the more deinterlacing and scaling the upconverting DVD player handles, the better the picture will be. HDTVs all have some sort of built-in video processor, but these processors usually pale in comparison with the performance of the chip in a good upconverting player. Let the DVD player do what it does best – optimizing the video – and leave the displaying of the video to the HDTV set.

Several companies make stellar video-processing chipsets with proprietary features above and beyond deinterlacing and scaling.Faroudja is the maker of the best known and most revered chipset among videophiles. The venerable Genesis FLI2310 chip, found in many high-end, expensive players and a few affordable players such as the OPPO OPDV971H, has a battery of video-enhancement technologies. Faroudja pioneered 3-2 pulldown (or film mode) detection. Cross Color Suppression compensates for artifacts caused by composite video mastering and smoothes out the edges of saturated color fields. TrueLife Enhancement bumps up details in things like skin texture and hair. Directional Correlational De-interlacing (DCDi) tackles the jaggies with impressive results.

Silicon Image chipsets are often mentioned in the same breath as those of Faroudja, and either one has exceptional deinterlacing, scaling, and image-enhancement performance. Its SiI504 chip has a sublime, motion-adaptive deinterlacer in video mode and features a buffer that predicts upcoming breaks in cadence to avoid hits to the resolution that occur while switching from film to video mode. Unfortunately, the buffer sometimes contributes to audio synch troubles.

DVDO’s iScan and the Silicon Optix Realta with Hollywood Quality Video are two other leading video-processing chipsets. Most consumer electronics companies worth their salt offer receivers, upconverting DVD players, HDTVs, and projectors with top-quality video processors. Said companies include Denon, JVC, NEC, OPPO, Runco, Sony, Syntax Olevia, Toshiba, and Westinghouse Digital.Before you scoop up the first upconverting DVD player with “DCDi by Faroudja” on the box, be advised that the implementation of any chip in a product is at least as important as the chip itself. The aforementioned Genesis FLI2310, for example, has about 2000 registers that control its functions. Changing one register to solve a known issue might affect another register, and house-of-cards-style chaos can ensue. Engineers need to know the chip they program inside and out to maximize its performance. Needless to say, that’s not always the case.

Companies don’t exactly advertise the ways they fall short in implementing a chipset. So, how do you know whether an upconverting DVD player with a solid video processor is the one for you? It might sound obvious, but try watching some DVDs on it. If the Best Buy clerk rolls his eyes when you bring in a stack of DVDs, go somewhere else. Superbit editions of action-packed films (Black Hawk Down, The Fifth Element, and Underworld are all fine choices) will separate the pretenders from the real thing. Fast on-screen action is some of the most difficult material to render without errors. Likewise,animation – with its super-saturated color palettes – pushes a DVD player to its limits. Whatever DVDs you choose, pick several that you know intimately; flaws and unintended artifacts in the video are much easier to spot that way.Try to find a store that has the upconverting DVD player you want, along with either your HDTV or a similar model. Be sure to switch from 480p to 720p and 1080i. Only a consumer with nerves of steel, or money to burn, should buy an unauditioned upconverting player. You can always go back to the Web site with those amazing details after you see the machine in action.

About the Author

Kishor Nayak is a Business Consultant working with International clients. Did you find this information useful? You can read reviews and product features of the latest home electronics devices. Visit: http://thebestelectronicsblog.com/