HD format play back questions - USB

dantheman2010

Hi guys

If I download a TV show filmed in HD, put it on my USB Flash Drive and plug that into my HD TV will it play the TV show in HD?

Or do I need something like a Cyclone Micro HD Player? These HD players apparantly upscale things into 1080p format.

So does this mean that if I download a film or TV show NOT filmed in HD, plug it into one of these players it will upscale it to HD and play it in HD on the TV?

Thanks

almillar

This depends entirely on your TV specifically. What formats does your TV say it plays? Some TVs are very limited in what formats they'll play. Check your manual, and the type of file you've downloaded.

dantheman2010

Ok but is what it says it does true? It can take a normal downloaded film and play it in HD?

MattHawkins

You can play anything in HD. HD is just the resolution. You can upscale anything. You could play a VHS tape in HD. The quality is a different issue.

HD does not mean quality. So really it doesn't matter as long as it plays. You can't add quality, just generate extra pixels.

dantheman2010

So it wont necessary upscale it to HD quality?

MattHawkins

It can upscale to HD resolution but the video quality is the same.

You can take a 1 megapixel photo and upscale it to 100 megapixels but you can never add detail that wasn't captured to begin with.

dantheman2010

Ok thank you very much, there advertising seems a bit misleading "by upscaling and enhancing standard movie quality to 1080p resolution you can view all your films in high quality HD".

MattHawkins

I think it is true that upscaled DVDs can look "better" in HD than in standard definition but if they were the same as HD no one would need to buy blu-ray. They can do some fancy processing to get the best out of the available data but the statement you quoted is pushing it a bit.

If you've got normal definition content then upscaling is better than not upscaling if you've got an HD TV. However it will always be better to get content that is HD to begin with.

You are best of trying a few tests and seeing what you think. The measure of what looks good is going to vary.

I haven't got an HD TV so I can only judge based on what I see at friends houses or in shop windows

dantheman2010

I have got a HD TV, but I am not going to spend £40 on one of these devices as I am quite happy with standard movie/DVD quality at the moment.

I was just a bit confused.

almillar

Yes, so to answer your original question, all the statement you were reading means, is that the panel has 1080 lines. Plugging a stick into the TV (does it even have a USB port?!) won't work. it just means when you plug something in, it'll come out at 1080 lines, and you're right, it IS misleading. You may have heard of upscaling DVD players, which should be processing the picture from the DVD and improving it for the higher resolution. Some are better than others, none can be called truly HD.

forever.insane

To answer your original question, it depends on your TV and the file type of the HD film.

If you download a HD film off the internet for example, it will most likely be MKV. They can be a b!tch to play on TV's. In this case, you could either stream it via an Xbox 360 using windows media centre (requires on the fly transcoding so your PC needs to be good), convert it to WMV HD via your PC (can take a long time) or buy an MKV media player.

I recommend a media player (HD player). I don't have one but seems the easiest by far. If its been captured via TV then I don't know which file type it will use and which codecs.