Aldi DVD Player - HDMI & USB for £35!

dylel

gromituk wrote: »

What does an HDMI upscaler give you more than precisely nothing? Your TV contains an upscaler anyway, and it will process even "upscaled" signals to overscan them, making the quality worse than feeding in ordinary material because it is being mangled twice.

Upscalers do not produce high definition pictures - it is impossible to conjure information out of nothing.

Funny then how the picture has improved - must be a miracle!!

gromituk

dylel wrote: »

Funny then how the picture has improved - must be a miracle!!

More likely it's simple psychology. You may genuinely think it's better even if it's not, because you know it ought to be better. It's like the placebo effect, and is why the only comparisons of subtle differences in subjective picture or sound quality worth doing involve double-blind tests, where neither the tester nor the testee know which piece of equipment is being experienced at any time.

Another example: it's well known that people will think picture quality improves if the sound that goes with it is improved.

Or you could have been using a really crap SCART lead.

brad

Still no one has really asnwered the question. Will this dvd player provide a better quality picture on a HD TV via HDMI. Surely you need a HD DVD or bluray to get a better quality? or is this some sort of halfway improvement that will be out of date next year?

dylel

gromituk wrote: »

More likely it's simple psychology. You may genuinely think it's better even if it's not, because you know it ought to be better. It's like the placebo effect, and is why the only comparisons of subtle differences in subjective picture or sound quality worth doing involve double-blind tests, where neither the tester nor the testee know which piece of equipment is being experienced at any time.

Another example: it's well known that people will think picture quality improves if the sound that goes with it is improved.

Or you could have been using a really crap SCART lead.

Being a scientist, I am well aware of the placebo effect and the need for a controlled test and am not in the habit of taking things for granted - it is better. It may well be that it is mainly the effect of hdmi vs scart in general, but I did mainly get the dvd player for the optical input -you're not going to tell me now that that is just an illusion (an optical one).
By the way, how can you see if its a better picture with a blind test? :rotfl:

dc

Two words,............. digital enhancement, could be the answer.;)

Or one,.......algorithims.

gromituk

Fine - I know HDMI wasn't your sole reason for buying it. I was mainly making the point to others that upscaling DVD players are a marketing gimmick, so no need to take it personally. As a scientist you will be well aware that you cannot magically produce information out of nothing.

seth

The upscaling concern is complex..

There are upscaling units that cost £20k. The ones in DVD player like this use the processing on the player. This is a Zoran SOC (System on a chip) it is Linux based, as are many hi end LCD/Plasma units.

There are a few scenarios you need to consider when deciding which factors will impact the sound and video quality

Scenario 1) Standard Def source or any source that is not send via HDMI in a format that does not precisely match the output device to the pixel (or multiples of that). While you cannot "add" quality that is not there a Blue ray disk or DVD-HD holds more data per frame (and usually better sound) than standard def. The key factor for upscaling standard def (freeview, DVD, PS2, Xbox1, VCR etc) is the upscaler. Not all up scalers are the same. Consider the better "quality" that you see in a shop between a cheap LCD/Plasma Vs a more expensive unit when supplied with a standard def input. Good up scalers will remove conversion artifacts and compression artifacts (DVD is only MPEG2 which is old) other image processing features in good units will also normalise the image (make the darkest pixels blacker, the white white and increase the dynamic range to the LCD/Plasma panel. Again the ones in good quality LCD/P TVs are tuned to the screen. What makes a good upscaler? There are 2 factors 1) the hardware specifically CPU speed and memory speed 2) Software that does the upscale and artefact reduction.

Scenario 2) HD content delivered via HDMI are the resolution of the display.
If you have an HD source then the quality of the upscale is not relevant as most HD / BR players will output to the precise resolution of the LCD/Plasma glass. The only variable for quality when driving from an HD source via HDMI is 1) Can the unit output to the precise resolution of the LCD/Plasma glass, if yes the HDMI cable carries excellent quality sound and the video quality is set by the display and the HD content alone. 2) If video source resolution is not the same as the display resolution, there will be up or downscaling which means you are back to a variant of scenario 1.

Scenario 2 is complicated by the fact the HD content is not the same for example SKY HD has lots of compression compare to a blue ray disk, so much compression that difference between an HDMI feed from SKY-HD Vs and HDMI feed from a blue ray disk is clear. Assuming a comparable master for both. Early blue ray disks were mastered very poorly (you can see the scratches on the 70mm film masters!)

XVid and DivX and support resolutions at HD 576 level (I've not seen 1080p DixX/Xvid as the bit rates for this require heavy CPU loads), these are mpeg4 based codec like Blue ray and DVD HD but the bit rates are typically much lower. Again quality for Xvid and Divx is dependent on source but also on the quality of the mpeg4 encoding (as this might be done on a home PC IYSWIM)

Sound is very important and so HDMI and optical outs direct to a AMP that supports the sound surround encoding (5.1, 6.1, DTX et al) is critical and again it depends on the main sources of content you will be watching for runs less than 15m a cheap HDMI cable is indistinguishable from a £200 HDMI cable, save the money. Monoprice.com are a good reference site for price (US based)

If you must use an analog connection SCART, phono etc then cable quality is critical. Spend as much as you can afford I'd budget 25% to 10% of the cost of the AMP / Display. Remember analogue is the only choice for standard def inputs, so spend money on a new TV aerial and new COAX it only has a 10-15 year working life.

Other issues for HD include poor HDCP that cripples the image quality even in a valid setup (e.g. HD-DVD on Vista) can be fixed when the vendors (of the HDMI card, the OS, player software) fix things or use some software that bypasses HDCP.

So it is hard to say precisely what is important as the critical factors for different situations are not the same.

An this is before you ask have you calibrated you screen and audio.......

Any how can anyone confirm this is a DivX capable unit?!

Lütz_Pangaloo

The semantics of upscaling aside, there are ten good reasons to get this player;

1): It has a built in DD, DTS and DVD-A decoder and 5.1 output
2): It has HDMI (with free cable) and VGA connectivity
3): It has a card reader and USB2 port
4): It is Divx compliant (if not certified)
5): It has had good reviews
6): It is available from 9am today at a local store (with an excellent returns policy)
7): IT'S £35!
8): IT'S £35!
9): IT'S £35!

and finally;

10): IT'S £35!



EDit: Seth - it does Divx - read the review.

Fleetwood_Lad

Bought one this morning. It is playing a downloaded xvid no problems at all.

ps. All the TV's went 15 mins before the store opened.(Fleetwood)

gromituk

seth wrote: »

If you must use an analog connection SCART, phono etc then cable quality is critical. Spend as much as you can afford I'd budget 25% to 10% of the cost of the AMP / Display.

No. Really, no. The law of diminishing returns applies here, and the gullible will simply be ripped off by idiotic claims about shiny branded cables. Cables are the new "extended warranties" - the things they try to lumber you with at the checkout to make their profit, having cut the cost of the headline item to the bone to appear competitive. A savvy money-saver does not fall for this and realises that the "you've spent £1k on a telly so you'll be letting it down unless you spend £100 on a SCART cable" argument is completely and utterly bogus. What you need is a cable that's not too long, and that has individually screened cores. Buy one for a fiver on eBay. That is as good as you are going to get with SCART, full stop. And it can be pretty good.