4K TV with non 4K Dvd/BluRay Player 16 November 2019 at 10:41PM in TV MoneySaving 8 replies 1.5K views

AVENUE

Hi There


Hoping for some advice please.


I'm going to be getting a larger 4K TV, currently just have older non smart 32 inch tv.


Because my current DVD player is scart only, i'll really have to by a new player. My Son is Disabled & loves his Dvd's, so if I bought a new player, would I get a better picture on these Dvd's....or any Dvd disc really on the 4K TV if I bought a 4K upscaling Dvd/Blu Ray player or will all the upscaling be done via the TV in which case would a cheaper dvd/blu ray player suit us just as well?


Do you think that the quality now of blu ray discs or 4K discs is worth the price of perhaps buying a 4K player for future proof use, or bearing in mind he does have loads of older dvds he will always play, is the cheaper option of a more basic dvd/bluray better for him?


Also I've seen mentioned Scart to HDMI converters, would one of those work to plug our current old dvd player into & then connect it via HDMI to the TV? Not sure on the best way really as I'm not tech orientated at all. Many Thanks.

getmore4less

Do you have anything else that can play DVD Eg games machine PC.

What budget and size of TV are you aiming for

Neil_Jones

AVENUE wrote: »

Because my current DVD player is scart only, i'll really have to by a new player. My Son is Disabled & loves his Dvd's, so if I bought a new player, would I get a better picture on these Dvd's....or any Dvd disc really on the 4K TV if I bought a 4K upscaling Dvd/Blu Ray player or will all the upscaling be done via the TV in which case would a cheaper dvd/blu ray player suit us just as well?

Upscaling is only up to a limit, it will never be as good as a native HD transfer no matter how much you upscale it. It will look a bit better than it did, but it won't be a par on a Blu-ray copy,

Do you think that the quality now of blu ray discs or 4K discs is worth the price of perhaps buying a 4K player for future proof use, or bearing in mind he does have loads of older dvds he will always play, is the cheaper option of a more basic dvd/bluray better for him?

4k material at the moment (and the players) are quite expensive, you may want to wait a while to see it drop. In the meantime you can just grab a cheaper Blu-ray player (which will play DVDs as well) and then maybe upgrade to 4k later when its more affordable.

Also I've seen mentioned Scart to HDMI converters, would one of those work to plug our current old dvd player into & then connect it via HDMI to the TV? Not sure on the best way really as I'm not tech orientated at all. Many Thanks.

I wouldn't bother. If you're going to replace the player it'll be HDMI anyway.

AVENUE

getmore4less wrote: »

Do you have anything else that can play DVD Eg games machine PC.

What budget and size of TV are you aiming for

No nothing at all, we can only look to a 49/50 inch tv because of room size so was looking at the Sony KD49XG9005BU which looks good value and has dropped in price now to around £900.

AVENUE

Thanks, that's much appreciated, I also have copies of old VHS Videos & Camcorder recordings put onto DVd that hopefully will still play on a new blu ray player, but not always easy to see which ones will still play those.


Also its funny how little things annoy...like most Blu Ray players not having the display on the front showing time left/elapsed, without having to flick to on screen menu.

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Upscaling is only up to a limit, it will never be as good as a native HD transfer no matter how much you upscale it. It will look a bit better than it did, but it won't be a par on a Blu-ray copy,



4k material at the moment (and the players) are quite expensive, you may want to wait a while to see it drop. In the meantime you can just grab a cheaper Blu-ray player (which will play DVDs as well) and then maybe upgrade to 4k later when its more affordable.




I wouldn't bother. If you're going to replace the player it'll be HDMI anyway.

Nilrem

Assuming you buy a modern (basically any one made in the last 5 years) blu-ray player it should have zero issues with burned DVD's.
The reason you used to get problems with DVD's you'd burned at home of things like home videos was because there were originally two competing formats for burning DVD's and early devices only tended to support one or the other, then you had DVDRW which required a stronger laser and wouldn't work on all the older devices.
This was mainly an issue on things like standalone DVD players for a while, especially as the manufacturers tended to use the lasers involved for a long time, but by the time Blu-ray players came around pretty much every DVD laser unit being used was of a type that could read all the DVD disc types*, mainly because it was far cheaper to make one type of the laser than 2-4

In short you shouldn't have any issue at all with home burned DVD's in blu-ray players, I can't remember the last time I did even though I stopped using DVDR and DVDRW about 5+ years ago.

About the only issue might be if the DVD wasn't "finalised" (you usually had to specifically tell software not to finalise it, as the default was to do so for compatibility), but even then I believe most players can cope with it now.

*I think PC DVD drives started supporting both formats pretty much universally in about 2005 or so, whilst DVD players lagged a bit because some manufacturers still had a vested interest in one format or the other, or were using older laser units they could buy in bulk slightly more cheaply when the manufacturers of the lasers moved to newer versions or cleared stock..

AVENUE

Thank you that's most helpful.

Nilrem wrote: »

Assuming you buy a modern (basically any one made in the last 5 years) blu-ray player it should have zero issues with burned DVD's.
The reason you used to get problems with DVD's you'd burned at home of things like home videos was because there were originally two competing formats for burning DVD's and early devices only tended to support one or the other, then you had DVDRW which required a stronger laser and wouldn't work on all the older devices.
This was mainly an issue on things like standalone DVD players for a while, especially as the manufacturers tended to use the lasers involved for a long time, but by the time Blu-ray players came around pretty much every DVD laser unit being used was of a type that could read all the DVD disc types*, mainly because it was far cheaper to make one type of the laser than 2-4

In short you shouldn't have any issue at all with home burned DVD's in blu-ray players, I can't remember the last time I did even though I stopped using DVDR and DVDRW about 5+ years ago.

About the only issue might be if the DVD wasn't "finalised" (you usually had to specifically tell software not to finalise it, as the default was to do so for compatibility), but even then I believe most players can cope with it now.

*I think PC DVD drives started supporting both formats pretty much universally in about 2005 or so, whilst DVD players lagged a bit because some manufacturers still had a vested interest in one format or the other, or were using older laser units they could buy in bulk slightly more cheaply when the manufacturers of the lasers moved to newer versions or cleared stock..

[Deleted User]

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Upscaling is only up to a limit, it will never be as good as a native HD transfer no matter how much you upscale it. It will look a bit better than it did, but it won't be a par on a Blu-ray copy,



4k material at the moment (and the players) are quite expensive, you may want to wait a while to see it drop. In the meantime you can just grab a cheaper Blu-ray player (which will play DVDs as well) and then maybe upgrade to 4k later when its more affordable.



I wouldn't bother. If you're going to replace the player it'll be HDMI anyway.

The highlighted section is the best advice on this thread, never ever try and keep up with the latest & gratest technology unless you don't mind wasting money. It's a fools errand, wait until it's (1) established(think Betamax & Video 2000) & (2) affordable.

AVENUE

Thanks folks, made the decision now, I bought a Sony Bravia KD49XG9005BU today, good price at £899 and as my Son really just plays Dvds & also has his own TV/DVD combi unit in his bedroom, just bought a basic Sony DVD player for the time being & will only consider 4K once its more widely used & cost effective.


Thanks for the advice.