# DVD to HD up-sampling - worth it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-to-hd-up-sampling-worth-it/375128>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 3, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-to-hd-up-sampling-worth-it/375128 "2006-10-03T17:43:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-to-hd-up-sampling-worth-it/375128/1 "2006-10-03T17:43:47Z")

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I have noticed that several DVD recorders which have HDMI connectors offer up-sampling when using this connection to HD-ready TVs. Does this offer any advantage over viewing the DVD at it’s native resolution? Is there anything about the HDMI interface which mandates such up-sampling?

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**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-to-hd-up-sampling-worth-it/375128/2 "2006-10-03T17:49:40Z")

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Yes, I noticed a palpable difference on my friend’s set. I’m not really qualified to say anything more than that, though. Not really an expert in HD. It did look very nice (for a DVD on a HD set) and it did look noticeably better than straight DVD.

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-to-hd-up-sampling-worth-it/375128/3 "2006-10-03T18:11:12Z")

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[ioPopular Mechanics\* did a comparison between an el cheapo DVD player that could up-sample and one of the new, uber expensive HD-DVD players. The result? They said to buy the el cheapo unit, the quailty was nearly identical, and it had **none** of the annoying drawbacks of the HD-DVD unit (like a 2 minute boot up time, limited selection, etc., etc., etc.).

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**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-to-hd-up-sampling-worth-it/375128/4 "2006-10-04T01:11:05Z")

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[QUOTE=ticker]  
I have noticed that several DVD recorders which have HDMI connectors offer up-sampling when using this connection to HD-ready TVs. Does this offer any advantage over viewing the DVD at it’s native resolution?  
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I think the main advantage is your DVD player _might_ have a better scaler than your TV. For example, a resize algorithm that works in the frequency domain could be cheaper to implement as part of the DVD player, because the video on a DVD is already stored that way. But if you’re paying $thousands for a TV, it probably has a decent scaler in it already.