I’ve checked the Samsung forums and done a search to see if I can find the answer but the information I’ve found just has me increasingly confused.
I’ve bought a new Samsung LCD TV (model LE40B651T3W) and home cinema system with DVD player (Samsung HT-Z320). Both of these items are supposed to be fully HD capable and displaying movies at 100 hz. They’ve been connected with a HDMI cable.
However when I turn the system on I get a display saying they’re connected at 720 x 576 resolution and 50 hz. I’ve tried keeping the automatic BD Wise setting on and turning it off and changing the resolution manually as per the manual but it doesn’t seem to be making any difference.
I think the problem here is whoever told you that the DVD player is “HD capable.” Standard DVDs are plain ol’ 480i (720x480), and while you can make them look mighty good, you can’t magically pull HD video off them. I’ve poked through the documentation for your Home Theater In a Box system, and I can’t even find a reference to “progressive scan” or “upscaling”, either of which would improve the video somewhat.
I’d return the HTIB system and get a Blu-Ray version, if you really want HD resolutions. Found a Samsung model on Amazon for about $500.
Or you can wait a couple of months to score a deal. According to this site you might be able to get Blu-Ray players for about $70 on Black Friday, and if you look around you may find them for about $100 right now.
I just wanted to add that you are still getting upscaling of your DVD, it is just being done by your TV instead of your DVD player. The TV is taking the 480i signal from your DVD player and upscaling it to its native resolution. If you don’t want to pay the costs for Blu-Ray you may want to invest in a moderately priced upscaling DVD player. The advantage of having the DVD player do the upscaling is the scaling components are designed/programmed specifically to make DVD’s look as good as possible as opposed to the TV scaling components that have to cover a vast range of signal types, sources, and qualities. In addition, it is possible the scaling hardware on your DVD player will also be of higher quality than those on your TV, especially if you have an older TV and don’t go bottom of the barrel on your choice of DVD player.
I am not which manual you are looking at, but pages 22-24 of the z320 manual on the Samsung website explain how to enable upscaling over the HDMI interface. There is even a button on the remote for this function.
When I have used upscaling DVD players on monitors, the display has always shown the upscaled resolution. If your television is not showing the higher resolution then you are warranted in your concern. On a related note, I have a relatively current Samsung DLP TV, but it does not appear to have a provision to show the current display resolution except when using the PC input. Are you sure that you are not looking at the resolution information from the DVD player? It would most likely show the resolution of the source material.