I am getting an HDTV this week. If I play a DVD on it, will it be in HD? Or would I have to buy a special HD player or something?
2007-03-08 07:36:55 · 5 answers · asked by oriolesfan2323 4 in Consumer Electronics ➔ TVs
As people have mentioned, standard DVDs are recorded in 480p resolution (for the most part, some non-anamorphic are less lines), but the player can upscale them to 720p or 1080i/p which are HD resolutions.
You can view material that is native HD (720p or 1080i/p) through a number of methods. One would be HD television broadcasts, but those would be commercial television. Another would be either cable or satellite HD programming. You can record these with a cable or satellite box with PVR capabilities built in and watch them later, or just watch when they are on.
Another method would be through a computer. If you attach a home theater PC to your HDTV you can watch Windows Media based DVDs that are HD. You can also watch some downloaded HD content that is available on some sites.
The last method would be an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disc player. Both of these formats are native HD and work very much like a regular DVD player, but give better audio and video quality.
2007-03-08 20:08:37 · answer #1 · answered by RiddleMeThis 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes you can watch movies in HD but not with a regular DVD or regular DVD player. Regular DVD's only output 480 and HD is 720 or 1080.
You will need either an HD Video player and HD Video DVD
or Blu Ray player and Blu Ray DVD.
HD Video and Blu Ray are incompatible with each other (sorta like how VHS and BETA was).
After saying all of that - IF you have a progressive scan DVD player and have at least component video outputs, you will find that 480p movies will look pretty darned good on that new HDTV of yours.
2007-03-08 19:40:27 · answer #2 · answered by gkk_72 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, if your existing player supports progressive scan, then the best you can hope for is EDTV 480p
You don't have to get a full blown HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Disc Player, as they're still very expensive (500.00 and 1,000.00 respectively), But you can buy an upscaling dvd player. Toshiba and Samsung both make DVD players that support both progressive scan, and HDMI. Both models will upscale the picture from your dvd's to 1080i resolution.
2007-03-08 15:56:06 · answer #3 · answered by Michael L 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The movie must be recorded in HD
The DVD player must be cabable of reading the DVD.
the TV nust be capable of displaying HD.
If all the above is tru, you will view in HD.
Note that there are various HD formats:
720p, 720i, 1080p and 1080i.
If your TV meets or exceeds the DVD format you will get fullscreen HD.
Otherwise you will get letterbox HD.
2007-03-08 16:10:18 · answer #4 · answered by John S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are going to need an HD DVD player, or else you will not get the HD signal on the TV. Go to this site for info :
http://www.digitalhome.ca/hdtv/idx/o/415/article/Toshiba_HD_DVD_Players_.html
2007-03-10 14:27:10 · answer #5 · answered by The Count 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋