what does this mean? - "watch your DVD's in enhanced definition (480p) format." Is that good quality or bad?

Question

i'm trying to buy a home theater system, but not sure how to tell if it's good quality? "1080p upconversion: When connected to an HDTV via HDMI connection, the DVD player digitally “up-converts” the resolution of standard DVDs to 1080p high definition for super-sharp images. "- this only works when you have an hdtv right? so the 480p is ok for a regular tv?. plus... what difference does it make the amount of watts it has? does it mean the higher the watts the better the sound? Help!!!!

Answer 1

480p is the same resolution as your standard TV, but when your TV goes to refresh the screen, it will redraw all 480 lines. This is known as progressive scan, hence the "p" in 480p. It's also called non-interlaced or "enhanced definition TV" (EDTV) There aren't many EDTV sets on the market anymore.

Standard definition TV (SDTV), is 480i. This means the screen only redraws every other line - evens on one pass, odds on the next. This is known as interlaced - that's what the "i" stands for.

Progressive scan gives you a more solid picture, without the flickering you sometimes get with normal TV. All computer displays use progressive scan.

High definition TVs (HDTVs) support even higher resolutions - 720 or 1080 horizontal lines, compared to 480. The 3 common resolutions for HDTV are 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Most HD TV channels are in 720p. Only a few use 1080i. The only real sources of 1080p material is from HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs - more on those later.

HDTVs also contain an upscaler. This is a special computer chip that takes an incoming video signal, and intelligently stretches it to fit the resolution of the TV. This includes everything you'd plug into your TV - non-HD channels, HD channels, DVDs, games - everything. The upscaler isn't perfect. The better the incoming signal, the better the job the upscaler will do.

Some DVD players also include an upscaler. In general, the upscaler chip in a DVD player is better than the ones in TVs.

You'll probably encounter HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players. These are two competing formats for the next generation of DVD. These can hold a lot more data than a standard DVD, making them perfect for movies in HD. Right now, the market for these formats is too small and volatile. Give it at least another year before even worrying whether you should buy into these.

Finally, when looking at a stereo receiver, the number of watts refers to how much power is being sent to each speaker. This isn't quite the same thing as sound volume, but it's sort of similar. Of course, this doesn't mean you can take a teeny-tiny speaker and pump 100Watts into it and have it sound good (in fact, it might just break the speaker...)

Answer 2

If you are buying a HTIB (Home Theater in a Box), there are some minimum things to look for. Only consider systems if:

- The system comes with a separate DVD player
- The system comes with a self-powered subwoofer
- The receiver is a big box with lots of connections on the back and it looks like the stand-alone AV receivers that are sold separately.

This gives you a system that should work fine from the start, but you can upgrade pieces later if you wish or if one part breaks.

POWER:

Ok, the stereo world wants the room to mimic a concert hall and they want the sound to be loud - in the next room.

But a Home Theater system is different. Instead of 2 speakers trying to fill a room - you surround yourself with a ring of 5 speakers all pointing at one or two seats. With this setup, you do not need lots of power because it only has to sound good for one or two people.

In general - a system with more watts per channel is 'better', will not heat up as much, last longer, have a heavier receiver, and will work with more speakers. The extra power helps with movies where there is wild swings in volume for effect-heavy movies.

Answer 3

yes.. for the upconversion to work you'd need to have an HDTV tv for it to connect to, through the HDMI connector.. 480p is pretty good, unless you're a tv critic or something, it should be perfectly fine for watching movies when the mood strikes.. watts is how loud your stereo can get.. depending on the number of channels (speakers) so 1200 watt system through 6 channels means you could hypothetically max the speakers at 200w a piece.. unfortunately that just means it can push that kind of power.. not that it would continuously.. but between 800-1200 watts should be plenty unless you're buying for a theatre room.

Answer 4

480p (progressive scan) is ok for regular tv but 1080i (interlaced) is best for hdtv's. believe me, if all you have is a regular tv, 480p looks pretty damn good. 1080p will knock your socks off when you upgrade to hdtv. the more watts, the more power, detail, and volume in the sound

Answer 5

1080p is the highest resolution there is. 480p or 480i are just OK quality. I don't think that there are many (if any) plasma screen TV's that can run 1080p or 1080i, but they can run 720p/720i. LCD (and maybe DLP's - not sure) can show 1080p/1080i though.