So.

I got a new DVD player for Christmas, as I've had to use my PS2 whenever I wanted to play a DVD. I was given a Philips DVP3982, which seems to play every format except Bluray, but it claims to have 1080p upconversion. I have no idea what that means. The user manual offered no such insight as to how to actually view movies in HD. I've managed to download some movies off of my computer and play them in fairly impressive quality on the player, but not much more. Regular DVDs are in decent quality as well (at least compared to my PS2) but not the quality I'm looking for. I bought an HDMI cable in hopes of improving the general quality of picture even more; no such luck there.

I need someone to explain to me how exactly to use this player. More specifically, how to use this player to watch HD movies. Since I can't play Bluray discs, obviously the process involves format conversion and burning somehow, but I don't precisely know how to do that. I'm ignorant when it comes to HD in general and could use a bit of enlightenment.

 

"Upconversion" on a DVD player refers to a feature where the player takes a normal DVD and outputs it at HD resolution. This will sometimes look a bit better on an HDTV than the output from a non-upconverting DVD player. But it's not magic; it's not actually adding any additional detail. It's no different than watching a DVD at full screen on your computer monitor, since your computer has to scale it up to HD-like resolution to fill out all the monitor's pixels.

In short, upconversion doesn't mean you can watch true HD video with your new player. As a final test, I suggest scouring the internet for a video clip in the MPEG2, DivX*, or XviD* formats that is of HD resolution, burning it to a DVD, and seeing if your new player can play it. My guess is that it won't work.

*this assumes your player can play DivX - I'm assuming yes, since you called it a "DivX player"

 

My thanks. I'm currently dowloading a 720p clip as a test to see if it works.