DVD upconvert for AppleTV

[Flynnstone]

I noticed that some new DVD players up convert to higher resolutions for HD TVs.
Is there software that can do this on the Mac?
I can envision using something like Mac the Ripper to put the files on the computer then run it through the up conversion software then transfer to AppleTV.
Does this make any sense?

 

[dops7107]

What would be the point of up-rating a DVD? Surely there's no increase in resolution or detail. Just like up-rating a 3 MP digital image to say 6 MP, it's the same amount of info. The TV must do this in any case, just to fill the screen.

 

[killmoms]

No reason, as far as I'm concerned. You can't really make data that isn't there. Just convert them straight across and let the AppleTV do the scaling for you. I doubt you'd notice a difference, and you'd just end up wasting a lot of HD space to encode the larger frame.

 

[Flynnstone]

That's what I thought, how can it increase detail.
But my neighbor just bought one and the detail is increased. It looks less blocky.
This different then up-rating from say 3 to 6 MP. In a still picture the information is limited to the picture.
But in video (motion picture) there is more information than just the frame size. Many frames are similar to the previous or next frame.

 

[xov]

But my neighbor just bought one and the detail is increased. It looks less blocky.

There could be a couple of reasons for this:
1. It might look better to him because he just spent some bucks for the new DVD player.
2. The DVD player may do a slightly better job of upconverting than his TV does. This is more likely if the TV is more than a couple of years old.

The latest HDTVs, HD set-top boxes (OTA, cable, satellite), and upconverting DVD players all do a good job of upconverting from SD to HD. Of course, 480i/p source material on a big TV will never look like HD.

 

[Flynnstone]

The video on his looks good. He has a 40-46" plasma. Sony Up convert DVD.
And High Def cable. The DVD looks similar to the HD cable.

I have a 60" Sony LCOS SRXD. An older Panasonic DVD (non-upconvert) and DishTV HD satellite. There is a noticeable difference.

My G5 Power Mac driving the TV via DVI-HDMI cable looks great!

My G4 mini looks good also, briefly before the screen goes black. Don't know what the problem is. I wonder if a Intel mini is better.

 

[ftaok]

What would be the point of up-rating a DVD? Surely there's no increase in resolution or detail. Just like up-rating a 3 MP digital image to say 6 MP, it's the same amount of info. The TV must do this in any case, just to fill the screen.

While it's technically true that you can't increase resolution or detail when upconverting, there are gains to be had when using different devices. Dedicated up-converting DVD players can do a great job in interpolating the DVD and "filling-in" the gaps. The results of which can be seen by the lack of jaggies when viewing on an HDTV. A bad up-converter (which many TVs have, even the expensive ones) will be far inferior to a good up-converter.

Also, I do want to point out that Macs (well, at least my Macbook) is a lousy upconverter. Maybe it's the DVD Player app, but DVDs played on the Mac look worse than DVDs from my progressive-scan DVD player, upconverted by my TV to 1080p.

ft