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Could A Poor Man's "High-Def" Alternative (With Region-Free Playback) Be A Blu-ray Killer?
Electronics | Aug 5, 08
There are some very inexpensive DVD players out there offering high-def upconversion for regular DVD disks, and at least one can be set to provide region-free playback.
Upconversion of a standard DVD uses interpolation to add extras pixels so as to create a picture with the same number of pixels as high def. Of course, this mathematical technique produces a “false precision”, with "higher resolution" detail a product of a mathematical algorithm’s “guess”, as opposed to the image actually shot. However, many people apparently find the resulting picture quite stunning, including a film-scholar friend of mine who recently bought the Philips DVP3960/37.
As of this writing, the Philips DVP3960/37 Upconvert DVD Player with DivX is available from a vendor on PriceSCAN for just under $40. With HDMI connectivity, it provides 720p/1080i upconversion for standard DVD disks. Formats supported include DVD video and video CD (i.e. play of DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R,-RW and CD-R), as well as JPEG, MP3, DivX, and WMA. Further, this model can be set to play DVDs from any region, not just the US – a significant advantage for lovers of foreign films.
The cheapest Blu-ray player on PriceSCAN, the Sony BDP-S300, is going for over $320 (of course the PlayStation 3 comes with one for just under $400). And that’s not taking into account the value of your old DVD collection or the price and availability of new Blu-ray content. Considering the economics, forty bucks for an ersatz “high-def” experience does sound like kind of a deal, even if some of those pixels are born of an equation.
Posted by jeffrey.trester (Permalink)
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