DVD9 to DVD5 and HDTV differences

[ducati9x]

Hello all.

I've finally caved and bought a single layer dvd-r burner cuz I'm too impatient to wait for phillips dual layer burner. Anyways, I have a 63 HDTV Samsung plasma but no progressive scan DVD player (I use my Xbox to watch my backed up movies). Is it worth investing in the necessary Prog Scan package(s) if I am watching compressed DVD movies(DVD5's)?

Has anyone noticed a favorable difference in image quality/output?

Much love,
Clean Dizzy

[pieroxy]

A progressive scan DVD player will allow you to not only watch better DVD5, but any king of DVDs. Even VCDs...

How it works is: In conventional NTSC video, frames are interlaced, which means you have 60 frames per second. The even frames represent the even lines, the odd frames the odd lines. This maps pretty bad to a movie released in the theaters, which is recorded at 24 images per seconds (not frames, still images). To transform such a movie to NTSC video, a technique called Telecine is applied, mixing the 24 images in a complex sequence of frames. You can see the effect of interlaced video best on the horizontal travelings: All vertical lines will appear blurred and dented.

HDTV is capable of displaying still pictures, so none of this complex and lossy procedure is needed. All movies originally released in theaters (and recorded in 24ips) will benefit from a progressive scan DVD player.

In short, you are viewing currently bad NTSC video on a nice HDTV TV. Anyone with a regular TV of the same size would see the same thing (not quite, but to summarize, yes). Unless your TV itself is capable of doing the progressive scanning of course.