What is Progressive scanning?? (DVD's)

[masterc]

This may not be the place for this question but...
What exactly is progressive scanning, with reference to DVD players... more importantly, do I need it?
I know it's required for HDTV's but I have a conventional Hitachi with S-vid and Composite inputs
and 800 lines resolution.
I wanted to but a cheap but reliable (and feature filled, MP3 decoder... not asking for too much) can anyone recommend one?
Also, I noticed some DVD players have an optical connection and a "coaxial" connection. What are these used for? (sound I think) but where do you hook them up? Are they or any benefit?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

TV's render every other scan line every 1/60th of a second (30hz refresh rate). Progressive scan mode means the TV is rendering every single scan line every 1/60th (60hz refresh rate).

You're essentially displaying the picture at twice the resolution (framerate if you will), resulting in a cleaner, smoother picture. The most common high def reslutions are 480p, 720p, and 1080i. The two 'p' resolutions are progressive and the 'i' is normal scan mode.

 

[masterc]

Thanks for the info.

Do you know anything about the Optical output or the Coaxial/SPDif outputs???

 

[Muadib]

KnightBreed is dead on with his progressive scan info, but if your tv doesn't support it then you are wasting money.

Do you know anything about the Optical output or the Coaxial/SPDif outputs???
They are both for digital sound. You would need audio equipment that has a dolby digital or dts decoder to be able to use them.

 

[imgod2u]

I don't think s-video/composite supports progressive scan video, I think their max is about 480i (correct me if I'm wrong). I think you would need component video in order to have resolutions up to 1080i (or was it only 720p?). Either way, DVD's (to my knowledge) are 480p max, so if you have a TV with HDTV support, it'll play it, but you would still need a component video connection, not composite/s-video. Component is the three video connectors, their colors are usually red, green and blue. It's still not DVI-quality (although I doubt any DVD-players, let along TV's use DVI connectors), but it's about as good as you're gonna get with TV analog video.

480i is good enough in most cases. You can't even tell the flickering unless you sit really close to your TV. Think of it as having 30fps instead of 60 fps. In normal cases (slow motion), you can't tell, but with fast vertical motion, you can sometimes tell flickering because the framerate (or equivalent of) is not sufficient.

 

[Namlemez]

DVDs are 480 interlaced but by reducing the framerate to 24fps and reading the flags put in when encoding properpyl, you can get 24fps 480p from 30fps 480i. Component isn't the only way to send progressive video...your VGA cable is doing it right now and many people use that in home theater. My two high resolution TVs (Gateway 27" monitor and 65" Mits HDTV) both only take progressive scan stuff over the VGA inputs while YPbPr is just for gimmick/show.

 

[Duvie]

That is true right now I am using a plug that has video components coming form the dvd player going to vga style plug into hdtv ready plug...I did this cause the tv came with that plug and I didn't have component cables...I will buy some when the time comes to use the hdtv...

I believe most newer hdtv ready systems are like this...

Not getting progressive scan right now if your tv doesn't have anything netter then svideo is not bad...If you are going to buy a dvd anyway then might as well ready yourself for the future...especially if the plan is to get an hdtv ready tv in the next 2 years

 

[imgod2u]

HDTV's come with VGA connectors? That's a first for me. Sounds like I need a bigger budget to buy newer things. Either way, I'm still kinda unsure about this, is s-video/composite capable of progressive video?

 

[mdXtreme3d]

<< HDTV's come with VGA connectors? That's a first for me. Sounds like I need a bigger budget to buy newer things. Either way, I'm still kinda unsure about this, is s-video/composite capable of progressive video? >>



no, only a COMPONENT VIDEO connection (or VGA connection) is capable of progressive scan. And you need a display device capable of displaying progressive scan (ie, a Wega with component video iputs is not sufficient).

 

[imgod2u]

Sony WEGA's are not able to do progressive scan? I thought they were HDTV ready.

 

[masterc]

I know that the XBR's are HDTV ready (They better be considering what they cost!)
I don't know abot the rest of the WEGA line

 

[imgod2u]

What about Plasma TV's? Are they even capable of interlacing video?

 

[Muadib]

Sony WEGA's are not able to do progressive scan? I thought they were HDTV ready.
Heh, I wish. No, only certain models are.

What about Plasma TV's? Are they even capable of interlacing video?
Yes, they are.