Upsampling is the new progressive scan

I don't know why this didn't come out at CES, but Samsung is expanding their lineup of upsampling DVD players.  The key product feature is added 768p support, which is the native resolution for many plasma and projectors (the players will also do 480i for regular TVs, 480p for digital EDTVs, and 720p and 1080i for other HDTVs).

This is great news if you have a recent model 768p TV with DVI or HDMI, but this is NOT HD. It's merely moving the process of image manipulation from your TV over to your DVD player. Your HD TV has more lines of resolution than are on a DVD, so the image must be upconverted somewhere; doing it in the player itself can offer a slightly better picture by keeping the signal digital throughout its journey from disc to screen.  Of course, that's only if you

1. have a digital TV
2. with digital video inputs (DVI or HDMI)
3. use those inputs, and
4. set everything up correctly.

I highly doubt most consumers will understand the nuances or set things up to properly take advantage of them.  I remember how many questions I got when progressive scan DVD players came out (progressive scan DVD players make NO difference on analog TVs and often make no difference even on digital TVs that have good internal image processing). Lately it seems that any time you put the word high definition in the product description, consumer confusion ensues.

But can you blame the CE industry for trying?  Margins on regular DVD players (even ones with progressive scan) are in the toilet. My supermarket sells $29.99 DVD players.  So does the local gas station.  Banks give them away instead of toasters when you open a checking account.  Adding progressive scan didn't help things for manufacturers, as that simply became another feature on even the cheapest DVD players.  Consumers rejected Nuon and similar "DVD and" schemes, and consumers are ignoring DVD-Audio and SACD without even discovering that they exist.  Video killed the audio star (receiver and component sales have been dropping for years), and DVD has been a gravy train for Hollywood but not Japan.  HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are the CE industry's last hope for reclaiming profits out of media players, which is why we're getting a HD disc format war nobody wants.  In the meantime, the hope is that upsampling players will convince consumers to buy another deck (and spend actual money on it this time).

-avi