Will XBMC upconvert standard definition dvds?
#1
I have all of my media stored as VIDEO_TS (Standard Definition DVDs). I am about to purchase a new 1080p plasma (and new video card). Does XBMC have any upscaling cabability so that it will output 1080p?

Any suggestions on video card?

Thanks!
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#2
Yes, the upscaling settings are in the Video playback menu.
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#3
Any xbmc release can do bilinear scaling, the Dharma release can also do bicubic, lanczos 2 and lanczos 3 scaling, but those require a reasonably fast gpu (nvidia gt210 should be ok).
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#4
WannaTheater Wrote:I have all of my media stored as VIDEO_TS (Standard Definition DVDs). I am about to purchase a new 1080p plasma (and new video card). Does XBMC have any upscaling cabability so that it will output 1080p?

Any suggestions on video card?

Thanks!

Don't confuse video decode size with display output size. XBMC will always upscale video decode size to display size. It normally uses OpenGL to upscale but you can enable various other upscalers that might use the GPU or CPU to upscale.
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#5
Thanks for the advice.

Davilla, can you clarify? I have read discussions on folks using ffdshow to make sd dvds "1080p-like," but this requires specialized players (Zoomplayer, etc). Just like Oppo players will "upconvert" sd physical dvds for playback on 1080p displays.

I am trying to see if xbmc has similar functionality.
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#6
WannaTheater Wrote:Thanks for the advice.

Davilla, can you clarify? I have read discussions on folks using ffdshow to make sd dvds "1080p-like," but this requires specialized players (Zoomplayer, etc). Just like Oppo players will "upconvert" sd physical dvds for playback on 1080p displays.

I am trying to see if xbmc has similar functionality.

It's pretty clear, XBMC normally handled upscaling automatically with OpenGL, you don't get to pick the method. If that's not good enough for you, then the Dharma release can also do bilinear, bicubic, lanczos 2 and lanczos 3 scaling which is a separate setting. It does not use ffdshow which is a Window only thing.

A SD video can never have the resolution of a 1080p HD video, you can apply various upscaling algorithms to try and make it look better. These are various filtering/interpolation/edge detection games.

Personally, I think they are a waste of CPU/GPU as they might enhance one effect at the detriment of another. For example, you might get a good looking still image but do the same thing with a fast moving scene and it looks like crap. You can't make something from nothing and if you don't have the pixels, you can't make more except by guessing.

Trying XBMC costs nothing, so I'd try out one of our Dharma nightly builds and see if what it does is acceptable to your eyes.
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#7
davilla Wrote:It's pretty clear, XBMC normally handled upscaling automatically with OpenGL, you don't get to pick the method. If that's not good enough for you, then the Dharma release can also do bilinear, bicubic, lanczos 2 and lanczos 3 scaling which is a separate setting. It does not use ffdshow which is a Window only thing.

A SD video can never have the resolution of a 1080p HD video, you can apply various upscaling algorithms to try and make it look better. These are various filtering/interpolation/edge detection games.

Personally, I think they are a waste of CPU/GPU as they might enhance one effect at the detriment of another. For example, you might get a good looking still image but do the same thing with a fast moving scene and it looks like crap. You can't make something from nothing and if you don't have the pixels, you can't make more except by guessing.

Trying XBMC costs nothing, so I'd try out one of our Dharma nightly builds and see if what it does is acceptable to your eyes.

Well put. I'm glad someone else thinks upscaling is a waste as well. It's like the sharpening feature on a TV, which I feel like should be turned off by default.
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#8
Upscaling is usually BS in my opinion. Your 1080p Plasma automatically upscales everything to 1080p to fill the screen anyway so as long as its a decent screen you have no worries.
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#9
I looked into several fancy scaling algorithms, like nedi and icbi, they work great on images with hard edges, on dvd's (which are probably anti-aliased) they look pretty much the same as lanczos, unless you upscale them 8 times and sit 30 cm from your tv.
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#10
I feel compiled to explain what up scaling is for. It’s not a waist if you use it for its intended purpose. Example; if you have a 1080p TV but the video plays at 720p, up scaling would be beneficial to help polish of the edges pixels with the extra pixels on the screen. True the image may still have quality issues but at least you don’t see squares on the screen. Up scaling beyond 1080p with a 1080p screen is a complete waist because you have no extra pixels for the up scaling effect to be applied with. Think of it this way. Pixels are square (relatively) if the pixel being displayed exceeds 2 times its original size dimensions you will see these squares on the screen. Up scaling uses the extra pixels provided to ‘polish off’ the edges so there not as visible. It doesn’t make your picture or video any clearer it simply makes the ‘unusually large’ pixies less visible. I concur in stating that its totally bs to up convert a 1080p movie outputting to a 1080p image, your just over using your GPU, you will see no benefit. But knowing what your screen can display, up converting anything to that resolution is the only way to go. All this is don automatically with xmbc so simply put, don’t worry about it.
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#11
I'm guessing that, in the three years since the last posts, folks have, indeed, decided not to worry about it...
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