This entry is a continuation to the PS3 settings post, it focuses on the upscaling feature on the PS3.
Since I'm using a component cable, the only way I can take the advantage of PS3's upscaling feature is to burn a DVD-R. Frankly, I only have very few DVD-R backups. The DVD-R I will be using here is Blue Gender, the anime series I reviewed not long ago. The original DVDs are D5 around 4G in size, so backups are easy, therefore I made them, but generally speaking I don't make copies...
So here upon inserting the disc, PS3 recognizes as DVD-R, upsacling will be applied.
If you press the green triangle button (options) on SIXAXIS or BT remote, it will show the options, here there are four. You won't get the fourth item "Information" if you are using a copyrighted disc or DVD-ROM.
The infromation is very basic, only shows the number of titles... I wish it shows the size of the disc...
So this is a random disc I pull out, the second disc of the anime series. This is how upscaling looks. I think this is the best picture I took in this batch.
Earlier I mentioned how I check if upscaling is applied, this is the picture, my monitor truly shows 1080i.
Move on to the DVD playing GUI, which is very similar to blu-ray disc. The top shows the title number, audio codec and bitrate, video codec and bitrate; the bottom is the timeline. These icons are also very similar to blu-ray's, it's just blu-ray disc has those red, green, blue, yellow buttons which the DVD doesn't have here. The only picture quality related settings you can access here is the AV settings, it's the second row second icon from the right (the icon right underneath number 8 and 9 and between them with two sliding bars horizontly placed, forgot to take this picture... )
Activating the AV settings, you get frame noise reduction, black noise reduction, and the method of Upscale. The noise reductions are effective at removing the noises, but on my monitor, I saw some annoying horizontal shaking lines during some scenes. Other than that, upscaling is perfect. I think the default value for both reductions are 2, choosing 3 can elaminte that horizontal shaking lines a lit bit.
There are four methods of Upscale: Normal, Double scale, full, off. The default method is Normal, as seen here. It automatically corrects the aspect ratio. Traditional DVD players with upscaling don't provide auto aspect ratio function so every time you want to watch 4:3 footage on a 16:9 screen with non-distorted image, you have to manually correct it. So PS3 is the only machine I've reviewed so far provide this feature except those DVD software on computers... I think it's a very very good feature, saves the time switching back and forth if you want to watch 16:9 feature movie and 4:3 bonus material.
Double scale is the same as Normal but shrinks the overall picture by about 10%, and it's only working under 1080i/1080P resolution, does NOT work on 720P.
Full is remove that aspect ratio correction feature, which I think is NO good. Here is the team leader battles with an early stage blue which has its core exposed in air, knock off the core, then the blue is dead. Later evolutions on the blues have shields on the core or gets buried within their body, the scientist on the second earth developed a new type of machine called double edger which can effective kill those kinds. The very last blue they battled with does not have a core...
Off is turning off the upscaling feature, which results a softer image and loses the auto aspect ratio correction feature.
Finishing up the intro for the upscaling, here is a Copyrighted disc, Dark Angel Season 2. Non scaling is applied as detected by my monitor, 480p only.
Jessica Alba (Max) gets distorted...
Have to manually forcing 4:3 aspect ratio.
Sum up, the upscaling feature on PS3 is very effective, it provides a much vivid image than original DVD and auto corrects the aspect ratio. Only quirk is that some weird horizontal shaky lines are introduced during some scenes on Blue Gender, I haven't checked out non-anime material yet. DVDs without upsacling are about the same picture quality as my Harman Kardon DVD.
Last, PS3 has no problem displaying my authored "advanced“ subpicture, this DVD took me about 4 weeks to finish, including adding transition menus to the original menus, adding a feature page, making about 1800 subpictures by copying and pasting from the net and timing them according to the songs, competely re-programming the structure and registers in the DVD, a huge huge project I have ever done.
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