Samsung BD-P1500 Question

Just got a Samsung BD-P1500 BD Player and connected it to my Samsung LN32B540 720P LCD TV by HDMI. I've not played a BD disk yet, but I have played a DVD. I plays fine.

I have 2 questions for anyone who may have the answer(s).

1. The BD Player's output reads 1080P on its front panel but the TV is a 720P set. The BD user's manual is unclear as to whether I need to set the BD's output to 720P to match the TV's output, or if the TV itself will just accept the 1080P BD output and convert it to 720P (which is what it seems to be doing now). I actually tried to reset the BD player's output as shown in the book by holding down the fast forward botton for 5 seconds, but it remains at 1080P. What is the proper setting for the BD output?

2. The BD Player's remote works to operate several TV functions directly, except the numbered buttons on the BD remote will not change the TV's channels. The BD manual is silent on if these number buttons should work directly on the TV (in place of the TV's remote). The other buttons on the BD remote it said should work directly with the TV do work. So, what are these numbered buttons on the BD player's remote for, if not the TV? I'd sure like to be able to change channels with them.

Thanks

If you leave the players output at 1080 then your tv will just adjust the signal to 720 and it will work fine but you really don't need to change the signal anymore than necesary so I would, and I do, set the Samsung to 720p so it will not be messed with at all going to your set. Go into the menu of the player and select video then you can choose resolution and change it to 720p. I don't know off hand about the remote because I don't use it but maybe someone else does and can help you out.

For the best PQ I would say use 720p output on SD DVDs, but you definitely should send 1080p on BD discs since all mfg recommend this for BD content, and let the display scale the BD source discs. Or just leave the output on 1080p to avoid the hassle of changing it back & forth with the SD & BD discs.

There are many posts here about the details of this but basically, your display is a 1366x768p display and not a 1280x720p display. If you send 1280x720 from a 1920x1080p source you are throwing away data that your 1366x768p display must add back into from the chopped 1280x720p output. So you would always be throwing away, and then having the display guess at what the pixels should be to bring it back up to 1366x768p.

There is also the issue of HOW the display handles a 720p source versus a 1080p source. Most displays do a very good job handling 1080 source material since most HD sources ARE 1080, and only a few are 720.

On my 720p DLP, I always just send out 1080i (my DP doesn't accept 1080p) even on SD DVDs for the simplicity and because the difference on SD DVDs is not really noticeable compared to sending 720p and my DLP IS actually 1280x720p. On my 1080p plasma & 1080p LCD I of course ALWAYS send 1080p.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the explanation. I'm resetting mine for 1080p

I don't agree that scaling down is better than scaling up and it is better to feed your source with what is closest to the native resolution as possible. But in the end it is up to your eye's to make the decision...

I don't agree that scaling down is better than scaling up and it is better to feed your source with what is closest to the native resolution as possible. But in the end it is up to your eye's to make the decision...

Scaling down reduces existing pixels, while scaling up adds pixels that were never there (or already removed) by guessing what those pixels should be. Scaling down is easier than upscaling since no guessing is needed and it is simply a mathematical formula, while upscaling has to guess on unknowns.

But in the end we agree that it is whatever looks best with certain mated equipment and the users' eyes that matter. :hithere: