downscaling high def

hidefnoob

hello all.
just like to say that i am really new to the high def experience, and am a bit hesitant on upgrading my television for one reason.
i really enjoy classic pre-high def movies, and from what i have seen on friends televisions, the movies are often ruined due to previously unnoticable flaws now able to be seen...

an example is when we tried to watch the evil dead dvd on his full high def television. the movie became unbarable to watch, as the definition is too high, making the movie seem as if it were filmed on some camcorder.

other examples i have noticed is with old animations, where brush and pen strokes become obvious!

im here today to ask if there is any way to downscale or theoratically "turn off" the HD, so that these older movies become more viewable.
im not sure if certain cables can be ommitted to produce a more standard picture??

dont get me wrong though. from what i have seen HD on recent movies is unbelievable.. but i am just hesitant to upgrade if it means sacrificing my dvd collection!

any help would be greatly appreciated

clearday

HD tvs will upscale any image they receive to their native resolution, so anything you send them will get upscaled, either by the dvd player if it's an upscaling type, or the tv itself once the image is received.

A good idea would be to keep your old tv for old movie watching and get a new HD tv for everything else. Best of both worlds.

Scottnot

Sorry, No Joy!
Flat panel sets are also defined as "fixed pixel displays" which means that they can only display at their "native resolution" (also called "display resolution" and "screen resolution").

Depending on what set you purchase, this will most often be 1280x720 pixels, 1366x768 pixels and 1920x1080 pixels.
No matter what the input, the signal will be processed to display at the set's native resolution. Or, in other words, the set will always "upscale" the input signal to match the native resolution.
As you may be aware, many "well mastered" SD DVDs will actually upscale to 16:9 format with "near HD" quality, so the issue is typically dependent on the original DVD master and quality.

As an aside, I would imagine that a computer could be used to read the DVD and create a HD version of the SD DVD by setting the original 640x480 content inside of a 1280x720 box. Doing so would allow the original content to be displayed using the same number of screen pixels as required to duplicate the original content with no upscaling.
Of course, when watching this on a "typical" 42", 16:9, 720p display you would see an image with black bars on the top and on both sides.
The viewable image would only occupy 640x480 pixels within the available 1280x720 raster with the surrounding area being black.
The actual picture size would be (on the example 42" display) 18.3" wide by 13.73 high with a diagonal measurement of 22.88"; so it would be the equivalent of viewing your classic DVDs on a standard 23" CRT in terms of screen size.
Sounds like a lot of work, but maybe worth a try.
Also, I'm sure there are a lot of computer literate members who may be able to comment on the feasibility of this suggestion.
I may be all wet as I claim no expertise in this area of technology.