I took a intro to DSP course when I was a sophmore in college. We had a lab where we used MATLAB to do work on an image. I'm sure there are people here who know more about this than I do, but I think it works like this: imagine you had a picture and you reduced its quality by half. You can then use interpolation (linear interpolation would be an example where, for instance, if you have a black pixel next to a white pixel, you could insert a new pixel between them that's 50% grey) to get back to the original picture, but if memory serves correctly you can't reclaim all of the original quality. I think what these upscaling players are doing is basically the same thing. However, I'm guessing they use algorithms much more complex than linear interpolation (imagine instead of a linear first-order equation they use complex 15th order equations or something...I really don't know the details of it) and apply it to the original picture (the 480p version). I've never really been able to test it out to know if it makes that much of a difference, but my guess is no. I would think it's possible to do, but the filtering and such required (i.e. the interpolation technology) that works to the point that it's a noticeable difference would be cost prohibitive. I think a lot of it is just a marketing campaign targeted towards the naive. If I'm totally wrong someone please correct me. Again, I've never actually done the comparison using an upscaling vs. a regular DVD player over hi-def cables. I'm sure someone here has and can comment on the difference (if any) they noticed.
“That iconic Klipsch sound is here in full force, with crisp highs, delicate mids (which can easily have a bit more meat added with an EQ tweak) and tight, booming bass.”
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I took a intro to DSP course when I was a sophmore in college. We had a lab where we used MATLAB to do work on an image. I'm sure there are people here who know more about this than I do, but I think it works like this: imagine you had a picture and you reduced its quality by half. You can then use interpolation (linear interpolation would be an example where, for instance, if you have a black pixel next to a white pixel, you could insert a new pixel between them that's 50% grey) to get back to the original picture, but if memory serves correctly you can't reclaim all of the original quality. I think what these upscaling players are doing is basically the same thing. However, I'm guessing they use algorithms much more complex than linear interpolation (imagine instead of a linear first-order equation they use complex 15th order equations or something...I really don't know the details of it) and apply it to the original picture (the 480p version).
I've never really been able to test it out to know if it makes that much of a difference, but my guess is no. I would think it's possible to do, but the filtering and such required (i.e. the interpolation technology) that works to the point that it's a noticeable difference would be cost prohibitive. I think a lot of it is just a marketing campaign targeted towards the naive.
If I'm totally wrong someone please correct me. Again, I've never actually done the comparison using an upscaling vs. a regular DVD player over hi-def cables. I'm sure someone here has and can comment on the difference (if any) they noticed.