First of all, I searched around a bit for a healthy forum to ask such newbie questions and this one seems to be the place for those such discussions.
I've begun to put together a beginners home theater system. This all started when my girlfriend decided to buy us an Xbox 360. Its nothing extravagant at all, I just happened to be patient and find some decent mid-range items on sale. I just finished it this weekend by adding the speakers.
So my system is the following: Sylvania 6842THG -42inch plasma up to 1080i Denon AVR-687 7.1 reciever with component upconvert up to 1080i Polk Audio RM6550 5.1 speakers Pioneer DV-C302D 5disc changer (about 7 years old, non-progressive I believe. I'll get to that in a minute)
Now, one of the main reasons I bought the Denon reciever is for its upconvert capabilities through component (it has no HDMI in or out). I think I may have had the wrong impression on what upconverting actually does.
So, I have everything hooked up and my DVD player input to the Denon on component 1 and output from its component out to my TV. However, still when I check the current screen mode says [i]480i[i]
The reciever has no HDMI and it does in fact claim to upconvert to 1080i from component, s-video and video inputs through its component out (at least thats how I read it). Is it possible that it will only upconvert when I go from DVD player to the Denon using the s-video or standard video? Is this a complete limitation of my old DVD player (which is what im thinking is going on)? Or, am I misunderstanding this completely and my TV resolution is displaying the proper resolution of 480i but its still being converted to fit my televisions screen format?
I guess all Ive read on upconverting is that it can convert displays to 1080i or 1080p (depending on the device) and I expected to see 1080i as my current display setting like I do when im watching my normal cable HD channels?
would one of you care to clear this up a bit for me and enlighten me?
You're reading wrong. It's not upconversion, it's just conversion. It will convert composite or s-video to component. It won't upconvert. If it did, it would have HDMI.