Why doesn't my DVD work on normal DVD players?

Do new dvd players have the HDMI upscale resolution feature that upgrades 480 dvds to higher resolution?

• have noticed that not all of them have this feature and have to look for it...can anyone explain how "HDMI" works? is this what this feature is called by the way that upgrades the resolution of old 480 resolution dvds to 1080 or 720 at least? how this works and is this kind of a "testing feature" at the moment? does it have glitches in it and if buy a new dvd player with this feature..is it likely that it will have more problems than a dvd player that doesnt have this? Also, if your tv is only capable of 720 resolution and is a 32 inch LCD...will it still work and be okay ,,even though the dvd player is upscaling to 1080 or trying to? please explain what you can..why even the cheapest dvd players have this feature ,,,but not all of them again? again, is it a pain also maybe? thanks for your answrs!

• Answer:

  I've partially answered your questions in my replies to your other posted questions. That said, let me amplify a bit ... HDMI is a type of digital connection standard for interfacing high definition (HD) video and audio devices. It allows 1080p video and multichannel audio to be connected on one cable. Most audio/video equipment manufactured in the last 5 years has the capability to interconnect via HDMI. It's the "best" way to interconnect HD devices if your equipment allows it. DVD players are slowly losing out to Blu-ray players (See below). Upscaling DVD players (as noted in my other response) convert 480p video to 1080p video by "filling in" between the pixels in the DVD signal to create a 1080p (or 720p if that output is selected) image. The quality of the resulting pseudo-HD image varies according to the sophistication of the video processor chip (scaler) but is never as good as a true 1080p image (i.e. one recorded at that resolution). Not all DVD players are upscaling models. Those that are can output a 480p, 720p, 1080i or 1080p image, while a "normal" player can only output as high as 480p. Blu-ray players play Blu-ray disks (1080p native format) and upscale DVDs (480p native format). They all connect (to get HD) via HDMI, but can also output lower resolution via composite and component (older analog formats) In terms of price (with a lot of variation), a normal DVD player will cost about $25-$50, an upscaling player $35-$75 and a Blu-ray player start at about $90. LCD HDTVs have a native resolution determined by their display panel. For example a 720p model typically can display a 1280x720 pixel image. However, it can accept various input resolutions such as 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p which are then "scaled" to fit the display. No matter what input you feed it, the image is always 720p. Different source devices (e.g. upscaling DVD or Blu-ray player) can (usually) output different resolutions (a menu setting). The players and HDTVs vary in their ability to scale and/or deinterlace input signals and this means that it can be difficult to predict which combination will give the best image quality (e.g. 480 p >> HDTV (TV scales image to 720p), 1080p > HDTV (TV scales image to 720p), 720p >> HDTV (DVD / Blu-ray player scales image). There are lots more considerations but I hope this helps.