How does upscaling work

Now I know a lot of you reading this will already know all there is to know about upscaling and which type of hardware will upscale the best, but a lot of our readers don’t, or have heard of it but only in the vaguest sense and know only that it can improve the picture quality of their DVD collection. Many DVD players on the market today claim they can render a high definition picture via their HDMI outputs. In the UK the standard Definition of a DVD is 576i, which is very far removed from the 720p, 1080i or 1080p resolutions that represent high definition images, and if it is indeed true that DVD players can convert all DVDs to high def why on earth should you go out and blow your pay-cheque on a next gen HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. Well the truth is that upscaling falls somewhere in between standard definition and true high definition and an upscaled DVD will never look as good as a native Hi Def image on HD-DVD or Blu Ray disc. The process of upscaling attempts to increase the number of pixels received from the DVD to match the number of pixels on the display, and its a little known fact that most LCD or Plasma screens are able to convert the signal they receive from the DVD players into the native resolution of the screen itself, thus performing their own albeit limited upscaling (limited to keep the price of the TV down). Upscaling built into modern DVD players will improve the picture still further simply because this is what they are designed to do - upconvert the resolution of the DVD to match the native resolution of the screen by adding pixels, softening the picture and performing sharpening all of which can give varying results. For the best outcome you should judge for yourself the picture quality by referring to your DVD players setup instructions, choosing the most appropriate output resolution for your screen. If you get it right the benefits can be significant, get it wrong and you have artefacts and jaggys all over the screen