DVI vs. Composit
 

Okay, I just got a new big screen TV (56" Medallion with the DVI input). Now currently I have my Sony DVD player hooked up to it via the composit video interface. I ordered up a Samsung unit that has a DVI output thinking that it is "the latest and greatest". I personally haven't seen this unit play DVD's but from what I have read, its the only lower cost DVD player with a DVI output.

Last night was the frist night that I was actually able to put a DVD in and watch it with my Sony DVD player. I was amazed at how good the picture was - shocked actually. The Samsung unit comes in tonight. I am half wondering if its even worth swapping these units around to get the DVI interface.

Comments, suggestions?

DVI is definitely the way to go. Its a pure digital transfer medium, so problems with noise in analog video transfer are eliminated.

alrighty sounds good, I already picked it up. I can't wait to try it. I asked a buddy about it and he had only good things to say. Blah blah its not 480i its 1080i yada yada yada.... :D I'm stoked!

If your tv is the newer piece of gear, then you are also getting the benefit of using the newer technology (comb filters, etc) in the tv instead of the ones in your dvd player (by sending it digitally.) That's a good thing. If possible, hook both connections up and switch between the two so you can get a closer look at the differences.

As for swapping things around - give it a try. Certain combinations can be magic.

Actually, the comb filters in most TV's are shit. And in this instance, the comb filter would be bypassed on the DVI input. Usually a comb filter is only used on the coax input.

If you're going from composite to DVI you're going to see a world of difference.
The main point is that anything is better than composite. I would hope that the sony player would at least have an s-video jack, or even a component output.

ugh composite..
*cries* only on older hardware or as a last resort.

So... How big WAS the difference? I am really curious about this.

To be honest there was a differnce but not as big as I was expecting. I am still trying to figure out why when I watched a movie at a buddies house (same DVD player but bigger TV) it was 10X better. Are there actually HD DVD's? Currently I have the DVD player setup for 1080i but it dosen't look like the movie supports that resolution. I didn't try the movie we were watching at my house though.. Don't get me wrong, it was AWESOME and it was worth the upgrade do DVI. That Samsung DVD player, for 250 bucks is a great investment as well, I couldn't find another player with DVI for under a grand!

I just switched from composite to DVI on my cable box and the difference was minimal, you could only really notice the difference on the analog channels. Regardless DVI is better but i think that amount it changes is based on the quality of composite cable that you have. I had bought a nice one as I knew I would just downgrade that one to the DVD player so there was not that big of a change.
There are not currently HD DVD's but they are in development. The only thing close right now is a Terminator 2 which uses WMV 9 for encoding. You cannot play it on a regular DVD player but have to use a computer or some special one. The only real way to watch movies in HD is to get DirectTV or HD cable and watch them on there. There is quite a difference too.

I have my HD attenna hooked up :D now that is awesome!

Currently my cable company is switching thier HD services, finally it is cheap and you don't need a second box. Might have to give that a try, they have almost 60 HD channels.