My current setup for watching movies with my family is a JVC XV-N312 connected by component cables to a 37 inch Olevia TV (model 537-B12). Problem is, some DVDs are recorded in widescreen (16:9) and some are recorded in "fullscreen" (4:3). Sometimes there will be an indication of this on the DVD or the box, but when we rent NetFlix DVDs, it isn't always obvious which aspect ratio it's using. If I set my DVD player to output "4:3 LB", it can do correct the aspect ratio for 16:9 movies, but it would be dropping a number of scanlines to do so. If I set the DVD player to output "16:9", I think it passes the Line 23 Widescreen signalling to my TV, but my TV doesn't have an "Auto" aspect ratio.
I have a PS3 hooked up via HDMI to a Gateway XHD3000 in my room, which I use for gaming, so I don't like the idea of moving it back and forth between my room and the family room for watching movies. It adjusts the aspect ratio when upscaling DVD playback (X360 doesn't upscale DVDs as far as I can tell), and I discovered it could handle multi-disc resume, but I don't see any way to make it pick up the closed captions.
My main question is, what's the best/cheapest/easiest way to get the auto aspect ratio without losing my multi-disc resume or closed captions?
I can think of the following choices (though for some of them, I'm not sure they're really available):
1. new TV that supports auto aspect ratio (and maybe also 1080p), and it could take care of the closed captions from the 480i signal
2. upscaling dvd player or blu-ray player (many fail to support multi-disc resume even for DVDs, and I haven't seen any that can draw the Line 21 closed captions on the upscaled video - does such a player exist?)
3. separate upscaler that takes the signal from my dvd player but doesn't itself read DVDs, and can draw the closed captions (not sure such a device even exists)
4. separate closed caption device that would go in front of or on top of the TV (not sure such a device even exists)
5. HTPC (I'm not sure I'd want to assemble it myself, there are only a few media players that Wikipedia lists as supporting closed captions, and I think it might be tricky to set bookmarks in them using a remote instead of a keyboard)
I have a PS3 hooked up via HDMI to a Gateway XHD3000 in my room, which I use for gaming, so I don't like the idea of moving it back and forth between my room and the family room for watching movies. It adjusts the aspect ratio when upscaling DVD playback (X360 doesn't upscale DVDs as far as I can tell), and I discovered it could handle multi-disc resume, but I don't see any way to make it pick up the closed captions.
My main question is, what's the best/cheapest/easiest way to get the auto aspect ratio without losing my multi-disc resume or closed captions?
I can think of the following choices (though for some of them, I'm not sure they're really available):
1. new TV that supports auto aspect ratio (and maybe also 1080p), and it could take care of the closed captions from the 480i signal
2. upscaling dvd player or blu-ray player (many fail to support multi-disc resume even for DVDs, and I haven't seen any that can draw the Line 21 closed captions on the upscaled video - does such a player exist?)
3. separate upscaler that takes the signal from my dvd player but doesn't itself read DVDs, and can draw the closed captions (not sure such a device even exists)
4. separate closed caption device that would go in front of or on top of the TV (not sure such a device even exists)
5. HTPC (I'm not sure I'd want to assemble it myself, there are only a few media players that Wikipedia lists as supporting closed captions, and I think it might be tricky to set bookmarks in them using a remote instead of a keyboard)