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Originally Posted by esquire. 
I know that one of the reasons bluray is superior to DVD is the superior sound. But, I don't have any audio system set up for my TV- no receivers, no speakers, not even a soundbar.
Without such a audio system, will the bluray still sound superior to DVD? Is it going to be a significant difference if I don't have all that audio equipment?
No, it won't be audibly superior. People have a hard enough time telling lossless soundtracks apart from lossy ones even with megabuck systems.
BTW, don't give audiophiles a bad name by associating me with them.
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When the Oppo upconverts DVDs, how well does it do with the DVDs? Will the picture look like HD, maybe even bluray?Any other suggestions for blurays that upconvert DVDs? That would be an important feature I would look for in a bluray player since I don't want to throw away my DVD collection but don't also want to spend $500 on a bluray player either.
All BD players will play and upconvert DVDs. The last gen Oppo just happens to be one of the best at doing that. That said, it won't look like HD but it will minimize how bad a DVD looks on a big screen. For me, you can tell most easily it's not HD on a far shot, like a big landscape scene because you can't resolve the little details in a wide shot. It looks pretty darn good on closeups like of people's faces because all the skin details are pretty big. If you want to test out a player's upconversion quality, use wide landscape shots and look at the really small features (trees, bushes, grass) --- they'll be pretty blurry.
The other thing to look at is high speed movement shot with interlaced cameras. Live performance videos and sporting events shot with video cameras (though not things like the NFL films which are shot on film) are great candidates. On things that are moving quickly, look for blurriness or tearing of the edges: the edges will look ragged like you pulled them out of a paper shredder.
Things shot on film like most mainstream movies and an increasing number of TV shows are a piece of cake for most players.
--Andre
