when I view OTA sd programing the tv info says it is 480. when I tell my up-scaling DVD to 480 the tv info says 480. when I tell the dvd to change resolution to 1080 the tv info says 1080. Now when this changes from 480 to 1080 I see the change with better picture quality. the tv does not change the resolution to 1080 because you can see it is not as good a picture in 480. if the tv can only display 1080 then why is it the picture improves when the dvd is in 1080 ?
when the dvd outputs 1080 the tv info says 1080 and the picture is damn good compared to 480.
If the tv always displayed 1080 as you say the dvd picture would never change when I select 1080 on the dvd player.
the other factor is OTA channels I receive are from 480/.720/1080. now when you watch a sport event on the 720 you can see it is a softer picture not as sharp. when on the 1080 OTA channel picture is max sharpness.
sd DTV is always soft fuzzy video and the tv is not converting it to 1080 . also my old obsolete sd DTV RCA provided much better picture than the new DTV D12. I know that these have no up-scalers in them and the TV I have does not up-scale anything I have put into it , on any of the inputs, digital or analog video. tv reports 480 but looks more like 325.
I also have a tube tv . this is a 400 resolution tv receiver and the picture on this is the same as the new smart tv in 480.
this is with using these dvd players that can output the high resolutions. now what happens is when I select the 720 on this old tv the response is can not display / not supported. so when I play back the dvd on 480 the picture looks the same as the new tv in 480 . with a vcr dvd combo unit these may or may not have the ability to up-scale . some do however but you have to tell it to increase the resolution. I actually have one of these players but never use it ! you can change the resolution to 720 max on this oldie.
all the dvd players made today have up-scaling features. if all the new smart tv made today had up-scaling then the dvd up-scaling would not be used. it just don;t add up.