I just purchased an LG upconverting DVD player (out of box) from Best Buy. You can change the res settings from 480 to 720 to 1080I. It does have HDMI connectivity, however, i am running it to my sharp theater projector, which does not have an HDMI connection, but claims to be able to project in 1080I res. If I set the player to 1080 or 720 rather than 480, and connect with component cables, will it project tru 720 and 1080i? it says right next to the component jack in parenthese (480p/720p/1080i).
Also, do upconverting dvd players with upscaling component out and HDMI jacks like the one i purchased play HD DVD's? or do they just make normal dvds look better?
No HD DVDs. No up conversion without HDMI only 480P through component out put from DVD. TV will accept 480P, 720P, 1080i through component from cable box. Even though your sharp projector accepts 1080i it is more likely to convert all signals to its native resolution 720P. This is not something to worry about; there is no difference with naked eye between 720P and 1080i.
Up converting DVD players rarely produce any better results than the scaler built into your projector already. If you projector has only component, just use a good progressive scan DVD player to send 480p over the the projector, and let it do it's thing. It has to convert to it's native resolution anyway, any chances are they've optimized the upconversion from 480p already.