Infocus X1 - with or without progressive scan?

[chukkychukky]

Hi dudes! I'm a newbie here.
I hope this topic hasn't been done to death, if so my apologies.
I'd really appreciate an opinion on this one.

I managed to grab one of the last X1's at PC world for about £550. The picture is excellent once you tweak it.

My question is about the inputs for DVD.
I have a Sony 725, a classic DVD player I bought back in 2000 for £350 from Richer Sounds which is going strong since it has been serviced by them a couple of times. It gives a stunning picture with my TV. Its only flaw (well a pretty major one) is it won't play CD-R's or DVD-Rs (bar two of mine for some mysterious reason) but I have a Sony portable PICOT for that which ain't bad either.

I'm considering a low end DVD player for the PJ that has progressive scan, maybe a Pioneer DV 470 or DV 575.

My question is really should I bother with a new player? Will there be a noticeably difference if I use 480i with the Sony 725 and let the PJ do the interlacing or would even a low(ish) end player do the job better and then feed it to the 480p input?

I have ordered both S-video and VGA adapters for component inputs.

Thanks for your help!

[MikeK]

Well there's more to it than just interlaced vs progressive when it comes to DVD player performance, but it's very hard to answer that question without guessing really - only a side by side demo would give you a definitive answer.

IMO though, I doubt you'd get much (if any) mileage in terms of picture improvements from a budget PS DVD player - the X1 has the well regarded Faroudja DCDi onboard already, and while a bit long in the tooth now, your Sony was a very highly regarded DVD player in it's day (and while things move pretty quick, they'd already sussed how to make decent DVD players by 2000)
Even if you get a PAL PS capable player, the PJ will still have to descale it anyway for PAL discs (not a problem if your collection is all R1 though )
Of course, if you want DVD-R capability, then there's a ready made excuse for an upgrade if you need one

[chukkychukky]

Thanks Mike

I think I will have to get hold of one from Richer Sounds and do a side by side comparison of the two!

Thanks for the advice.