Help I'm confused

[slingshot]

OK I've got a good idea of what interlaced and non-interlaced scan are now, and since I'm probably getting a Sony VPL VW10HT, I thought I'd better looking into getting the best from it (i.e. a new DVD player).

Now it appears I can :-
a - buy a new DVD player without Progressive scan and add a magic box on later (ISCAN etc)
b - buy a player (maybe Toshiba SD-900E) that already does progressive scan

Can anyone give me the pro's and con's of either way, and does an add on box (Iscan) give me any benifits.

Sorry to be so stupid but I'm having trouble understanding all this processing stuff.

Slingshot

Originally posted by slingshot:
<STRONG>Now it appears I can :-
a - buy a new DVD player without Progressive scan and add a magic box on later (ISCAN etc)
b - buy a player (maybe Toshiba SD-900E) that already does progressive scan

Can anyone give me the pro's and con's of either way, and does an add on box (Iscan) give me any benifits.
Slingshot</STRONG>

First or all, the Sony LCD projector you are interested in is an inherently progressive device. It has a built in de-interlacer so that all interlaced video input to the projector will be de-interlaced to progressive scan.

However, whether or not there is any advantage in using a progressive scan DVD player or a stand alone de-interlacer like the iScan Pro will depend upon which device has the best processing.

The iScan Pro has an excellent de-interlacer chip and having such a unit will give you the advantage of achieving better quality with other video sources such as VHS, DTV etc.

Now if you were to buy a progressive DVD player that uses the same Sil503 de-interlacer chip as the iScan Pro (eg Denon 2800) then you would gain the advantage of an all digital interface between the DVD decoder and Sil503, which in theory can provide for slightly better quality video in terms of noise, sharpness, stability and contrast as well as potentially no delay between DVD video and audio.

Unfortunately at present there is no copy protection system for PAL (625p/576p line) progressive video so progressive DVD players have been modified to output progressive NTSC (525p/480p line) only. Having the iScan Pro instead, will of course, provide you with PAL and NTSC progressive video.

[ 15-05-2001: Message edited by: Orielia ]

[lmccauley]

Advantages of seperate box: can de-interlace multiple sources.
Advantages of PS DVD player: one less AD-DA conversion should (in theory) produce better picture.

Cheers,
Liam

[slingshot]

Excellent thanks, I understand now except (there's always an except isn't there !)

Why would anyone buy a prog scan DVD player if it's limited to NTSC format ? Surely the PAL interlaced would look better than NTSC non-interlaced !

Anyway I'll set the projector up use it for a few months then look at getting a demo of the Iscan Pro.


Cheers

Slingshot

[lmccauley]

Originally posted by slingshot:
<STRONG>Why would anyone buy a prog scan DVD player if it's limited to NTSC format ? Surely the PAL interlaced would look better than NTSC non-interlaced !
</STRONG>

Just to clarify, progressive scan DVD players can currently (officialy - I wonder how long before a hack is available?) output:

576i ("PAL" interlaced)
480i ("NTSC" interlaced)
480p ("NTSC" progressive)

The iScan Pro can output 576p as well as 480p.

Cheers,
Liam

Originally posted by slingshot:
<STRONG>Why would anyone buy a prog scan DVD player if it's limited to NTSC format ? Surely the PAL interlaced would look better than NTSC non-interlaced !
</STRONG>

With the Sony 10HT LCD projector all inputs are de-interlaced to progressive anyway, so you question above is more relevant for such displays as CRT projectors, and in that case the answer will be no (for the most part!).

Because scanning a frame progressively allows the eye to integrate the image coherently then the quality percieved will be better than interlaced when comparing relatively small resolution differences such as 480 and 576 lines.

This is particularly true during motion where the integration of detail in the interlaced image will begin to break down and scan lines and serrations become apparent.

Progressive scanning 480/525 @60Hz (NTSC) can be particularly beneficial because interlacing the 3:2 pulldown sequence exacerbates image integration probems.