I am a newcomer and totally confused by the technicalities of progressive scan, line doublers etc. Can anyone help?

I think I understand the principles behind progressive scan. But I don't understand the difference between progressive scan, a line doubler and an image enhancer. Is there any other source of info that would explain this in simple terms? The sources I have found go on for pages and pages - and I finish up just more confused but at a higher level.

Perhaps it doesn't matter: my "problem" is specific and I have three basic questions.

A) I own an InFocus 110 projector, with a Faroudja image enhancer in it, and a medium quality DVD player from Marantz. Would upgrading my DVD player really make any difference? If the difference lies in the fact that progressive scan processing takes place in the digital phase (in a good DVD player) so the DVD's analogue output is almost perfect, does this not make the Faroudja's functions redundant? And will it not "confuse" the Faroudja by feeding it with something it didn't expect to receive? Or is the Faroudja processor actually doing something quite different?

B) My understanding is that, even if the likes of Toshiba and Pioneer offer "region 0" progressive scan DVD players, these players can scan progressively only region 1 DVDs. In reality, they cease to be progressive scan players when loaded with a region 2 DVD. Is this correct?

If this is correct, my second question is when can we expect to get progressive scan DVD players that process PAL? I know ARCAM sells one but it is not exactly cheap. Or are there already other true PAL progressive scan DVD players out there which can be "reprogrammed" using the remote?

C) Assuming that the answers to A) and B) above are both "Yes", can anyone tell me what chipset to look for in the player?

[MAW]

A) Right on 1st points, but the Faroudja is clever enough not to be fooled. If it's getting a godd quality prog. scan image it's not going to make it worse. How much improvement you might see with prog. scan from a DVD player is open to violent debate....Personally, I think you would notice an improvement, but you might be wasting your money with a line doubler, your PJ ought to be doing a good job already.

B)Yes and yes again, at least some prog. players can be hacked for pal progressive, there's a Denon one in the mid-price range that can anyway. My personal HDD seems to have crashed, I can't remember the model no.

C)There's more than several answers to that. I'm not the man to answer it cos I'm a PC powered person, but I thought I could start the ball rolling. You should probably ask that in dvd players, and possibly thre progressive scan section. You haven't considered a PC as your source?