I've got 576i out of Sky HD ... do I get a medal?

[StooMonster]

This recipe requires Lumagen scaler and Sky HD.

0. set Sky HD box output to 'AUTO' (assuming it isn't already).
1. power off everything, Sky HD must be unplugged from mains.
2. connect HDMI cable
3. start Lumagen scaler
4. set EDID to USER
5. set all resolutions (especially 576p) to NO; except 576i, 720p and 1080i which are YES
6. save settings
7. power up Sky HD
8. Sky HD powers up, reads EDID settings from Lumagen, sees it cannot support 576p and outputs 576i instead.

Ta da...

StooMonster

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Nice work....I was going to try that later this week....I presume when you press ok on the Lumagen it reports back PAL when watching SD channels?

Gordon

[jont]

Stoo ... presumably that is a 576i digital signal through the hdmi - and presumably should be cleaner than the RGBs from the scart which was the only previous option ?

Can't wait for my HDQ if that is the case then !! :-)

Jon

[StooMonster]

Yep.

Also, when Broadcom chip does the deinterlacing and one changes channels, the text in 'Now and Next' banner breaks up into horizontal lines; when SiI504 does the deinterlacing the text does not, it switches smoothly.

Upside, less combing ... hurrah!

Downside, Broadcom deinterlacing does some nice edge-adaptive processing so 'video sources' look a little rougher with SiI504 handling them.

Now, if only I could do the same thing with VP30+ABT102, then that could handle SD and Lumagen HD.

StooMonster

[VirusKiller]

Great sleuthing Sherlock! Next obvious question... What's the quality like?

[StooMonster]

Originally Posted by jont

presumably that is a 576i digital signal through the hdmi - and presumably should be cleaner than the RGBs from the scart which was the only previous option ?

Component output is 1080i/576i unless you have and HDMI cable plugged in (even if not using it) when it's 1080i/576p -- but it's very soft. That was another option.

RGBcvS (scart) is also soft, I've got VP30 running RGBcvS switching with Lumagen running HDMI and the pq difference is pronounced; HDMI beats the analogue output of Sky HD by a country-mile.

576i output has a downside with current Lumagen scalers though, the 'video source' deinterlacing by Sky HD box itself is better than SiI504 -- although Lumagen keeps the right mode locked (video vs film).

576p output from Sky HD over HDMI is not a bad a option (edge-adaptive looks nice), but it does comb a lot (bad).

StooMonster

[Nic Rhodes]

Not a SKY user but gold star to this guy, good peice of work. You may now have a beer and a smug feeling for a good job This will do some good for sales of SkyHD and Lumagen. Does it work on the DVDO ? Go for it

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

I can concur that the HDMI output of SkyHD box is significantly better than the component output....and in the tests I did the RGB scart output for SD was also obviously superior to the component as well.

Gordon

[Jeff]

Good job Stoomonster! Are you using the Auto resolution setting on SKY HD or changing resolution manually?

[StooMonster]

Oops, forgot that step...

0. set Sky HD box output to 'AUTO' (assuming it isn't already).

** This means 576i output is at 576i and 1080i output is at 1080i.

StooMonster

[StooMonster]

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

I presume when you press ok on the Lumagen it reports back PAL when watching SD channels?

Yes, but I believe it does that with 576p signals too.

Suggestion to Lumagen (or Gordon, please pass on), could the Lumagen report either 576i or 576p rather than PAL for both as it's useful to know the difference; likewise 480i/480p too.

StooMonster

[mmace]

nice one, one less reason for people to stop slagging off SkyHD before they've even bought it or even know what a scaler is!

good work fella

[StooMonster]

Originally Posted by Nic Rhodes

Does it work on the DVDO ? Go for it

I'll be sending in suggestion of user-configurable EDID for iScans to the DVDO team tomorrow; VP30+ABT102 deinterlacing digital Sky SD should be the dogs-nads.

576i HDMI should be on par with SDI mod Sky+; if not actually identical to.

I am pretty sure this will also work for HD DVD and BluRay players that also only output 480p/576p and use Broadcom chips for decoding and deinterlacing solution.

StooMonster

[creative-av]

Excellent work Stoo.

DVDO and Lumagen should put you on their payroll for doing all this good work!

Steve

[VirusKiller]

Originally Posted by StooMonster

576i HDMI should be on par with SDI mod Sky+; if not actually identical to.

And the Thompson box (sans contract) is cheaper than a modded re-conditioned MkI Pace Sky+ box...