Even with an Arcam DV88 I was getting a terrible picture via the Interlaced Component Input of my Sagem. Text was jagged, images looked washed out and grainy, there was a lot of edge dot crawl/blur and so on. Nothing wrong with the player, looks FAB on a 28"!
I had been looking at getting a Denon 2910 or an Arcam FMJ27 end of line for £700.
But Sagem told me I'd get a big improvement from Progressive Scan, and certainly my JVC D-VHS looks grand via the progressive component input.
I noticed that Richer Sounds were doing the highly regarded Pioneer 575A for £99, but when I popped in to pick one up I spotted the brand new Cambridge Audio DV79 with DVI input.
I asked them if HDCP was enabled - they'd no idea what I was talking about, but recommended I buy Cambridge Audio (nothing to do with the fact they are owned by Richer Sounds of course;-).
They agreed I could take it back if it didn't work, so I bought one £199 + £19.95 for the 3 year guarantee (I've heard CA build quality is a bit shoddy so it's worth doing at that price) + £50 for the DVI cable.
Initially I was disapointed - no picture on the DVI, it doesn't do component progressive, and I got a new level of dreadfulnes on the component/SCART.
No help from the manual, but after a bit of playing about I found that pressing the DVI button cyles through 720p, 1080i, 520p and 480p. The (default) lower resolutions display no picture, but 720p/1080i works a treat!
I went through a selection of disks (Problem disks, Region 1/2/3/4, Archive TV material ...) and initial reaction is very impressive!
I had recently watched T2 on D-VHS so I watched 20 minutes of the Ultimate edition DVD (Disk 1, not the High Def one). Although it was obviously not quite as detailed, the difference wasn't as big as I expected!
Shrek 3D which previously was horrible to watch with the glasses, now looks very impressive indeed!
Archive TV material didn't fair quite so well. Happy days had a layer of snow over it, but was infinately more watchable than previously.
My biggest problem disk, Roots episode 6 which wouldn't play at all on my old Pioneer 525 or X-Box, but plays with only 2 short pauses on my ARCAM (one of which could be the layer change ;-) played for quite a while, but while cycling through the chapters, it kept going back to the same one for some reason.
There seem to be a few minor quirks, for example it seems to default back to the undisplayable lower resolutions when switched off/on, but no showstoppers as yet ...
In summary then, I'm a very happy bunny today!
Now if only Sagem would sort out the HDCP issue
I had been looking at getting a Denon 2910 or an Arcam FMJ27 end of line for £700.
But Sagem told me I'd get a big improvement from Progressive Scan, and certainly my JVC D-VHS looks grand via the progressive component input.
I noticed that Richer Sounds were doing the highly regarded Pioneer 575A for £99, but when I popped in to pick one up I spotted the brand new Cambridge Audio DV79 with DVI input.
I asked them if HDCP was enabled - they'd no idea what I was talking about, but recommended I buy Cambridge Audio (nothing to do with the fact they are owned by Richer Sounds of course;-).
They agreed I could take it back if it didn't work, so I bought one £199 + £19.95 for the 3 year guarantee (I've heard CA build quality is a bit shoddy so it's worth doing at that price) + £50 for the DVI cable.
Initially I was disapointed - no picture on the DVI, it doesn't do component progressive, and I got a new level of dreadfulnes on the component/SCART.
No help from the manual, but after a bit of playing about I found that pressing the DVI button cyles through 720p, 1080i, 520p and 480p. The (default) lower resolutions display no picture, but 720p/1080i works a treat!
I went through a selection of disks (Problem disks, Region 1/2/3/4, Archive TV material ...) and initial reaction is very impressive!
I had recently watched T2 on D-VHS so I watched 20 minutes of the Ultimate edition DVD (Disk 1, not the High Def one). Although it was obviously not quite as detailed, the difference wasn't as big as I expected!
Shrek 3D which previously was horrible to watch with the glasses, now looks very impressive indeed!
Archive TV material didn't fair quite so well. Happy days had a layer of snow over it, but was infinately more watchable than previously.
My biggest problem disk, Roots episode 6 which wouldn't play at all on my old Pioneer 525 or X-Box, but plays with only 2 short pauses on my ARCAM (one of which could be the layer change ;-) played for quite a while, but while cycling through the chapters, it kept going back to the same one for some reason.
There seem to be a few minor quirks, for example it seems to default back to the undisplayable lower resolutions when switched off/on, but no showstoppers as yet ...
In summary then, I'm a very happy bunny today!
Now if only Sagem would sort out the HDCP issue
