Hi all, Currently have a high end Arcam FMJ DV27 delivering progressive scan NTSC & PAL via component connects to my Projector. Theres also a HTPC and a Rock+ but we don't need to go into that. I am hoping to get the H3D card which has both Component and SDI Inputs. My question is that I am considering the SDI route. There's currently no known mod for the Arcam to enable SDI mad so I am considering purchasing a cheaper Panasonic RP62 with SDI. Do you think the SDI route will produce a superior image to the Arcam which will only be using component? Or are there other SDI Players I should consider - needs to be multi region and PAL/NTSC. (no it wont be replacing my TT HTPC setup just yet - it's to play with) Regards Neil.
Since id like to hear from anyone with opinions too, i'll knock this up! I suppose Jeff may well be a guy in the know. ad
A lot will depend on whether the H3D card does a better job of de-interlacing than the FMJ27 progressive board. I think DCDi should be an improvement over SIL503 Other advantages of the Panasonic SDI route; no choma bug and all digital path if you use DVI out (less video noise).
OK, Here's the thing. Alot of these de-interlacing solutions look at chroma information and pixel by pixel info to determine the relationship between each field (in order to work out best method of de-interlacing). The better the information you can get to the chip the better the job it can do at de-interlacing. If you have an Iscan or a VPL11 for instance put on the dreaded Insurrection openning scene (r1). Play the opening loop on a composite feed and see what it looks like. Now play it on an interlaced component feed and see what it looks like. Pretty sure you'll find less artifacts with component. Now, feed a de-interlacing solution a digital feed and it's getting an even better signal to work with. I'm sure this must make a difference to ability of the processing. From my own experience the most noteable difference when comparing hte two feeds was in the amount of fine detail present with the SDI feed. If anyone has seen a HTPC v Normal DVD then it's the same thing. I've mentioned before that at the Event we played TAG DVD32r analogue comonent output to an Interpolator against a modded 737 SDI output to the same scaler. The 737 sdi was minorly better, in fact it was so small that we stopped doing the dem as it was just confusing folk. The analogue output from TAG is probably the best from any DVD and the analogue input stage of an interpolator is the best of any scaler. That's why it was so small in this dem. I've done the same dem with a RockSDI and a VigateSDI and on a picture quality basis the SDI is obviously superior! So the answer is going to depend on how good the analogue component circuit design is. Better it is the less the difference.... Just wish someone would do SDI for Arcam's then we could get stunning pics and great sound! Gordon