Once set up are scalers difficult to operate?

[Pezerinno]

Hi guys, my parents are planning on buying a new telly 'one of those flat ones'. I've no esxperience of scalers but I'm wondering whether they are hard to operate once professionally set up or do you simply switch the thing on? It would be connected to freeview and DVD. I'd plan on getting a pro to set the scaler up and calibrate the screen etc

Also what sort of scalers should I be looking at? They have no plans to ever get sky and thus no sky HD. I assume eventually freeview will go HD but that will be ages away.

Also once bluray and HD tv come out into mainstream are these scalers worthless?

Sorry for all the nOOb style questions.

Cheers, Nick.

 

[philipb]

Once set up, operation consists of switching it on and off. And occasionally changing sources from freeview box to DVD.

If you have it professionally installed the best thing you can do is leave well alone and let it do its job.

There are scalers to fit almost any budget - from a couple of hundred to £3K plus, and with scalers you very much get what you pay for. So go for the most your budget will stretch to. I suspect the best compromise based on the kit you mention would be one costing about £800 from Lumagen or IScan or Cinemateq. The pros who haunt this forum like Gordon or Liam are better placed to advise based on what kit you have and how much you can spend.

You may need to decide on which display you're going for first, because that choice will influence the choice of scaler.

 

[NonPayingMember]

Make sure you get the right kind of display to go with a scaler. Your installer will help you with those kind of decisions.

With a programmable remote inplace you needn't know the scaler is even there. Very worth budgeting for in my opinion. Having to turn on the plasma, then the AV amp and select source, then select turn-on and select source on the scaler is a bit long-winded (three remotes and five button presses!) and a pain in the ass for someone that doesn't quite understand why the scaler is even there!!!

Also you will need a AV amp to supply the audio, and ideally with an audio delay to compensate for the scaler's processing time.

But, and I don't say this often, is a scaler really necessary.... or is it more a case of something *you* would want, but perhaps a bit overkill for your parents. My mother just has a Panny D6 with the side-speakers attached. Good enough for her, and very easy to use.

 

[Pezerinno]

Thanks for the replies. My Dads budget is 4k, this needs to include the telly, dvd, freeview (ideally one with the HD in it for recording purposes) and any cables - he isn't bothered about sound and my mother doesn't want speakers everywhere ruining the decor - I hadn't thought about the need for a amp though. Does it have to be an AV amp or will a stereo one do? Just thinking that perhaps I could intergrate the hifi into the setup...

Not sure a scaler is needed really - they just want good picture, not a downgrade from their current CRT but I thought I could include one and still keep within their budget.

I was thinking about the Sharp LC37GD7E or possibly the 40" samsung - I would have to demo a few sets.

 

[NonPayingMember]

Woah there. You wanna be looking at Panasonic or Pioneer plasma if they want good picture quality!!!

TBH I would just get a Pioneer 436XDE, the optional speakers, and matching Pioneer DVD Recorder.

 

[Pezerinno]

I was ideally going to go with an LCD as opposed to plasma :S

 

[NonPayingMember]

Why?

 

[Pezerinno]

Because they're better

But seriously when I was looking for my new TV I preferred all the LCD I demoed to the plasmas. However that was a year ago so will check out the new plasmas such as the pio.

 

[madshi]

Because they're better

But seriously when I was looking for my new TV I preferred all the LCD I demoed to the plasmas. However that was a year ago so will check out the new plasmas such as the pio.

Make sure you can dim the light when you demo the TVs. LCD usually look better in stores than at home, cause they "eat" the blindingly bright store light without showing much reflections, which let them appear to have good black levels. Plasmas in contrast look better at home than in stores, cause Plasmas don't like bright lighting so much. Ideally you should compare the TVs at home. But obviously that's rarely possible, so try to find a store where you can view the TVs in a lighting condition which is more similar to your home.

 

[NonPayingMember]

I like the Sharp LCDs, and (this is the second time I've said something weird today) I really like the little Sony ones!! But, they still aren't plasmas. The colours are all off and lack any real contrast range, and blacks look great until as madshi says, you bring down the ambient light to sensible levels.

As always hourses for courses and go for what your own eyes prefer, just don't let them be tricked by store demos!