pioneer 737k good for an NEC42" plasma?

V

vincentdarley

Guest
I've got a 42" NEC (4210W) plasma screen and I've been playing DVDs through my laptop and a standard vga connector (plus sound out via the relatively crappy laptop socket into a stereo system). The picture has been v. good on all except one dvd. Anyway, would like to invest in a decent surround sound system and dvd player, and on the dvd front, the 737k seemed like a good purchase. But is it?

Will the 'progressive scan' make a big difference on this screen? (It certainly has component inputs, but is that the same as 'progressive component inputs'?)

I've read a few posts here saying a PC will actually provide a much better picture than any dvd player. Is this true? Can you explain? How would this work with getting good surround sound too?

cheers,

Vince.
 
I think the definitive article about progressive scan is www.progressivescan.co.uk, which this site is the official forum of :). In summary, a normal standard analogue TV picture is interlaced, where the TV builds up the picture you see in 2 stages, which can cause flicker and other unwanted effects. A non-interlaced, or progressive scan image is produced in one stage, and is subjectively clearly and more stable than the non-progessive image. That's it!

An average non-progressive domestic DVD player outputs a interlaced picture.... a progressive one doesn't! So the better image should be obtained from the prog scan player.

That's the easy bit! Progressive scan players, by default only produce such a picture on R1 or US disks - for various contractual reasons they remove this feature for R2 disk (e.g. UK) playback, although this feature can sometimes be "re-enabled" via software. The output from a computer has no such concerns, and produces a progressive output for all disks. Not only that, but the image is can be produced at 75Hz, 80Hz e.t.c which gives a more stable image than a standalone DVD player outputting the picture at 60HZ. This is why some people usually have PCs for high end DVD players! And if your laptop output says something like "70Hz non-interlaced", it's already progressive!

Component output is just a signal format for the picture - which itself could be progressive, or non progressive! Component or RGB are generally regarded to be the best way to connect, followed by S-video. Oh then composite (the single yellow plug) if you really have no other choice!!


The upshot of this is a PC DVD is the "best", followed by any standalone player with Prog Scan on R1 disks (such as the DVD737) , then any other player.

I hope this goes some way towards explaining all this....
 

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