S-vid vs Component on ae100 - findings

[snelly]

Well,

This weekend I spent making holes in the brick walls downstairs, running string through the wall cavities and ripping up the floorboards upstairs to lay all the cables to the panny.

Took bloody ages but...

I made some component cables from some nice 75 ohm coax and quality rca plugs.

Previously I had been running the dvd to pj via s-video and NTL via composite.

Anyway once all the ables were laid I tested them before putting the boards back down.

I was expecting the Component to be crisper, less dot crawl , better edges between colours etc (similar to RGB over composite but less pronounced difference).

WHat I saw amazed me the component connection retrieved sooo much more detail from dark areas on the screen. I had resigned myself to the loss of detail being an LCD limitation but I was wrong .

Areas of the screen which were lost to black with s video (such as detail on a black leather jacket in low light) are now readily viewable. Although I am very happy about the detail via component I am a bit concerned why s-vid is soooo dark. I had exected it to be lower quality but not in this respect

I am very pleased. The whole thing just gives a better impression of a cinema screen too - or could it be that I am just feeling happy...did I mention I am pleased

Wondering if anyone else has witnessed the same effect?

Could it be the s-vid on my player (Sony DVP 725) is very poor or is this the general experience of everyone on the board who has tried this

In summary if your dvd has component connections do yourself a favour and go and try it out - certainly worth an hour of your time to make the cable or a few qyuid to buy one!!! I can only imagine that PScan will look even better

Tim

 

[Donnacha]

Tim,

I'm still running via s-vid. You would recommend upgrading to a PScan component out DVD player / HCPC? How does the image compare to watching it on a TV, where you can see all the detail and everything is crisp and clear. Although I love the big screen approach, the clarity just isn't as good as awidescreen TV. Does the component get closer to this?

I'll go that way eventually - wanna get speakers and room set-up first as S-vid is definitely liveable.

Thanks for the input

Donnacha

 

[snelly]

Donnacha,

Disclaimer first!!! Obviously my observations are based on my kit...I guess that it is possible I have a DVD player with shoddy S-Video or my Ae100 has shoddy S-video etc. If this were the case and then someone else had a player with good s-vid and crappy component.....you get the idea

That out of the way you asked if it was a step closer...to CRT

I would say the improvements I saw were 2 or 3 steps up. I expected crisper edges, less colour bleed, video noise and dot crawl and this definitely happened. What I did not expect was the enormous amount of extra detail in dark scenes. It has *not* made blacks blacker or anything like that - the WS borders are still the same grey **BUT** I guess that with S-vid anything from pure black to some mid dark grey levels were indistinguishable. I can now see faces that were shadows before, you can see the structure, detail and colours in dark buildings where before there was only a hint of anything ither than black. Therefore although black level has not changed it feels like it has - simply because they is not a greater range of non black (but very dark) colours

The closest analogy I can make is that S-vid was almost like watching a CRT with the brightness down - but not quite. For a start the brightness control did not remedy this and secondly the brighter shades do not seem affected. e.g. If you look at a paused scene and switch inputs the extra detail in the dark is immediately obvious *but* areas where there is more light are not brightened up, component is not just Gamma corrected.

I am very pleased with the current results. I can now see enough detail from the disc that you can see the limtiations of the DVD media and the scalers etc - you can see jaggies and compression artefacts. Whilst this is not necessarily a good thing in terms of the ultimate picture I think it means that the projector is now displaying in quite a revealing way.

I am expecting that a prog scan player would improve jaggies and motion smearing. Not sure if I am willing to go for a PC yet though.

I am sceptical as to whether a ProV will look better that good interlaced component signal too - I guess I have been underwhelmed by S-video (which would feed the ProV). I think component output DVD or VGA output PC is the way to go.

As far as LCD PJ vs TV goes - I don't think it will ever get quite so crisp and accurate with the PJ. However next time you go to the cinema see whether you think the picture there is better than your nice CRT TV fed an RGB signal. On the plus side LCD has geometry that even the best TV cant match.

Sorry for the ramble

Tim

 

[Donnacha]

Cheers Tim,

a very informative "ramble". I'm no expert at this stuff !! If one wants CRT one has to go that route!! But I'm glad to hear that it improves the detail in dark areas (will definitely benfit Blade2!). I know it will never look as crisp and sharp as dvd on a tv, but neither does a cinema if you ask me. As long as we can get the max out of our PJs to satisfactory results then happy - I'm happy as it is anyway , so I'll be ecstatic when I upgrade the source!!

By the way, how do you find the screen door? I can really see it. I have a six foot image, granted I'm not 12 foot away, but it kinda defeats the object being far away (looses big screen impact). I find a defocus really helps and makes the image look more film like. I love the start of Toy Story 2, it looks brilliant on the big screen - a real show off piece.

Cheers

Donnacha

 

[snelly]

Donnacha,

I agree with you about TV being drisper than cinema. Some TVs now are so good that they really amaze me. But I think that my PJ looks pretty much as good as a cinema screen (different + and - points but on balance similar feeling)

Dark detail is so much better. The difference on Criterion The Rock and Robocop is astonishing you can see soooo much more. I would recommend you try out component before you buy anything - do you have a mate who lices locally with a dvd player with these outputs???


Screen door...well close up I can really see it obviously but with my 7ft projection and watching from about 12 ft I really don't notice *unless* I look for it. It is funny because most little things bother me but I seem to be able to ignore the screendoor. I dont defocus at all. The tiem I do see it msot is using composite where I seem to get some vertical banding which accentuates the screen door effect by drawring your eyes to the gaps between pixels.
Perhaps I just need new glasses

Tim

 

[johnny]

Thought i'd chip in here and offer my observations.

I intially connected up my ae100 via some top quality Profi component leads to my sony 735 viewing a distance at just over 10feet.

I wasnt that impressed to be honest, but then I had been spoilt at the mini shootout seeing the prog scan philips and toshiba.

I found that jaggies and edge enhancement were very visible, the picture looked quite 'processed' - not a very technical term I know, but it just didnt 'feel' right.

Anyway, I then tried a ProV using the s-video out of the sony 735 and then VGA out of the prov into the Panny.

The results IMO are much more pleasing and also allow me more control over the picture and what I feel are the impression of blacker blacks and a more 'filmic' look to the image.

This of course may be due to the VGA input and prog scan of the ProV

Plus I put ITV Digital through the ProV as well, which means I only need one connection into the Panny.

 

[snelly]

Johnny,

fair point I guess I should at least see a ProV but if the S vid that is feeding it is shoddy...

Out of interest have you tried a comparison of straight S-Video from DVD to PJ vs Component from DVD to PJ. I would be interested to here if you see the same enormous difference in details in dark areas that I did...

Tim

 

[Kramer]

You can read some comparison reviews I did on S-video, interlaced component, prog component, prog VGA & HTPC

here

Just noticed it was last March

Think I give it a "bump".