Scaler problem

[Dubbing Mixer]

I'm looking for a Scaler for presenting a variety of video sources via a variety of (hired or borrowed) projectors. The sources include DVD, Blu-ray and PC but the real fun is in the variety of formats found on the DVDs.

I want to show all material in 16:9 with 4:3 having vertical black bars and 2.35:1 horizontal black bars.

Unfortunately the source DVDs are a mottly collection of letterboxed 16:9 (which I would like to zoom to lose the black bars and fill the screen, anamorphic correctly flagged and anamorphic incorrectly flagged. Some of the material is 29.97 but I can convert this, if necessary, and deal with de-telecine at the same time.

The PC can be made to output at the native resolution of the projectors. I.e. 1080p downwards.

Even better would be a means of mixing between sources and overlaying the PC output over the DVD/BD source.

Variable audio delay is also a consideration.

Any suggestions would be most gratefully received.

 

[Dubbing Mixer]

Please forgive the BUMP but I really do need an answer to this (assuming there is one).

Again, any advice most gratefully received.

 

[choddo2006]

I don't know of a consumer scaler that will do overlays from multiple sources.

As far as the rest of it goes, that can be handled by any of the usual suspects.

 

[Dubbing Mixer]

Many thanks for the reply. Does that include zooming letterboxed 16:9 to real 16:9?

The PC overlay would be useful but not essential.

PS Doesn't have to be a consumer scaler.

 

[choddo2006]

Yeah you can zoom 16:9 letterboxed on a 4:3 frame up to 16:9 on a (for example) 1080p frame.

I think once you get out of consumer territory you're talking 20K+ probably.

 

[Dubbing Mixer]

Well that's a start. Thanks again.

There are some "pro" scalers out there for a lot less than 20k e.g. Gefen and TV-One.

Whether they are any good or not is the question. When I last had this problem I circumvented it by processing all the material to suit the projector using ProCoder and other bits and pieces. However, this is very time consuming and boring. Cheap unless you consider the time involved but not very flexible. In the future we will have more than one projector, almost certainly with different native resolutions, so the pre-processing method really isn't on.