sky+ and upscaling.

[sapper44]

I posted this in another thread.May be better posted here.A mate has a ptae300 pj and watches everything through it.he is thinking of buying an upscaller so he can turn his sky digital into hi deff buy scalling up to 1080 lines.can this be done and will it improve the pic quality.He is after more detail like when he is watching a footy match the players are not a mass of dots.when they are in a long shot if you know what I mean.

 

[robjohn]

I looked into this a few months ago.

I borrowed a product called iScan its about £600 or it was back then, but I could not improve the signal. Infact it looked worse. So i gave this a miss.

Then I bought a DVD recorder (sony GX3) which has a rgb out to my pj (panny 75e) which is a 1024X768 just in case you were wondering.

Plugged in the sky+ and now I am getting a 725i image best image I have had so far. Its not perfect but its as good as it is going to get for the money.

How much budget for this do you have?

Good line doublers are very expensive. And that does not include the iScan. Its cheap with not much reward IMO.

Let me know how you get on.

TIP: See if you can demo what you are trying to do before you buy, if they will not demo you the unit vote with you feet and find a dealer that will. After all it is in there interest.

cheers

rob

 

[rscott4563]

Firstly the iScan isn't upscaling the image, it just de-interlaces the incoming interlaced signal, it does have some benefits such as it gets rid of the CUE issue which can be annoying on sky especially on a PJ.

One thing you have to realise when using a PJ (or plasma) is that any signal you feed in Sky, DVD etc... will be de-interlaced (unless your DVD player is outputting progressive scan) and then scaled by the PJ to its native resolution. The reason for going down the route of an external video processor is that the processing will be of a better quality and so will give better results.

You cant make standard definition material into hidef material, if the information isnt there you cant add it, upscaling creates extra lines from the information already there, this can help make the picture look better but it wil never look hidef, also 1080 isnt the be all and end all, the best picture maybe with a 1080 input or it might be something lower such as the native resolution of the PJ, 960x540 I think in the case of the AE300.

If you want to try a scaler then maybe a second hand Lumagen Vision might be available for around £600 and this would do everything you would need.

Ryan

 

[TimF]

I myself have had good results with Sky+ and a Zinwell Brite-View - 1080i mode looks good on Pana 500 - as does SXGA resolution.

Only problem is you lose "Just" mode on SXGA which is useful for 4:3 material and on 1080i mode only get widescreen.

I know its not the quality of a top scaler but for £220 a bit of a bargain.

What it doesnt do is add detail thats not there in the first place - also consider not all footie matches are in widescreen!

All the best

Tim

 

[StooMonster]

Sky digital upscaled with new iScan HD is fabulous. On high bit rate channels like Channel 5 you would be hard pressed to tell the difference with DVD and low bit rate channels even look good.

Looks great on my plasma's native 1366x768 resolution, and even better the digital audio delay sorts out the lip-sync issues.

StooMonster

 

[chachi]

any point in getting a briteview on dem to test with my new PWD6 ?

 

[StooMonster]

Originally posted by chachi
any point in getting a briteview on dem to test with my new PWD6 ?

What's the deinterlacer chip in it? Your iScan Ultra and screen's internal scaler will probably do a better job: not least because the screen's internal scaler will up the bit-depth of the image to 30-bit (or billions of colours).

StooMonster

 

[loonatic]

Hi Stoo,

Is the HD really that much better than the Ultra in pure PQ terms ?

I have been toying with the idea of replacing my Ultra with a HD and with getting my Sky+ SDI modded.

Does anyone now when the SDI add-on for the HD will be available and will it be a user install item ?

Cheers, Lee

 

[chachi]

Originally posted by StooMonster
What's the deinterlacer chip in it? Your iScan Ultra and screen's internal scaler will probably do a better job: not least because the screen's internal scaler will up the bit-depth of the image to 30-bit (or billions of colours).

IIRC the BriteView uses the Trident chip ... ended up a moot point though (as my sig shows) as I snipped an iScan Ultra on the cheap shortly after posting that

 

[hemp3]

I have a pio 504 and sky+ does anyone know of the most cost effective way to get a better picture with the 504 in mind. What do others with the same screen use.

 

[buns]

Originally posted by loonatic
Hi Stoo,

Is the HD really that much better than the Ultra in pure PQ terms ?

I have been toying with the idea of replacing my Ultra with a HD and with getting my Sky+ SDI modded.

Does anyone now when the SDI add-on for the HD will be available and will it be a user install item ?

Cheers, Lee

why not toy with the idea of replacing it with the lumagen vision dvi with sdi mod (will be £1k retail). This will have 2 sdi inputs so you can have dvd player as well and if you were getting Els to mod your box he migh do you a deal

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[buns]

Originally posted by hemp3
I have a pio 504 and sky+ does anyone know of the most cost effective way to get a better picture with the 504 in mind. What do others with the same screen use.

again what about the new lumagen? It will allow you to take RGBs from the sky box and should be much superior to the other options you currently have

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[hemp3]

How much does elliot charge? Also whats his full user id? Will an sdi mod on a pio 868 improved HDMI, I know its far superior to DVI but is it better than HDMI? Will the RGB to lumagen be as good as SDI to a scaler?

 

[buns]

Elliot charges about £350 for the board, mod and soak testing. But as I say, he'll proably sort something out if you were buying other stuff too.

he is X3ELS on here or you can probably find the pj hifi website (i dont know if im allowed to post its url).

all the best

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[Ianfromnotts]

Nothing ventured nothing gained - I got significant picture improvements using scalers on sky + need to convert the scart to a component output rather than use the S for best quality works wonders on the dvd too - just so happens that I have a briteview scaler for sale in the hardware for sale section. IMHO it works exceptionally well.

 

[Supernatural]

I can recommend the BriteView as a low cost option.
I'm using a BriteView with my Freeview into a AE500 - S Video in, component out. I have found the 1080i output the best, as I cannot get a signal via 720p.
Certainly makes Freeview watchable on the big screen

Paul

 

[Ianfromnotts]

Ill go with that too I couldnt get 750p to work on my pt300 either but then again I cant get the DVI input to work either - still 625p or is it 575p looks great as does 1080i on the component input - far better than the scart input

 

[hemp3]

are these scalers worth it? I got an ISCAN ultra and couldnt get a picture from my sky box. There was no menu to use and the manual was *****. Are the new ones like the lumagen or iscan hd menu dirven?

 

[Ianfromnotts]

Could it be that you used cheap scart to s video convertor on the sky box and found you couldnt get an S video output ?? Using a Scart to component convertor gives fantastic results on both the zinwell and the ultra. The sky + box has an s output and its good but not as good as the component.

 

[loonatic]

Well the Ultra makes a huge difference to the quality of Sky+ on my screen...in fact without it I would find it diffuclt to watch at all.

I use a JS Tech RGB-YUV converter but the S-video output from the Sky+ is not bad...a bit softer and the colours are as strong.

All scalers are not really designed for home users so you have to understand how they work to get the best out of them.

In m experience the iScan range of de-interlacers/scalers are the the most user friendly with the new HD having an on-screen display. The Lumagens are more involved but in the right hands can result in superior performance.

Myself I am going the SDI route on both my Sky+ and Denon DVD and teaming them up with either the new Crystalio or LumagenPRO HDP.

Cheers, Lee

 

[Joe Fernand]

Hemp3

Just to be clear the iScanUltra is not a scaler its a Deinterlacer - the iScanHD on the other hand is a Deinterlacer and Scaler.

Getting these units to work is a bit of a pain until you get an understanding of what you are trying to achieve and how the hardware attempts to achieve that end result.

There is little or no communication between the Video Processor and your Display so its down to you to know what signals your display is expecting and how to 'program' your Video Processor to achieve that signal.

Alternatively include an on-site installation in your budget or have your dealer pre program a Video Processor to suit your system - that means you have to purchase from a dealer that actually knows how to set the unit up in the first place (not just supply it at £50.00 less than any other dealer).

Best regards

Joe