TV signal on Plasma -> VCR or ext TV tuner?

C

Coda

Guest
Dear all,

I found that watching regular TV boardcast on Plasma isn't really acceptable. I would think that if a computer use external TV tuner box with D15 RGB output will beat that stupid VCR output? Or can you suggest me an option to get good TV signal for Plasma? I am using a NEC 50MP1.

Thanks in advance!

Coda
 
OK, are you talking terrestrial TV boradcast or Digital?

If Digital go and get a RGB to VGA box from John Sim at WWW.RGBTOSVIDEO.CO.UK Set your set top box to RGB out and then scart to the wee convertor and HD15 TO HD15 lead to the NEC PC input. This will give you the best picture without resorting to an external video processor. (I have not tested this but the cost is negligable compred to the equipment you have so give it a go)

If it's terrestrial then the signal being broadcast is composite in the first place. No experience of your plasma but I'd guess they didn't spend much money on the circuit to deal with composite video signals in it..... First off try and find a decent s/h Arcam Delta150 NICAM TV tuner (best sound and picture from an external tv tuner I've seen). Then you may want to consider trying an off board video processor. An Iscan might be a cheap first step. Alternatively try and find a scaler with an output resolution that matches the pixels array of your plasma perfectly. Feed all sources through it and you should get benefits on every source you send to the plasma, not just normal TV.

Gordon
 
Hi Gordon!

Thanks for your advice and helpful information! Can I ask you some more questions? =D

Yes I was talking about terrestrial TV boradcast, I was wondering if the output of an external TV tuner for computer is progressive or still interlace since it is for computer.

For your message, did you mean that the iScan will do a better job in i/P conversion than an internal converter in Plasma (NEC)??

Thanks in advance and sorry for my stupidity.

Coda
 
Originally posted by Gordon, Convergent-AV

If it's terrestrial then the signal being broadcast is composite in the first place. No experience of your plasma but I'd guess they didn't spend much money on the circuit to deal with composite video signals in it..... First off try and find a decent s/h Arcam Delta150 NICAM TV tuner (best sound and picture from an external tv tuner I've seen).

Gordon got me one of these and they really produce the best signal / sound I have come across. A genius product probably 10 years before it's time. I just wish someone like Tag / Arcam would address the Digital broadcast nowdays, they would get another subscriber.
 
Coda: You're not being stupid at all.

Yes, I'm saying the deinterlacing from an Iscan is likely to be better than that inside your plasma. There's more to it than that though. Terrestrial TV is composite in format when broadcast. That means a limited bandwidth colour signal is carried along with the black and white info. The video processing in your Plasma, or Iscan or whatever must deal with this signal to turn it in to RGB at some point for display purposes. In a plasma it also has to become a progressive signal at some point too. You are seeing the inadequacies of the colour video decoding and the de-interlacing.

A PC based solution will output a progressive signal but whether it will be better than feeding a decent VCR's feed or that from an Arcam D150 tuner to an Iscan is unknown. You'd have to try it.

I'd either go with an HTPC solution for DVD and scaling of all sources or look at an external video processor like those regularily mentioned here.

Nic was lucky. Those things are very very hard to find.....

Gordon
 
Originally posted by Gordon, Convergent-AV
Nic was lucky. Those things are very very hard to find.....

:D
 

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