Zinwell AVT-3700 & Brite-View

G

Greg Powell

Guest
I'm new to this forum, but would like to share my findings about the Zinwell manufactured AVT-3700 & Brite-View Scalers.
I purchased a Seleco SDG 700 L6 (CRT projector) a few months ago knowing I needed a Line doubler or Scaler. After Setting up the Projector I temporarily connected my PC to its RGB input in order to try out a number of scan rates/resolutions. It was soon obvious that a line doubler wouldn't close up the scan lines enough, so I needed a scaler. With little cash available I would either have to wait many months before I could purchase one of the highly regarded £1k Scalers (Lumagen or CS-HD) or I could take a chance and purchase the much cheaper AVT-3700 or Brite-View which seem to get much more mixed reviews. At the time the AVT-3700 was cheaper than the Briteview and both appeared the same so I took a chance and purchased the AVT-3700.
I was impressed by the De-interlacing and scaling but I did observe the loss of detail in peoples faces that other CRT users have mentioned. Since then I had a software PROM change which did improve the detail slightly (Possibly the Chroma Problem?). I was a bit surprised that the unit seemed capable of resolving some very fine detail on one hand and yet could wipe out significant facial features on the other. So I contacted Zinwell (Europe) to find out if they had another software update. I was surprised to find out that the AVT-3700 is primarily intended for the USA (NTSC) market and the BriteView for Europe (PAL). This appears insignificant on the face of it, but it appears that the latest Brite-view incorporates 50Hz and 75Hz modes optimised for PAL. This is supported by the fact that my AVT-3700 supplier said they couldn't supply the PROM which has these modes. Anyway I knew someone happy enough to have the AVT-3700 for their LCD projector So I replaced it with the Brite-View.
While the Unit is very similar (and probably has the same hardware inside), I did manage to compare the two and noticed some significant improvements with the Brite-View (I assume due to the software). Namely:-

1) The Details on peoples faces is significantly better (not perfect, but close). I suspect that one of the internal noise reduction circuits was set too high on the AVT-3700. There is very slightly more picture noise (mainly when viewing LaserDiscs) but I would much rather have this and the finer details.

2) The Brightness Control has a much greater Dynamic Range. I can now take the signal much higher into the white end.

3) I think the Sharpness control goes lower than it used to though this may be due to 1)

4) looking at the NTSC Video Essentials LaserDisc (NTSC), I noticed that the Brite-View showed significantly more of the Snell & Wilcox Test pattern around the edges (probably about 5% more image). I didn't try this on PAL as I haven't a PAL Test card.

5) The 50Hz and 75Hz refresh rates are much better for PAL DVD material. I am running the BriteView at 1024*768 75Hz and there is significantly less Jitter when the camera pans across a scene.

I don't know how the Brite-View compares to the Lumagen or C-HD, but for the money the Brite-View is a great scaler.
 
Hi Greg,

That made interesting reading. I have a briteview connected to a LCD projector. I recently got the PROM upgrade. So I now have 50hz & 75hz. When I use any of the 75hz settings the panning wobbles...you can see it drawing top down. Although my projector (Z1) manual says it can cope with upto 100hz I think maybe the projector must be the problem if it's OK for you.

I connected via vga - component to see if it was any better. 75hz still no good for panning. In 50/60hz I found the contrast etc was reduced but the panning was nice and smooth. NTSC was displayed really well. Either the projector or Briteview just couldn't cope with PAL though...I just couldn't get the picture to fill the screen properly. I'm currently testing all the settings and I'm going to talk to the company I bought the kit from. Hopefully they'll hassle Sanyo and Zinwell and get an answer.

Jus.


Maybe I'm just being a dumb @rse.
 
Jus,
You probably know this, but the 75Hz mode will judder if fed an NTSC (30fps) image.
I use 75Hz for PAL (3x25fps) and 60Hz for NTSC (2x30fps)
I'm not familiar with LCD projectors but it may be that you projector does some kind of internal division of the frame rate when fed 75Hz to get it back into a 50Hz mode, which could produce a strange effect.
If so I'd stick to the new 50Hz mode on the Briteview for PAL and the old 60Hz mode for NTSC.

Hope this helps.
Greg
 
Cheers. No. I tried 75hz with PAL and NTSC. Both judder. A bit disappointing considering the projector is recognising the signal as 75hz and is changing to that rate. I'll discuss with the place I bought it. They've been extremely helpful up til now so I'm sure they'll help me out.

Jus.
 
dear greg,
i do have a brite view scale that does only 60hz for pal and 60 hz for ntsc,
can it be modified by the new software for 50/75 hz pal?.
do u have any contect email for getting the eprom ?.
thanks.
haim.

That made interesting reading. I have a briteview connected to a LCD projector. I recently got the PROM upgrade. So I now have 50hz & 75hz. When I use any of the 75hz settings the panning wobbles...you can see it drawing top down. Although my projector (Z1) manual says it can cope with upto 100hz I think maybe the projector must be the problem if it's OK for you.

I connected via vga - component to see if it was any better. 75hz still no good for panning. In 50/60hz I found the contrast etc was reduced but the panning was nice and smooth. NTSC was displayed really well. Either the projector or Briteview just couldn't cope with PAL though...I just couldn't get the picture to fill the screen properly. I'm currently testing all the settings and I'm going to talk to the company I bought the kit from. Hopefully they'll hassle Sanyo and Zinwell and get an answer.

Jus.


Maybe I'm just being a dumb @rse. [/B][/QUOTE]
 
I've the avt-3700 and with my lcd pj I've found the component out 720p to be much better than the vga out, I also have the other zinwell scaler the prov and I found it was better than the avt-3700 on vga output as I also noticed the blockyness on face detail. The scaler uses bob+weave on different parts of the image at the same time thats probably why people are seeing that some parts of the image look fine and others don't.

If you can I would try component@720p to see if it solves the face detail and panning issues as I'm very impressed with it at 720p.

cheers
john
 
telcom,

I had the upgrade done but I have problems. I'm waiting for Zinwell to reply. I'll let you know...

Jus.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom