Hi all,

I've been doing a lot of reading on scalers lately, I must confessed I'm brand new to the Audio/Video world and I'm by far the most confused about scalers. I recently discovered how a TV well calibrated would deliver a much better PQ so I started looking into scalers, not knowing if it's exactly what I needed.

What I want to achieve is to have each one of my sources individually calibrated and also to have more flexibility in my calibration settings, I'm not "so" much interested in other scalers functionality even if I know for sure I will benefit from them, calibration, noise reduction and overall picture improvement is what I'm interested in.

I have a 1080p Samsung LCD TV, Denon DVD-3930, Denon AVR-4306 (Receiver), Xbox 360 with HD-DVD add-on, HTPC and a PS3, so all the signal I feed to the TV are either upconverted or native 1080P, I already use my A/V receiver as a hub, so I don't need a device with a million input, I'm thinking about keeping everything as it is now but instead of having

Sources-->A/V receiver/hub-->TV

To have

Sources-->A/V receiver/hub-->Scaler (?)-->TV

As I said I did a lot of reading and DVDO VP50 or Crystalio II 3300 look really amazing but unfortunately still too expensive for me, I can have a good price on a Vantage HD but I don't feel so excited about this product but I don't know exactly why, maybe I missed the product I'm looking for, What I would need is HDMI (one is enough), 1080P full compatibility, "Advanced" calibration with at least 5 different profiles I could assign to any sources and that's about it, is there a device doing this or do I have to spend +3000$ for a "high-end" scaler that includes those features in it's package.

Also if you are selling a product that may fit my needs feel free to PM me :)

Thx a lot

You need to do all sources, independantly, to the video processor. This is the best/only way the processor can then have independant overscan/underscan, aspect ratio management, gamma, grayscale, colour, etc for each source (and then within that might have different day/night settings, different HD/SD colourspaces, different deinterlacing settings for different sources). With everything switched in the AMP, the processor cannot distinguish between different sources and therefore cannot be told to say underscan the HD input a bit, but brighten up the Nintendo, adjust for y/c error on the DVD but not the HD-DVD etc etc etc.

You also need the signals when they reach the processor to be as close to the original as possible, not already deinterlaced and upscaled by the DVD or AV Amp. So DVD wants 576i/480i out, Xbox 1080i, PS3 1080p, HDTV 1080i, SDTV 480i etc

VP50 would be a quick and easy option for you. It isn't an unpleasant image at all and relatively easy to get on with doing very well from all types of sources. A Lumagen is IMO class leading scaling, most robust film deinterlacing (SD and HD), and will give you (or your calibrator) the toolset and memory profiles needed to calibrate to perfection. The only drawback is it doesn't filter out jaggies on video mode material. For me, that's hardly something worth crying about given how cheap it is and the fact that DVD and HD-DVD still look better on this than on (more expensive) C-II or VP50 IMO.

you mean you can't have different profiles and switch from one to another, like i use profil 1 for my PS3 and if want to watch a DVD i Switch to profil 2, I tought any scaler would have this basic feature included.

Lumagen !!!!!

Also use the lumagen as the hub, av recievers dont have as good switchers.

you got a link and SKU for the Lumagen? thx

http://www.lumagen.com/

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=771020

the one you linked accepts only 720p input + really need HDMI, I already have too many cables so one more per source for audio is not an option, thx tho

Dvi is hdmi, you can get an adapter or an hdmi to dvi cable. That is how i have it set up. and the lumagen is great for movie sources and HDTV. Also it has 11 points of callibration for grey scale. Craig rounds fro CIR engeneering uses them exclusivly and did a great Job calibrating my set with it. Also it has all the memories for each source that your looking for. do some more research on this forum from others who use the lumagens . most agree there the best value out there.