I need some input on possibly making a processor change to my present system. Most of my system and my expertise are about 5 years dated now, and I don't want to spend months catching up. Here are the relevent aspects of what I have:

NEC XG135 CRT projector on 100” diagonal screen
Pioneer Elite 1010HD plasma for daytime and casual viewing
Faroudja NRS at 720p (composite, svideo, component interlaced, and pass through inputs, RGBHV outputs to both displays)
Cox SA Explorer 8300 (svideo for SD channels, component to NRS pass through for HD only, but can be configured to use component for everything)
Sony DVPS7700 DVD (component interlaced)
C-band 4DTV and HDD200 system that is presently not used
Many other sources such as LD, SVHS, Hi-8mm et.c that are rarely used
I may want to add an OTA DTV tuner at some time in the future

I reluctantly made the switch from 35mm to digital recently and now want to insert a PC for “slide shows” into this system, so the NRS lack of inputs has finally become a major issue. I quit using the C-band once HD cable came along due to the lack of NRS inputs and the simplicity of using cable, although I miss the HQ feeds on non-HD channels.

I am also going to run head-on into a transcoding conflict, as the PC is RGBVH and the HD component source(s) are not and need to be transcoded. The NRS provides transcoding for the pass-through, but it is very limited and will not adapt to changing switcher feeds into it.

I have no interest in using DVI or HDMI at this point. My CRT doesn’t benefit, and I don’t see any improvement on the plasma, it may even be a bit lower quality. Plus, I hate the protection issues it invokes. Am I missing something here?

So now I am faced with adding an outboard switcher and transcoder, or instead moving to a more featured scaler. I have been pleased with the PQ and glitch-free ease of use of the system I have now, and feel no need to be at the cutting edge of technology at every moment, where lots of hassle and discontent seem to lurk. But, I need to do something to deal with my changing sources.

I could move to a newer (used) Faroudja scaler such as the NRS-DVI (accepts HD on component inputs unlike NRS), the NRS-DCS (which accepts HD on the component input and upgrades my DVD source too), or the DVP-1000 (which adds component HD scaling). Or, are these way outdated now? If so, where would I see the differences in my setup? If so, what are some of the alternative recommendations to look into?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

The VantageHD transcodes component to RGBHV and uses HQV deinterlacing and scaling for SD and HD sources. However, it has one RGBHV and one HDMI output.