What is the better path, having the HD DVD player set to 1080p or setting it to 1080i and allowing the RS1 do the de-interlacing? Until Friday night I thought the XA2 did native 1080p but I guess that is not correct.

Don,

There is supposedly a firmware update coming from Toshiba to provide 1080p24 output...for now you can only get 1080p60 out or 1080i...as you found out.

Actually I find your question somewhat amusing...and not unlike many I come across here.

You have the means to make that decision for yourself...your eyes and equipment that can be easily switched from one mode to the other. Have a friend switch modes (so you don't know what mode you're watching) and view a variety of material, see if you can see any difference.

We'll be eagerly awaiting your report...

Cheers

If you do this test, don't forget to try it with both video and film sources. With film sources I wouldn't expect much of a difference in PQ as it's a pretty simple weave operation to get 1080p60 from 1080i60. For video sources however the job is a lot more challenging and chipsets that perform per-pixel motion adaptive deinterlacing do the best job. Both Gennum and HQV chipsets have this capability and I assume that the implementation in both the RS-1 (Gennum) and the XA-2 (HQV) also have this capability. If both perform per-pixel MAD then PQ differences will come down to more subtle things such as how fast each processor performs cadence lock and how quickly they can adjust to bad edits, etc.

Fwiw, I did the same 1080i60, 1080p60 comparison but between my XA-2 and VP50. I couldn't see much if any difference in PQ between the two. The VP50 has the added advantage of extracting 1080p24 from 1080i60 so that's what I've been using for film sources.

I agree with Tom and Mark, try both and see. I wouldn't expect there to be much difference. What you really want is that 1080p/24 ability!

Well my verdict is in for now so close I could not tell. I know what true 24 fps look like though because Ken W. showed me at Cliffs place using the VP50. I heard about the update to the XA2 as well lets hope it comes to light. Mostly I just want to make sure the signal is not being double processed.

I'm no videophile I do know what I like, at this time I can not tell the difference. The intent was more along the lines of which is the best practice, as I don't want to add extra steps to the signal if they are not needed. It's really more of my lack of knowledge, this is why I'm not feeding HDMI to my Pioneer Elite 84TXsi I don't want to deal with even more signal stuff.

Well, it is a good question. I love my XA2, the reon noise filters and detail enhancement make SD disks at least watchable and often amazing looking for SD. It is difficult to find out any real technical information on the internals of the XA2 video stream. I have the service manual, but it is geared towards practical troubleshooting for repair, rather than theory of operation. It has been reported that the decoder is outputting 1080i60 and if you choose 1080p for an output - the reon chip is doing the de-interlacing. It is a valid question - who has better de-interlacing the reon or gennum? It is likely not that simple - from various tests it appears that each chip has its strengths and weaknesses. Naturally the reon passes the HQV test suite with flying colors (duh), but I would be shocked if it didn't. As to the promised 24p output - some think that having 24p output from the XA2 is nirvana, but I suspect it is something less than that. There would appear to be two ways to get 24p - 1) 24p output directly from the decoder (that would appear to be ideal), or 2) the reon chip does IVTC of the i60 stream from the decoder. I lean towards 2) being what happens - just because that is the type of hack that we typically see from electronics manufacturers. You ask for something, they eventually "deliver" and what they delivered meets the letter of the request, but the way it was done is less than ideal. Perhaps I'm just being cynical about that and it is a non-issue. There are other problems with 24p output - all the overlay menus and PIP stuff has to be re-done to work at 24p. Receivers that pass 1080i60 and 1080p60 often choke on 1080p24. This is not to say that 24p is not a worthy output frame rate - I run a IVTC'ed 48P output from my Lumagen HDQ and love the lack of judder. Some claim that judder is not a big deal, but that is like saying the accurate primaries are not a big deal or that X is not a big deal (whatever X is). It is all the little things combined that make the big picture, and once you see judderless film - you want it.

Don, I asked the same question about my XE1 (= European XA2) and HD1 (=RS1) a couple of weeks ago but didn't receive an answer.

What I discovered is that with 1080i I have to introduce an audio delay of 80-110ms, where as with 1080p I seldom need to bother. With some titles (Matrix 1/2/3 and HP:GOF) using 1080p I need a video delay to get everything in sync, so I use 1080i to get it right.

What I discovered is that with 1080i I have to introduce an audio delay of 80-110ms, where as with 1080p I seldom need to bother. With some titles (Matrix 1/2/3 and HP:GOF) using 1080p I need a video delay to get everything in sync, so I use 1080i to get it right.

Yup, this sounds about right. The newer deinterlacing chipsets from Gennum, HQV and DVDO create a large audio delay because they buffer and process a lot of video frames (I don't remember the exact number). When this is done in the XA-2 or an external VP (assuming the audio is routed through the VP) the audio is designed to be delayed by a corresponding amount so that lipsync is preserved. This happens when you run the XA-2/XE-2 in 1080p and let it do all of the deinterlacing. When you do the 1080p deinterlacing in the RS-1 though the audio isn't routed through the internal Gennum so there isn't a way to automatically perform lipsync and the owner must do it manually with their audio pre/pro.

I just tested the differences between the Gennum in the JVC and the HQV in the player with the HQV test disc.

With the player outputting 1080i the panning test screen showed strobing.

No strobing when outputting 1080p from the HD DVD player. The overal test image looks also sharper and a bit more stable.

There is also a color shift visible for both 1080i/p when the screen pans in one direction one of the grey boxes shifts to magenta and to cyan of the screen pans in the other direction.

I could not see other differences with the various other test screens.