I currently have a 1080i Hitachi CRT RPTV and am looking for an image processor/scaler to get the best image out of it. After seing the difference a Faroudja chip in a dvd player makes, I am curious to know what full on processor will work best for me. Anyone have any experience with processors into 1080i native?

I currently have a 1080i Hitachi CRT RPTV and am looking for an image processor/scaler to get the best image out of it. After seing the difference a Faroudja chip in a dvd player makes, I am curious to know what full on processor will work best for me. Anyone have any experience with processors into 1080i native?

Depends on what you what, but I wouldn't waste the money. For me, a $200 oppo looks great.

While the Hitachi and other 1080i CRT RPTVs, including my year-2000 model, are designed to accept 1080i YPbPr outputs from HD-disc players, perhaps most of the full-feature processors could scale 1080/24p outputs from Blu-ray players (HD DVDs, when possible), providing progressive 24p HD disc display. CRTs require a multiple rate, like 48 Hz, to avoid flicker. Depends on the frequencies (sweep rates) each CRT RPTV can handle--perhaps, as a guesstimate, something like 1440X800p or only 1200X800p, which may still exceed the effective resolution (http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5667245&&#post5667245) (resolvable detail) on HD discs even though they're 1920X1080/24p formatted. The folks in the FP CRT forum have tinkered with various settings to find 'sweet spots' for their projectors, which generally are more 'robust' at handling higher sweep rates than CRT RPTVs. Well-processed progressive images from DVDs, or other sources, should have a smoother appearance than interlaced 1080i or 480i (usually 480i is deinterlaced and scaled), perhaps eliminating the judder from displaying 24p with 2-3 pulldown at various rates. Those in the HTPC forum have similarly experimented with various display rates. -- John