I recently purchased a VP30 with the optional AB102 card to help clean up my SD cable and potentially improve my DVD viewing. I have been playing with it for a few days and have to admit, I can't see much of a difference. Before I throw in the towel and send it back, I wanted to see if anyone on this forum had some suggestions.

Here is my scenario: I own a 46 inch Samsung LN-T4665F LCD television with a native resolution of 1080p. One of the things that was noted in the review of this TV was that its ability to scale SD was not as good as other televisions. I also own a Vista Media Center PC running an NVidia 8600 GT video card that is connected to my TV using a DVI to HDMI cable. My cable box is a Scientific Atlanta HDTV Cable box connected via HDMI to my TV. The final player is an older Sony DVD player that is capable of outputting via 480i and 480p (switch selectable on the back) over Component Video.

Now, the AB102 processor card in the VP30 can only work its magic when fed a 480i signal. I can generate one of those from my DVD player, but sitting in front of the TV and watching a DVD, I switched back and forth from 480i to 480p and did not see any real difference between the signal that was sent out at 480p from the DVD (and not processed) versus 480i (that was processed). What I did not test was a comparing a signal going directly from the DVD to the TV versus one that went through the VP30. Not sure if this is where I would have seen the difference.

Second test scenario was cable box through the processor, but here I ran into an interesting problem. No matter what I did to the box, it output every station in 1080i which meant that the VP30 simply passed it through. The only way to get a 480i signal out was to use the SVideo connection and that would screw up the HD stuff, so that is not a workable option.

Final test was from the media center PC. The only way I could get it to send a 480i signal was in a 4:3 format (which looked lousy). Furthermore, when I compared the image quality of the 480i going through the processor with a straight 1080p generated directly by the media center, I could see no difference either. Since almost all of the SD cable that I watch comes through the Media Center PC (since I watch pretty much everything time shifted), I am coming to the conclusion that the Video card in my computer does a fairly good job of scaling the SD signal - about as good as I am going to get out of SD cable).

In all cases, the output on my VP30 was set for 1080p.

In summary, I can't really see anything here to justify the $2,500 for this setup, but I am looking for any suggestions. Did I miss something? Is my setup atypical for the problems that the VP30 is designed to solve? I know that the VP50 would do processing on the HD signal as well, but if I can't see any real difference on the SD signals, not sure why I would pay even more to get HD processing that I also probably won't see.

Thanks

Even though you're sending out 1080p, I think perhaps you should have a look at the built-in test patterns in the VP30 to check for 1:1 pixel mapping.

If you're getting an interlaced signal from the source, and get a 1:1 pixel mapped output to your TV, and the ABT102 card seems to be functioning (if not, there are some options that won't be available) - - then you should be seeing the VP30/ABT102 at their best.

If you do, and you really don't see a difference, perhaps a video processor isn't for you. And by that I don't mean that there's anything wrong with you, but actually - sometimes in some setups the difference won't be HUGE, it will be more like if you've "cleaned the windows" and get some more detail etc. It probably won't ever be mind blowing.

I've seen a "mind blowing" difference only once, and that was with my first plasma, which was a 852x480 model. Huge difference with and without a processor. Not such a big improvement on the set I have now (50" Sony rear proj.).

But still - when you've gotten used to it and have lived with it for a while, then you'll probably miss the extra clarity and detail and lack of aliased lines in sports games etc. when you get rid of it.

But it has to be set up correctly first. I would also recommend calibrating the display using DVE or some such.

Well, first, as you already know, you will have to find a way of getting 480i from your cable box to the VP30. If you can't do that, obviously the Abt isn't going to do you much good. Luckily, I've used a Moto cable box that had NATIVE as an output option. I'm currently using an LG4200, which has that same option. Does your SA box have component out?

Secondly, what John said. If you aren't bypassing the internal scaler/processor on your panel, you aren't going to see much of an improvement - any good that is done by the DVDO will be masked (undone?) by the Sammy's internals.

Lastly, size matters. I can't bypass the internals on my 32" lcd - so I really can't see any difference in that application. But put it thru my crt projector, throw it onto a 10' screen, and even the wife can see vast improvements.

Sorry - but without a new cable box and/or setting, doubt if the VP is going to help you much.

If you dont pixel map 1:1 IE set VP30/abt102 to out put native res of LCD tv you are not
bypassing the LCD's internal scaling so you wont see any differance when running the VP30.The idea is to bypass the TV's internal scaling = 1:1 pixel mapping. Some times the LCD's native res is not exactily the specified res Some displays will not allow for 1:1 pixel mapping.
Hope this helps.

I concur with the others. If you can't (a) get 1:1 pixel mapping working (aka "native rate") and (b) get your cable box to output 480i for SD channels, you certainly won't be getting the most out of the VP30 and might want to consider returning it.

My Panny Plasma 852x480 pixels was fed 1:1 through VGA from the VP30+ABT102D and I thought the image was excellent.
Tried 720p through dvi but I couldn't see much difference.
Now I have a Panny full HD (1080p) and the pic really improved a lot, even though the inputs are still SD 576i.
Tried my Panny DVD recorder through hdmi directly to the plasma, and the pic was noticeably less crisp and sharp than routed through the scaler.

Somthing I forgot to mention for 1:1 pixel mapping to work correctly is that you not only have to have the native resolution set right for the fixed panel display but also the timing IE:KH/HZ may be slightly different than the available default timings in the VP30's display res/timing menu particulary the KHZ,if the timing is not selected correctly(native) for the display the out come may be that the internal scaler of the fixed panel display will still be included in the processing of the signal which is undesirable.Thus more processing in the chain = softer picture.Some times it can be easy to acheve 1:1 pixel mapping for a said display but it can be time consuming to achieve on other display's and some fixed panel displays will not alow you to achieve 1:1 pixel mapping at all.