Need some feedback and/or comments on an outboard video scaler...

Anyone here know of or as seen in action Algolith's Dragonfly outboard video scaler?

Would this be a great add on to my system to be used with my Epson 1080UB?

How would the two units work together? I mean the Epson already as a 1080P native resolution so how do I get a better processor to feed the Epson? Would it bypass Epson's internal processor?

My plan would be to connect my PS2, regular DVD and Satellite receiver to it and have the scaler upconvert all sources to 1080P and output it through HDMI to the Epson.

The PS3 would be on its own outputting 1080P via HDMI to the Epson.

The Dragonfly is built with Silicon Optix's Realta HQV chip set and from what I have read is a great chip.

Are there any other outboard scalers that use the same chip set that are equally as good but perhaps cheaper to buy?

TIA

Yes wait for gefen tv pro, people will make negative remarks but gefen is always good and its the same chip, mrsp is 699, but its already advertised cheaper, its going to shake up the processor section, but alot of people will bite on it. Its going to steal alot of the market for average home theater users, I just sold my xa2 for 420 dollars because of the reon. Silicon optix already built a name for themselves for average user.

Yes wait for gefen tv pro, people will make negative remarks but gefen is always good and its the same chip, mrsp is 699, but its already advertised cheaper, its going to shake up the processor section, but alot of people will bite on it. Its going to steal alot of the market for average home theater users, I just sold my xa2 for 420 dollars because of the reon. Silicon optix already built a name for themselves for average user.


Yes I read about the Gefen unit and it sounds interesting. Do you really think the Gefen at its price point will compare performance wise with the Dragonfly at $2995? I mean they can have the same chip but I'm sure the algorithm and how the software is written as a lot to do with the performance you get out of them.

But I just want to understand a few things before I take a plunge into buying an outboard scaler.

I have no clue what's in the Epson 1080UB for an onboard scaler. Will an outboard scaler like the Dragonfly make my viewing any source better?

Is the outboard scaler's job just to be used for less than 1080P sources? What I mean is, will the outboard scaler be much better than the Epson's onboard scaler at taking 480i or 480P from a DVD or PS2 source and a satellite receiver's 720P or 1080i signal and bringing it up to 1080P?

I know the Epson 1080UB is new to the market but is the use of an outboard scaler a plug a play solution? Does it automatically bypass the Epson's onboard scaler?

I know lots of questions but I may have a deal on a Dragonfly over the weekend and I need to know and I'm really new to this stuff.

The Dragonfly is $3000 ($4000 if you need noise reduction and SDI), there are WAY cheaper options that should be just as good from more reputable sources like DVDO and Lumagen. (not to mention Gefen).

As to whether it will make your picture any better. With 1080p sources like Blu-ray and HD-DVD, there should be no change, 720 and 1080i you might see some improvement as the Epson uses the Pixelworks chip I hear for scaling/deinterlacing and its pretty decent but weaker on 480i upconversion, which is where you'll see the biggest difference. Question is, how much 480i material do you watch? I haven't watched any in ages, just my opinion.

As a former user of Algolith product I do not recommend jumping into Algolith bandwagon. It seems that home theater product are not developed any more (no new products for some time). And the main reason is horrible customer support

As a former user of Algolith product I do not recommend jumping into Algolith bandwagon. It seems that home theater product are not developed any more (no new products for some time). And the main reason is horrible customer support


I don't like the sound of that! It would be a shame if this is true on both fronts.

I'm 15 minutes away from them and I think a visit to their office is warranted.

Can you tell me which unit from them you had/used? Were you not happy from a performance stand point?

Thanks.

I was using Algolith Flea HDMI digital noise red. The performance of that unit was very good. In fact it was not so obvious during daily use, but when I sold the unit the lack of the noise reduction was very distracting. I decided to sell that unit not because of it performance, but because of simplifying video chain and replacing Flea with video processor with NR on board.

I was not happy with customer support – so many e-mails without any answer. I do not know – maybe I wasn’t lucky and my e-mails dropped into spam filter :-) I was also asking few times for offer on remote control unit for my Flea. No answer.

If you considering Dragonfly you must to know that the onboard NR function is not as powerful as Mosquito or Flea. Also Dragonfly uses strange way to support SDI inputs. It uses SDI/HDMI converter (I own one). This converter support only RGB signals and do not pass BTB and WTW signals.

I think that now there are few more recent processors on the market with better price.

On Monday I went to Algolith's offices, they are about 15 minutes away from my home.

It was surprising how honest they were about everything. They suggested to me not to buy their Dragonfly for several reasons and that was before I told them that perhaps in the future I might want to do a CIH set up.

In any case I was also looking at getting the "Flea" but I decided that perhaps soon I might just get the "Mosquito" for NR and to use it as a video switcher.

Time will tell if I get it.