crystalio II user report - Page 3

a couple of questions;

1) i like the punchy DLP picture but also the film like look of the Ruby and Pearl along with their better black levels and color satuation. from an overall PQ perspective, would a Crystalio II with a Ruby or Pearl get me best of both designs better than a Marantz 11S1? the approx cost will be in the same ballpark for either the Pearl/Ruby--Crystalio II.....or......the Marantz VP-11S1 (i have a Marantz S3 now and don't see rainbows).

will the combo give me most of the 'sharp picture' of the DLP with the benefits of the SXRD? will the combo improve the supposed 'dullness' of either Sony?

my room is painted a dark brown and the projector would be mounted approx 12' from the (110"--120" diag HP) screen with very good to almost total light control.

2) i'm interested in the 2:35-1 Constant Height Image direction. will the Crystalio II give me any advantages to impliment that direction when used with a Ruby or Pearl? i don't understand the requirements of this issue to figure it out for myself.

sorry if these questions are a bit OT but i could not find an appropriate place to ask them.

Startup time for my 3300 is ~15 seconds with the latest firmware.

Mike,
No processor will give you the advantages of each projection technology and put it all in the one of your choice. A Ruby will never be as sharp as the Marantz.

Art

At without any rainbows!

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on one of these.

Mike Lavigne go me interested

The 2.35 constant height forum is a good resource ...but I too am looking for user reports on this scaler and constant height users.

all

Not rich like you guys who all own Ruby's and not planning to jump into 1080p this year, anyone see value of upgrading to Crystalio II for me ? I already have a Crystalio I which has been doing fine for me. But Faroudja hazedness on high def is starting to get to me a bit ... hope to hear from someone using just a 720p lcd projector

thanks !

When will they fix it though and provide proper 1080p24sf output????

Actually, I don't think that's true.
Sure they will do a good job of upscaling to 720, but converting 1080i to 720p is a different kettle of fish. I run a CRT projector at 720 and 768p and find Crystalio II to be a fine improvement over C1 in all regards. Here in the UK, our major sources of broadcast HD are all 1080i so I think this is an important factor.
Having said that - I realise that CII is a lot of money. In the end I wasn't ready to jump to 1080 displays yet, not because of funds but because I want to see the 2nd generation machines - CII has given me a nice improvement in the meantime.

I absolutely agree with the value statement - my intention wasn't to try and pursuade someone to pay for a VP ahead of getting a good display.

However, I did want to point out that 1080i to 720p is HD deinterlacing whichever way you look at it - and it's just as important that it's done correctly as 1080i-p
i.e. you are going to see distracting artifacts if it's done poorly.

But as you say - the balancing of money throughout the system is definitely important.

FWIW, until this past saturday, my CII was driving a 720p projector (though with 768 lines native) and an older 720p LCD panel (also with 768 lines).

The CII did wonders for all sources, SD and HD alike, when scaling for these two output devices.

I now have a 52" 1080p LCD panel at the front of the room. I think the performance gains the CII brings are about equal in both cases - I have a larger LCD now than previously, but it's smaller than the projectors image. At the same viewing distance, I still prefer the 720p projected image over the LCD - at 10 to 15 feet, you'd be hard pushed to say the projector had fewer pixels (though once I have enough pennies, I will be aiming for a 1080p projector, of course).

(FWIW, the room is not light controlled, ergo the LCD is the daytime viewing device).

Chris,

Tryg,

please let me know when you get this figured out as it looks like the way to go for me. i rarely watch any 4:3 or SD programing in my HT anyway and might as well get all the lines of resolution i deserve.

i see a Pearl, Crystalio II, high power screen, and 2:35-1 lens in my very near future.

thanks to all for the feedback to my questions; the Crystalio II with a Pearl looks like the way to go for me. this will allow me to justify upgrading the Pearl next year when the 'Diamond' or other next gen DLP 3-chip 1080p machines are out......as the Pearl should not depreciate much in total dollars.

and i want very good 1080p right now.

if i go the Marantz VP-11S1 route the penalty of upgrading will be prohibitive. i don't see any of the current reasonably priced (under $20k) FP to be my long-term solution. my expectation is that a year from now there will be many fewer compromises in under $20k FP's.

also, the Crystalio II will allow me to avoid upgrading my Lexicon MC-12 to HDMI switching (or another like processor that would do that)......which alone almost pays for it.

I bought the Lumagen for my Ruby and think I probably should have have got the Crystalio II instead. Hopefully AVS will let me exchange it.

The only thing that gives me pause is this thread over on the pixelmagic support forums:

HDMI <-> HDMI audio drop outs

The vp50 has similarly reported audio issues as well. People speak highly of the Crystalio II here, but how many are using it for HDMI audio switching?

HDMI appears to be a mess for EVERYONE. I think it speaks well of PMS that when they couldn't reproduce the bug, they inserted code into the firmware to gather more information on what is happening in an effort to understand the problem and fix it. I don't know of any cases where DVDO or Calibre did something similar to gather more information to make a serious effort to fix a user problem!

All,
I own a VP50. I'm feeding the VP50 with sat signals via a Humax box. The box has 3 res. 1080i, 720p, 576p (all via HDMI or COMP) if I'm using the lowest for non HDTV channels so 576p for 576i signals the signal to my 1080p pio (5000EX) is not so good. This is because the VP50 can not (yet) do a prep from the p signals.

If I switch to 1080i the signal becames better. Although not to bad I hardly notice any difference with or without the VP50.

DVD PQ is OK but again without the VP50 not much (hardley no) difference. Same for gameplay via PS and XBOX. Res out from VP50 always on 1080P BTW (screen set to Dot by Dot) everything connected via HDMI or COMP.

Could the CII do a better job for the signals ?
Perhaps i can switch from the VP50 to the CII.
Hope for some helpfull comments on this.

What would a CII do for me? Pany 50"8uk plasma, DirecTv H10-250.

I went to the Crystalio II forum and there seems to be a lot of operational issues with this product (hanging up, not switching consistantly between input, having to re-boot, etc). Are these just a few customers having problems or is this product not quite ready for prime time?

Ok thanks for your response. So the CII also does (re)processing of p-resolutions?

It doesn't have that DVDO feature if that's what you mean - i.e. the ability to pull apart a badly deinterlaced image.
But it can accept properly progressive inputs (e.g. 1080p, 1080sf24, etc) over the HDMI inputs.
It can also accept progressive PC inputs over DVI-HDMI too - which is useful.
This is something that the last generation of VPs couldn't do.