I'm currently using my VMC for OTA SD as well as DVD, Blu-ray/HD-DVD HD and soon to be OTA HD satellite.
My current display (plasma) is HD ready (not full HD) and I run my desktop at 1080i, while the VMC frontend runs at 720P. Generally, even with lower bitrates, SD/DVD look great at 720P, and at 1080i, HD material (to my eyes) looks very good.
I'm planning to upgrade my display to a 50" full HD plasma, and am worried about the SD quality at this res when output from VMC. My GPU is an ATI2600XT, which I think is a damn fine card. At 720P, the pic is very good, so I assume the AVIVO system is upscaling the output to fit the display. At 1080P though, how good will this card be at upscaling for this size screen? I also have the option of switching to an ATI3650, and wondered if this would be better than the 2600 at upscaling? I understand that 1:1 pixel mapping for HD output should be perfect on both cards at 1080P, but it's the upscaling of SD output for the big display that concerns me.
I've heard that the ATI4xxx series have excellent scaling support, and have been thinking about the 4650 (when it's available), but I don't want to buy one if I don't need to.
My current display (plasma) is HD ready (not full HD) and I run my desktop at 1080i, while the VMC frontend runs at 720P. Generally, even with lower bitrates, SD/DVD look great at 720P, and at 1080i, HD material (to my eyes) looks very good.
I'm planning to upgrade my display to a 50" full HD plasma, and am worried about the SD quality at this res when output from VMC. My GPU is an ATI2600XT, which I think is a damn fine card. At 720P, the pic is very good, so I assume the AVIVO system is upscaling the output to fit the display. At 1080P though, how good will this card be at upscaling for this size screen? I also have the option of switching to an ATI3650, and wondered if this would be better than the 2600 at upscaling? I understand that 1:1 pixel mapping for HD output should be perfect on both cards at 1080P, but it's the upscaling of SD output for the big display that concerns me.
I've heard that the ATI4xxx series have excellent scaling support, and have been thinking about the 4650 (when it's available), but I don't want to buy one if I don't need to.