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I just thought I'd update everyone. I had originally started a thread as I performed my own comparison between the Runco PFP-7 and a Faroudja NRS running at 720p, displayed on a 96" wide 1.85:1 screen using a Runco IDP-980 projector. The original thread can be found here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...highlight=pfp7
I use my home theater mostly for films - 90% DVDs, 10% films, but I do also watch a bit of TV and concert DVDs.
I had owned the Runco PFP-7 for a few months, and while I was fairly thrilled with it's performance on film-based DVDs, I was bothered by combing during less than stellar produced material such as movie previews, deleted scenes, TV and DVDs of TV shows. The combing would only occur for a fraction of a second, but depending on the material being viewed, it could happen very often and distracted me (although my wife rarely noticed it).
I had heard the Faroudja was superior when it came to the combing situations and that it also had the benefit of DCDi, superior video processing (smoothing out jagged lines etc).
There seemed to be no consensus on which unit was better for film, so I was very curious to see the differences myself. I obtaned a Faroudja NRS and did a lot of a/b comparisons for a few weeks (driving my wife absolutely nuts in the process).
First, let me say that DCDi (on the Faroudja NRS) is very impressive. When watching concert DVDs, no longer did guitar necks/guitar strings show up as jagged lines - they were smooth. De-interlacing was great. I saw absolutely no combing on TV or DVDs. And even though this is extremely subjective, I think I preferred the colors on the NRS - they came across as bolder. I say 'think' because it takes a minute or so to switch between processors and the difference is fairly subtle.
I liked the user interface better on the Runco, but decided I could get used to the Faroudja - in fact, I did.
However, the Runco PFP-7 performed better on film-based DVD material. Keep in mind that I have a fairly large screen (8 ft wide) and a decent projector, but there was a lot more noise in the NRS. Even recent films with great transfers like Training Day, Bandits came across grainy on the NRS - similar to transfers of older films, while the PFP-7's performance on these films were spectacular. This was killing me - I really wanted to like the NRS better as I hate the aforementioned combing distractions, so I tried everything I could think of to tweak the NRS. I had no luck. I tried obtaining the latest firmware upgrade from Faroudja but had no luck there (no surprise considering what I've read here about Faroudja's customer service).
I have come to believe that the NRS scaling/interpolating algorithms are simply not as good as the PFP's. Before anyone is upset by this, let me state that this is only my subjective opinion and that the NRS is a fine processor. I am very picky and do have a large screen. I suspect that if I had compared them on a smaller display, I may have not noticed the difference, but I just couldn't help feeling like I was seeing a clearer picture with the PFP-7. I considered that possiblity that the 'noise' was true film grain and that I was seeing MORE detail than with the PFP-7, but I came to the conclusion that this was not the case.
Another interesting point is that Runco has two lines of processors - the PFP (pixel for pixel) and the VHD Ultra. I know someone who owns a VHD that does NOT display the combing effects that the PFP does, leading me to believe that if I were to spend a LOT more money, I could have the best of both worlds (well, apart from DCDi that is). Unfortunately, this isn't feasible for me. I'm only considering the NRS and the PFP-7 because they're pretty much the same price (at least for me, anyway).
So... I have returned the Faroudja. It was a tradeoff and I had to go with annoying combing distractions that for the most part only plagued TV and 'special features' of DVDs rather than the distraction of some noise 100% of the time. I hate spending money like this and feeling like I made a compromise, but so be it.
Thanks to everyone who helped out and educated me along the way. It was fun and heartbreaking at the same time.
Ian
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...highlight=pfp7
I use my home theater mostly for films - 90% DVDs, 10% films, but I do also watch a bit of TV and concert DVDs.
I had owned the Runco PFP-7 for a few months, and while I was fairly thrilled with it's performance on film-based DVDs, I was bothered by combing during less than stellar produced material such as movie previews, deleted scenes, TV and DVDs of TV shows. The combing would only occur for a fraction of a second, but depending on the material being viewed, it could happen very often and distracted me (although my wife rarely noticed it).
I had heard the Faroudja was superior when it came to the combing situations and that it also had the benefit of DCDi, superior video processing (smoothing out jagged lines etc).
There seemed to be no consensus on which unit was better for film, so I was very curious to see the differences myself. I obtaned a Faroudja NRS and did a lot of a/b comparisons for a few weeks (driving my wife absolutely nuts in the process).
First, let me say that DCDi (on the Faroudja NRS) is very impressive. When watching concert DVDs, no longer did guitar necks/guitar strings show up as jagged lines - they were smooth. De-interlacing was great. I saw absolutely no combing on TV or DVDs. And even though this is extremely subjective, I think I preferred the colors on the NRS - they came across as bolder. I say 'think' because it takes a minute or so to switch between processors and the difference is fairly subtle.
I liked the user interface better on the Runco, but decided I could get used to the Faroudja - in fact, I did.
However, the Runco PFP-7 performed better on film-based DVD material. Keep in mind that I have a fairly large screen (8 ft wide) and a decent projector, but there was a lot more noise in the NRS. Even recent films with great transfers like Training Day, Bandits came across grainy on the NRS - similar to transfers of older films, while the PFP-7's performance on these films were spectacular. This was killing me - I really wanted to like the NRS better as I hate the aforementioned combing distractions, so I tried everything I could think of to tweak the NRS. I had no luck. I tried obtaining the latest firmware upgrade from Faroudja but had no luck there (no surprise considering what I've read here about Faroudja's customer service).
I have come to believe that the NRS scaling/interpolating algorithms are simply not as good as the PFP's. Before anyone is upset by this, let me state that this is only my subjective opinion and that the NRS is a fine processor. I am very picky and do have a large screen. I suspect that if I had compared them on a smaller display, I may have not noticed the difference, but I just couldn't help feeling like I was seeing a clearer picture with the PFP-7. I considered that possiblity that the 'noise' was true film grain and that I was seeing MORE detail than with the PFP-7, but I came to the conclusion that this was not the case.
Another interesting point is that Runco has two lines of processors - the PFP (pixel for pixel) and the VHD Ultra. I know someone who owns a VHD that does NOT display the combing effects that the PFP does, leading me to believe that if I were to spend a LOT more money, I could have the best of both worlds (well, apart from DCDi that is). Unfortunately, this isn't feasible for me. I'm only considering the NRS and the PFP-7 because they're pretty much the same price (at least for me, anyway).
So... I have returned the Faroudja. It was a tradeoff and I had to go with annoying combing distractions that for the most part only plagued TV and 'special features' of DVDs rather than the distraction of some noise 100% of the time. I hate spending money like this and feeling like I made a compromise, but so be it.
Thanks to everyone who helped out and educated me along the way. It was fun and heartbreaking at the same time.
Ian