[veinboy]

Anyone have any actual experience using a DILA with the relatively new Faroudja NR Plus? ... (which is more expensive than the standard NR.) It is made for DILAs and because of the higher pixel count and refresh rate, it is more expensive than the standard NR and runs $4995 MSRP.


Anyone have an idea how the Faroudja NR Plus might compare to an HTPC purely in terms of picture quality? The Faroudja NR Plus would be much easier for me to use, with my computer ignorance. Is it worth the extra expense?


This will also determine which control system that I buy soon. I could use something like Crestron with minimal tweaking involved (but even more added expense) to control the Faroudja NR Plus as opposed to a much more complicated system like a Pronto/Girder/IR Man, a popular method of controlling an HTPC- based system on this forum.

 

[Morbius]

veinboy,


AVS Forum also has reviews of Home Theater equipment including the Faroudja Native Rate Processor.


You can find the AVS Review of the Faroudja NR at:

http://www.avscience.com/native_rate_scan.htm


The report states that the NR rolls off the signal at high frequencies - a problem ackowledged by Faroudja.

Additionally, the NR has severe ringing and suffers from the "moth eaten effect" See:

http://www.avscience.com/overview.htm


for examples of "ringing" and "moth eaten effect"


From the review, it looks like you might want to consider the TAW Rock, if you want a "turn-key" video processor.


Greg

 

[alexan07]

I'm considering the exact same combination. Any idea if Faroudja as fixed the problems mentioned in the review?

 

[Tom Strade]

I never officially updated the review of the NR DILA but can tell you that the ringing is still there and the Y/C delay is slightly improved. The moth eaten effect is gone with the use of the DVD Animation mode they added, however, when it is enabled the Y/C delay becomes more severe.


Having said all of that, there is no perfect scaler and Faroudja did make several improvements. Frankly, I've lost track of their progress though. Perhaps you should post this in the Video Processor forum and ask EricB or Nicholas to answer.

 

[ham]

For what it's worth, I have had a Rock+ now for several months. It is a perfect match for the DILA. Additionally, I have an ISCO lens, and the Rock allows for full control of the picture to make the ISCO/DILA combo work great.


The range of adjustments of picture location on the screen, input and output aspect ratios etc really makes it wonderful to use. For the same price as the NR, I believe you get tremendous functionality.


BTW, it's a great scaler, too!

 

[veinboy]

From the AVS forum report, the Faroudja doesn't scale HDTV and can't do SDI (and I believe the Rock can do both now or is at least planning to do SDI soon). Rock's on screen menus are reportedly much faster. The choice is getting easier!


I'll try posting on the Video Processor forum to see if there have been any improvements with the Faroudja NR plus since the AVS forum report.

 

[alexan07]

What is SDI?

 

[Patrick Bennett]

A co-worker of mine purchased a Faroudja NR (DILA model) for his G-15. I ended up coming over to help him set everything up. I had expected to be reasonably impressed, but I was extremely disappointed.


I already had a Rock (wasn't turned into a Rock+ yet) and was comfortable with it and how it worked. If I had to rate the configurability, speed (of menus, options, etc.), and user-friendliness of the NR and Rock, I'd give the NR a 2 and the Rock a 9.


When the NR is in anamorphic mode (it only has 3 by the way, anamorphic/letterbox/4:3 - the rock is infinitely adjustable) it even CROPS ITS' OWN ON-SCREEN MENUS !! After a few hours of messing with it, I finally just told him to return it and buy a Rock.


The Faroudja still gets the edge in video processing (although I think the Rock+ narrowed that margin a bit), but for film I'd say the Rock is equal or better. If you count the configurability and expandability (I've added dozens of features with the 3 or 4 firmware updates I've installed from TAW - Faroudja users can't even get their calls returned) then the Rock blows it away.


Just my $.02.