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HDTV and SVGA projector - Ideal settings?

432 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by tkx1, Mar 22, 2004

srauly

Discussion Starter · Jan 23, 2004

I posted this topic in the HDTV thread several days back but didn't get much involvement and was advised that this forum may be a better place for it. I recently got my Comcast Motorola 6200 HDTV set top box installed. I have an SVGA NEC LT85 DLP projector and a Da-Lite Hi-Power 16:9 80x45" screen. I was happy to see that simply unplugging my component cable from my progressive scan DVD player and plugging it into the 6200 worked right off the bat.

Still, the Motorola allows me to set various preferences for outputting the video (1080i, 720P, 480P)? My projector can do the anamorphic squeeze thing, but as I said, it's only SVGA. So, I'm wondering if I would get any benefit from maxxing it out at 1080i or if I might actually get better results going all the way down to 480P. I'm guessing that the answer depends on which device (the STB or the projector) does a better job of rescaling.

Thoughts?

Scott

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vidsmart

· #2 · Jan 23, 2004

Scott--I have the same question. I chose 480p; I'm a newbie and I just assumed that since its is a 480p projector (Epson Home 10) it wouldn't matter if I chose 780p or 1080i.

Curious, what are you going to do about the one set of component inputs. Seems inefficient to swap the cables back and forth between the stb and progressive scan dvd. I'm forced to use s-video for dvd; although I get very satisfying pq that of course that precludes progressive scan output.

I'm looking into a component to vga adaptor--if you or anyone else can help I'd appreciate it.

Sorry I didn't answer your original question...

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srauly

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 23, 2004

My projector only has the VGA/RGB connector, no components. So I was already using a component-to-VGA cable from my DVD player. My projector isn't permanently installed and because of the minor setup time involved and fan noise, I find that we end up watching the majority of our movies on the small screen (32" standard-def 4:3 Toshiba TV).

Off topic...I was really hoping that my new Win XP MCE PC would have much better DVR PQ than it does. That way I could rip out my standalone DVD player and TiVo and just use the PC with a long-run VGA cable to the projector. My current component-to-VGA cable could then be dedicated to the HDTV STB. I could keep the TiVo and just use the PC to replace my DVD player, but that seems like overkill and I'm skeptical that I'd notice any PQ improvement for DVD with my SVGA projector. I think that I've tweaked everything I can possibly tweak with MCE though, so my next step will probably be to download some trial versions of other PVR apps to see if the problem is with the TV Tuner card or with MCE's encoding method.

Scott

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tkx1

· #4 · Mar 22, 2004

With my X1 (SGA DLP) I get better color/picture with the 1080i or 720p settings (for the HD channels.) I posted this awhile ago, and it seems to be because the higher def signals have more color info than the 480P signal, leading to a better picture even though the pixel amount (450X800) is the same at any of these setting. Sorry I don't know the technical details.

I just ordered a MCE computer (HP m380), but don't have high hopes for the pq. I might try powerstrip, or end up outputting to a smaller TV (using a terk transmitter perhaps) People say the pq with all non HD DVR's (which is most avail) looks poor on a computer screen, but good on a TV. Think VCRs- OK on a TV, blurry but usable on a pj(I use in 'native' size to make the picture smaller.)

I am thinking of the PVR as a VCR replacement, and my VCR has never been great for the PJ anyway.

Any suggestions for a new MCE user?

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tkx1

· #5 · Mar 22, 2004

Oh, and for MCE, make sure you are outputting using VGA or DVI (not s-vid or rca, which would convert the computer image to anolog, further degrading the pq.)

Have you looked into powerstrip?

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