[wadeh]

Is regular TV -such as DirecTV watchable on a large screen with a LT150, or am I better off using my trusty old 27" Sony?



At the moment I'm viewing 20% DVD and 80% cable, and wonder if I'm a candidate for a projector...


Wade

 

[Jonmx]

Its watchable using "native mode", but that only uses about 25% of the LCD panel. The only way I can watch NTSC using the full size of the projector is with an HTPC. With the HTPC, watching a decent NTSC signal is a delight. Of course this assumes you can control the lighting in your room.

 

[wadeh]

jonmx, I thought the LT150 was a DL, not a LCD..? and can you elaborate on why the HTPC will give a better NTSC picture? Thanks!

 

[M.Hat]

A related question. If you don't want to use a computer to feed the NTSC signal to the LT 150, what kind of an image do you get feeding it NTSC at its native mode using a Quadscan or a Crystal Image scaler? Or any other reasonably-priced scaler, for that matter. (Assume you have a good DBS SD signal to start with.) Anyone out there have experience using these or other scalers with the LT 150? I haven't been able to find much around here on this related subject and I'd much appreciate a first-hand report and opinion.


Thanks. Don

 

[3.1415926 pi]

Hi Don, I'm presently using a CI scaler, and the adage, garbage in, garbage out is apropo. I've found that, if the DSS signal is poor, no amount of tweaking can make the picture much better. Although the PQ is better using the CI with DSS, the PQ on a PPV sat signal is far superior. There seems to be far less compression artifacts on PPV channels, and what few there are, the CI handles quite nicely.

DVD is a totally engaging experience with the CI. It works like a charm, is much easier to use than HTPC, and with no crashing, as has been reported many times on this forum about HTPC's.

Cheers, VB

 

[Kei Clark]

Quote:

Hi Don, I'm presently using a CI scaler, and the adage, garbage in, garbage out is apropo.

Same standards apply to HTPC hardware.


Kei Clark

Digital Connection

 

[JP]

I agree with everything here. However, one thing still drives me insane that I cannot figure out. I gave my old home theater equipment to my father. The display consists of an old Sony 1020Q1 video grade crt coupled with an rgb decoder which takes an s-video signal and converts it to rgb. My current setup is an NEC VT540 with a htpc (zoltrix tv-max using dscaler).


Here is the rub. For NTSC signals the old crt blows away my current setup everytime. No amount of tweaking can yield a better picture. I thought about getting a quadscan but many here reported a htpc with dscaler was superior. Now with dvd it is a different story. The vt540 is much better with anamorphic dvd's. However, non-anamorphic dvds aren't much better.

 

[Huey]

I use a $130 JVC HR3800 from www.onecall.com for analog cable tuning and VHS for Svideo input into LT150. While image is not DVD quality it's much improved over composite and regular VCR tuning. If you have DSS or digital cable I'd bet it'll be even better. I use it in cinema mode as my screen is 16:9 so people are squashed a bit but image is very clean (maybe my signal is cleaner than others?). Point is to try the cheapest and simplest enhancement first then upgrade to CI scaler or HTPC/Dscaler if necessary.

 

[Martin P]

Mr.Hat this is the path that I have taken and some of the results as far as ntsc is concerned. First I had a regular direct-tv sat receiver and quadscan. the picture was very watchable,you could see some breakup on pans and sports were quite disappaionting.I then bought the RCA hidef receiver. It put out a progessive 540p piture that was clearly superior in every way to the picture from the s-video and then through the quadscan. There was still stairstepping and sports were hard to watch(especialy hockey,you could watch baseball with no problem because ther is no action)but it was watchable and quests did not seem to notice very much or at least they didn't mention it.

Next I went the HTPC route and installed Dscaler(great deinterlace program) I can't remember what version of descaler I started with but it was still inferior in picture quality to the 540p the 100HD put out. I have been installing every update of Descaler and finally with versin 3.09 it has reached the point where the picture from the HTPC is much better (better in every way,stairstepping more vivid picture,ect) It is now possible to watch almost any sat or over the air program and forget about how it is being processed. Will the Descaler guys make improvements the do and they will almost weekly but right now the product is amasing and is clearly ready for prime time. good luck,mp

 

[JP]

Hi Martin. Your statement of course begs the question: What capture card are you using? Inquiring minds want to know

 

[3.1415926 pi]

Huey, if I understand your observation correctly, if I run the S-video signal through my s-video recorder first, before I send it through my CI scaler, I would enhance my pq, or did I not understand correctly?? Is there some inherrent processing that takes place in a s-vhs recorder that, when running the s-vid signal through the s-vhs recorder, before outputting that signal through my CI, would enhance pq??

Thanks, VB