[sbarnhar]

Hi,


I was doing some testing with an LT150 and a Malata 996 DVD player with some PAL DVD's, which were all anamorphic widescreen. We were trying to get PAL progressive output and still retain aspect ratio control.


We set the Malata to output component, PAL, and be in Progessive mode, and hooked to the LT150 via the requisite VGA-5BNC cable, and told the LT150 it was receiving component on the VGA connector. However, it would not sync to that signal. If we put the Malata in interlaced mode, it would display PAL anamorphic correctly.


Then we told the Malata to output RGsB progressive PAL and told the LT150 it was receiving RGB on the RGB input, and then the projector synced to the signal fine. But then when in RGB mode, it doesn't seem like there is a way to control the aspect ratio such that anamorphic PAL DVD's display correctly. However, we were able to scale down the Y-axis with the Malata to get the picture looking right.


Just as an aside, we also told the Malata to transcode the PAL to NTSC, then to output it progressively. Interestingly enough, this looked amazingly good, much better than native PAL in interlaced mode to the LT150. I think the Malata must be the most versatile DVD player I have ever seen.


Anyway, does anyone know the correct way to get the LT150 to display PAL Progessive and still show anamorphic in the right aspect ratio? Preferably w/o needing an outboard scaler or HTPC.


Thanks for any info.


Scott


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Scott Barnhart
[email protected]

 

[sonny b]

I was also wondering if the LT150 can accept a progressive PAL signal from an iScan Pro and display the image properly. If yes, will aspect ratio control be retained?


Maybe Frode can chime in?


Tnx - Sonny B.

 

[Frode]

Well..


If you've read my review on the LT150 (check the LT150 index) you'd already know that it's not possible unless you use a scaler or HTPC. Go for the HTPC - you can get one for less than $600 and that's still cheaper than most progressive standalone players, not to mention a scaler that can output XGA.


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/frode

 

[wojtek]

Frode, if one feeds progressive PAL from an HTPC into the LT150, i assume one does it via RGB on the LT150 (LT150s component does not synch up to 576p at 50 Hz).


But then you lose the color and contrast controls on the LT150...


Can you control these parameters from your HTPC?


Can you please elaborate on how you obtain the best PAL progressive image on your LT150 from your HTPC?


Thx.

 

[Frode]

Yes you use the standard RGB/VGA when you use the HTPC.


Color and contrast can be controlled on the HTPC. Either through the driver of the video card, or the DVD player software.


The real difficult part is actually determining what is the optimal settings for PAL. There is as far as I know no equivalent of Avia/VE for PAL - and PAL supposedly requires different settings for getting the best picture possible. However I just tune my setup for NTSC (that's the majority of my discs anyway) and then just use the same settings for PAL. It still looks great - maybe not as good as it could get, but I'm very happy with the picture. Others more videophile than me may of course disagree.. but since I have so few PAL discs in the first place it's not a priority for me at the moment.


If someone over at the HTPC forum would scope the optimum settings for PAL however that would be the best thing.


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/frode


[This message has been edited by Frode (edited 08-19-2001).]

 

[wojtek]

What about resolutions?


Are you running the native LT150 resolution for PAL sources (768 I believe), or 576?


w

 

[pham]

If you're using an HTPC or scaler, you will always want to output 1024x768 in PAL or NTSC to bypass the LT150's builtin scaler.


Frode, I had thought that with the Skyworth, you can output progressive PAL directly to the LT150 through the RGB output, can't you? You would lose aspect ratio control but I believe it would work. I was under the impression that it's the progressive PAL component input that doesn't work on the LT150. Am I mistaken?

 

[Frode]

You're not mistaken pham. But then for anamorphic material you'd have to use a panamorph or other anamorphic lens. There's also the added problem that the LT150 doesn't scale well to non-standard (as in not standard on the PC platform) resolutions like PAL on the RGB port. Even NTSC using RGB doesn't look as good as component. The reason for this is that the projector thinks the 720x480 resolution is really 640x480 and thus squeezes it slightly in the horizontal. I've tried adjusting the phase and clock manually to compensate, but the auto-adjust is as good as it gets.


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/frode