Last week I got a chance to see a pre-production Marantz DLP in action. I only had a few minutes to check it out, but here's what I found:
- Native 16x9 DLP
- Native resolution of 1280x720 (I believe this uses the TI HD-1 DMD chip)
- S-vid, component (RCA) & RGB (HD-15) inputs
- RS-232 control port & 2 sets of contacts for screen control
Now here's the killer:
- Firewire in
- Toslink out
Although labeled "DV in", the Marantz technical reps (one was a developer) believed the Firewire port should work with DVHS. (Unfortunately, this was not active on the pre-production unit.) When decoding the MPEG stream from the Firewire port, the audio bitstream (be it DD, DTS, etc.) is passed through to the optical output.
I was able to see it in action for a few minutes with a Meridian DVD player feeding the S-video input & with Powerpoint @ 1024 x 768 via the RGB in. I must say the DVD looked terrific for an S-video feed without an external scaler.
Production models are due out around mid-October, but I am angling to get a repeat visit as that approaches. As soon as I can get near one with an active Firewire port, I'll be feeding D-VHS its way. Will report back then...
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Peter
- Native 16x9 DLP
- Native resolution of 1280x720 (I believe this uses the TI HD-1 DMD chip)
- S-vid, component (RCA) & RGB (HD-15) inputs
- RS-232 control port & 2 sets of contacts for screen control
Now here's the killer:
- Firewire in
- Toslink out
Although labeled "DV in", the Marantz technical reps (one was a developer) believed the Firewire port should work with DVHS. (Unfortunately, this was not active on the pre-production unit.) When decoding the MPEG stream from the Firewire port, the audio bitstream (be it DD, DTS, etc.) is passed through to the optical output.
I was able to see it in action for a few minutes with a Meridian DVD player feeding the S-video input & with Powerpoint @ 1024 x 768 via the RGB in. I must say the DVD looked terrific for an S-video feed without an external scaler.
Production models are due out around mid-October, but I am angling to get a repeat visit as that approaches. As soon as I can get near one with an active Firewire port, I'll be feeding D-VHS its way. Will report back then...
------------------
Peter