[nc]

Has anyone taken the time to directly compare all aspects of video quality in the RP91 and/or RP56 with the venerable old grandfather of progressive DVD players, ie., the H1000? Granted it uses the first generation Genesis chipset and may not quite match the RP56 or even the 91 in deinterlacing. But what about other critical areas of video performance? I've now tried these newer generation models with my Tau CT-34WX50 widescreen and the results to my eyes at least are clearcut. With all units carefully adjusted for black/white level, color saturation, hue, sharpness etc. the RP 56 was clearly inferior in all critical areas of video performance. The RP91 was close but even here the H1000 was still clearer, with slightly improved color fidelity and more apparent resolution. I was informed that during development the CT34WX50 was tested with the H1000 in mind, so this apparent synergy may help explain these particular results. Perhaps the newer designs might work better with other displays but I don't know. The only DVD disc in my collection where I found video performance to be superior with the RP56 or 91 was with the new Criterion edition of Spartacus. Here, the older H1000 has a lot of problems and repeatedly reverts to video mode when in auto. The picture in this case was occasionally fuzzy with combing and other artifacts. Nevertheless, and IMHO it is curious how on the majority of software, a good old fashion solidly built player with a respectable video board and a solid stable power supply can more than hold its own against the newer designs, depite its "primitive" method for deinterlacing.


nc

 

[nc]

Incidently, in my comparative tests the RP91 was also far superior to the RP56 in terms of overall video quality. As others have pointed out, where the RP56 excels is in its deinterlacing capability, and that advantage is negligible on the vast majority of DVD material. The differences between the older generation H1000 and RP91 were much more subtle, and it was only on more difficult material where the RP91 showed any superiority. The RP91 also crops off less of an actual progressive video frame than does the H1000 allowing you to actually see more of what was intended. Other than that, to my eyes (and they may be far from perfect), the H1000 has slightly better resolution. The high frequency rolloff characteristics of the H1000 that others have commented upon do not appear to degrade the resolution of this older model relative to the RP91 and certainly not compared to the RP56.


nc