[eswrite]

One often hears that Key Digital is best in PQ, Audio Authority next, RCA dead last, and so on. If you have experience with different RGB-to-component video transcoders, could you describe quantitatively and/or qualitatively why one is better than another? Do these considerations play as heavily on a smaller screen, say a 32" as they do on larger displays?

 

[marcInNH]

I can't speak to comparisons between the units themselves, as I've never used any besides the Audio Authority 9A60 RGB->component transcoder, but...


I've had an old PC hooked up via this device to a Sony KP HS30 for a year now and it works well enough for games and graphics. Never used it for DVD viewing. Text is crummy, though, and using the setup for text-based applications is not practical. Much of this may have to do (and likely does) with the output resolution of my video card not matching the native lines of resolution on the Sony, and not the 9A60 unit itself.


I tried various second hand video cards, but couldn't get satisfaction with the Sony set in conjunction with the Nvidia drivers/chipsets (they would lock up my machine at that time)... YMMV, but don't expect text to be useable based upon what I have seen with the Audio Authority device. For text based applications I'm of the opinion that you have got to perfectly match the output resolution from the video card with the native lines of resolution on your digital TV (or other component display device). Then it might just work for you...


I would guess (only speculatively) that the relative picture might be measurably better on a smaller set...

 

[gtrogue]

I don't think the transcoder has anything to do with text being unreadable. At high resolutions I think the relatively low refresh rate of HDTV cause the blurry text problem. You can experience the same problems on a CRT computer monitor if you use a high resolution and a low (60Hz) refresh rate.


At 960x540p text on my TV is sharp and easily readable. At 1440x540p and up text is small and blurry. If I could push my refresh rate higher the text would look better.