[thegeek]

I've finally cobbled together enough spares to make a complete second HT system for the bedroom. The problem is that the projector in question is an older business projector that has a really lousy internal scaler. Video is kinda passable in a VHS sorta way, but anything static is horrific. The program description text in Tivo isn't legible. The actual cable is rock solid, and the problem isn't interference from a power feed. The scaler is simply that bad.


All I need is something that's pretty decent at taking in an s-video feed and spitting out 1024x768 over analog VGA.


I'm thinking of whipping out the big big dollars and going with one of the following marvels of... umm... cheapness.

S-Media ezV-Box 3D Pro

Only $150, and it sports the Trident 3D Pro chipset. Huey says this is a good chipset. Huey seems to know what he's talking about. I know I don't!


AverMedia TVBox 9

$180, mentioned around here a few times, but unknown chipset.


AVT-3340

Cheapest of the field at just under $130 full retail. Since it is from the same family as the well regarded AVT-3800, there is a chance it might share some tech, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.




The Viewsonic products seem to have a negative following, and the AVT-3800 is out of the price range for something that really won't get much use to speak of. Don't even think of mentioning DVDO or Lumagen.

 

[flyingvee]

I will mention it without thinking, then. A good used DVDO can be had pretty cheap - will put out a really nice 480p. An old Iscan plus or V2 can be had for well under 200 bucks - they go for less than the Pros cuz they don't have the component in.

 

[thegeek]

From what I've seen of the few older DVDOs that pop up on ebay from time to time, they generally go for more than the above listed cheapies. In either case, I'm still in the dark as to how well the above scalers perform. For all I know they might be better than an old DVDO.

 

[thegeek]

I haven't spent much time looking into the DVDO products, but there's a few iScan Pluses out there right now and going for "not that much". They apparently only output 480p or 576p. Unless I'm missing some in-between product, I'd have to grab something fairly high up in their product line in order to get the ability to put on 1024x768.


Remember, "cheeeeeep". I was really wanting to hear if anybody has any war stories about how the above three cheapies work.



Also, I do have an idle PC hanging around with a capture card and a video card that was marketed as the "Annihilator", however I really don't want any Windows products anywhere near my home, so that shoots down DScaler. Linux is also on my list of things for which I have a profound disdain for. No HTPC recommendations please.

 

[flyingvee]

you're right, the Iscans I mentioned only put out 480/576p; that said, I still think their deinterlacer (or whtever you call it) blows away the the scaling done by my Sammy 165 - I would much rather watch sd tv thru my iscan at 480 than the same tv upscaled by the sammy to 720p or 1080i. the cute little Iscans don't claim to do much, but they do it very well.

 

[thegeek]

While that sounds good, I'm thinking something that scales might be a a really handy thing. Attached below is a pretty picture showing good versus bad. I have my HS10 pointing at the screen while at the same time, the business projector (Proxima Ultralight LX1) is projecting the same image, but offset a bit. When the HS10 is fed 4:3 material, the portion of the panel in use is the same resolution as the Proxima, so pixel for pixel they're on equal footing. They also have similar cable runs to them and I had tried flipping which projector was getting which feed which produced no difference. These are the scalers duking it out.

http://carlucci.net/avsforum/RG6.jpg


The HS10 is able to take the s-video signal, approximate the curves of the letters and make it look like it is a higher resolution that it is really is. There was a slight focus issue in the picture and the HS10 actually looks a little better in real life with s-video. Speaking of real life, what you're missing out on is that the Proxima has this cool vibrating jitter which makes the simple bob it's screwing up somehow look even nastier still. It's really quite fascinatingly bad.


A deinterlacer isn't going to cut it. I need to avoid having the Proxima even think about the image at all.

 

[Axatax]

You can probably get an old PC + DScaler for very low cost. It will provide better results than a $150.00 scaler and could possibly cost you nothing if you look around.

 

[thegeek]

I have big green projector hanging over my bed with big fat black cables draping over the headboard. This setup is already enough to get me at least a Bronze medal in the Wife Acceptance Factor Olympics, and adding a PC to the mix practically guarantees me permanent sleeping on the couch status.


I have all the equipment to do an HTPC scaler, but I really don't want to fuss with a PC. I work with computers all day long, and I just want something that works when I push the button. I would also like something that turns on in about the same amount of time as the projector and turns off when I push the button again.

 

[flyingvee]

I was going to quit beating a dead horse, but then you said the words HS10. a friend brought his over, to show how much better it was than my pj - on dvds, the HS10 did look pretty good, but on SD tv, and particularly Svideo laser disks, my Iscan Pro showed a visible improvement over the Sony's internal scaler. My wife could even see the difference (the acid test in our household, as she has less tolerance for jitter and rainbows than I do.) I know - no rainbows in lcd or crt, but dlps make her carsick.


good luck on finding a good scaler cheap - I plan to call Jason up above, and see what his Iscan HD deal is

 

[thegeek]

Would any of the three cheapies be at least an improvement over what the Proxima does by itself?

 

[noah katz]

"A deinterlacer isn't going to cut it."


I think you may be attributing the problem to scaling when it's the deinterlacing that's the culprit.


One way to find out is to borrow a deccent progressive scan DVD player that outputs 480P and try that. If it's way better, it's your pj's deinterlacing that sucks.

 

[thegeek]

I haven't tried hooking up a progressive scan DVD player. I've got a couple of Faroudja equipped DVD players hanging around as well as a VGA to component dongle. There's no component in on the projector, but there is at least VGA. There is no setting in the projector to switch over to progressive component to RGB colorspace. I guess it is worth a try, though the colors will be pretty strange.


If that cleans things up then I'm DVDO bound, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.




Oh, and it isn't that I'm cheap or on government assistance. I can afford a decent progressive scan DVD player. The projector in question is the projector that I bought while I was between a Sharp M-20X (ugg...) and the HS10 that was on semi-eternal backorder. Check my profile. With the exception of the Proxima, there's some reasonably high dollar equipment in there that was all purchased new.


Quite simply, the reason that I'm looking for a cheap scaler box is that this room is pretty low priority. I've previously used an HTPC+DScaler setup with this projector and performance was decent, but a hassle. This setup is my secondary setup of all spare parts, not the main one.

 

[stopdog]

ESI VLS-2000 does what you want very well, I've been using it for a year now with a 9" CRT. Check ebay or I may have mine for sale shortly when its replacement (ProHDP) arrives in about a week or so. In the $300 range used I would guess. I had the original DVDO and then a QuadscanPro, the ESI is way better.

 

[thegeek]

In case anybody is wondering, I wound up just hanging together an HTPC.