Comparing Video Scalers, Help!!!

[427L]

In general, I would like to know whether the TV, A/V receiver or DVD player has the "better" video scaler i.e. input 480i - output 720p(or 1080i/p). Specifially, i'm considering either a Pioneer 1140 Elite or PDP 5070 HD display with either a Elite 82 or 84TXSi receiver and Oppo 970 or Pioneer Elite DVD player. I've read a few comparison articles and talked with a few salesman and I get the impression that the DVD players scaler will typically produce a better picture than a scaler in either of these receiver's. I have not seen/read all that much about the video scalers in the TV sets though. What do you guys think or what have you seen for yourselves? What do you think about stand-alone scalers like the one from Gefen and are there any other device (DVD or receiver) which I haven't mentioned that you think are worth looking into. Thanks.

 

[Atomik]

Good selection of pioneer, first I'd like to say. The set u definitely wanna go with the Elite 1140-HD, despite the fact it doesn't have 1080 resolution, but it has all the best possible features (Pure Drive II Signal Processing,
ACE IV,Active DRE, ACL and Gamma,New Intelligent DRE, Advanced Pure Cinema™,Intelligent Color Enhancement,New Selectable Color Zone Mapping based on NTSC or EBU standards,Color Temperature Adjustment, Color Management System, Digital Noise Reduction, MPEG Noise Reduction,
New Block Noise Reduction, Digital CTI, Natural Resize, Natural Enhancer,
Digital Chroma Decoder. Where as in teh PDP5070HD u're missing out on alot of the features. AS for the receiver, u definitely wanna get the 84txsi, anyone out there will tell you, when buying a receiver will say plop down the extra cash for 84txsi, when setting up your 'home theater' (do it once and do it right the first time) in the 84tsxi, u got one of the best Video Scaling Enhancers, "Faroudja® DCDi® HD Video Scaler ", out of all the research i've done, hands down, this is the best video scaler yet available on the market in comparison to Anchor Bays. So no need to get a stand-alone scaler, in the end, save yourself the time and money of having to wire all the pictures you want to up-scale thru a seperate upscaler, when your receiver is well capable of doing. The only downside is, that whatever pictures you want to upscale will have to be connected to your receiver via component, as the receiver will not upscale via HDMI connection input. So unless your DVD player will be giving you 1080i/p quality, you might want to rethink your dvd player. As for the DVD player, look for a DVD player w/ progressive that does the job and maybe with DVR capabilities and DVD burning capabilities, that way if u wanna connect ur camcorder and burn to DVD, or convert VHS to DVD, or record ur favorite show. In the end, you're paying for luxury and ease of use and convenience, and less wiring. Spend the couple of extra bucks on the TV and receiver, and the money u saved from not buyin a stand-alone upscaler on some quality wiring. Hope that helps....

Atomik

 

[jcPanny]

Video scaling

427L,
I have the entry level Oppo DV970 and recommend it. The Oppo DV971 and DV981 have the same video scaling chip that is ued in the Pioneer Elite 84. The implementation of this chip in the Oppo is excelent.

The new Yamaha RX-V2700 has an ABT scler chip. ABT makes the high end DVDO stand alone video scalers, but these cost $1-2k.