Which new players offer scaling (1 Viewer)

[Sean Moon]

I have had a JVC 75GD for about a year now and love it. The DVD-A is nice, but I rarely use it and the progressive picture is great on my Panny 47wx49. The main reason I went with this player though was its price and offering the scaling of non anamorphic material, since my tv locks into full mode when in progressive.
Of all the new players coming out from all companies, which ones does anyone know of the offer the scaling feature.

I am having some issues with the current player and am itching for an upgrade. Here is the list of features I am looking for:
Progressive Scan output
Coax out
DVD-A or SACD a plus, but not necessary.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, assuming you want to avoid the chroma bug, your choices are limited. It sounds like the new line of JVC's can only scale properly flagged non-16x9 DVDs, so that might not be a good choice. Might still be able to find the Panny RP91, which is going to be discontinued very shortly, but it's significantly higher price than your old JVC.

The Philips 963sa could've been the best choice if they did it right, but as it is, it seems to only be able to show non-16x9 DVDs w/ pillar boxes for proper OAR. Some of us are hoping Philips can address this via firmware update. It's also in the same price range as the Panny RP91, but offers SACD instead of DVD-A and uses Faroudja deinterlacing. Also can be hacked (via certain types of remotes) for region-free playback--it already can do PAL->NTSC conversion out-of-the-box. Would be a great all-around player (minus DVD-A) for the price if a few issues were resolved.

You could look into a Malata player also although they are less reliable than the big names. Should provide somewhat similar performance to the JVC's.

If minor chroma bug is not a problem, you could try a Tosh 3800 or 4800.

Hmmm... I forgot to mention that the new Panny's might be an option although nobody's confirmed whether they can scale non-16x9 DVDs for 16x9 display.

_Man_

 

[Sean Moon]

I didnt think that the Toshibas did scaling. I know the RP91 does it, as does my old JVC. THe scaling of 4:3 material and non anamorphic widescreen has spoiled me so bad. Anyone else know of some?

 

[Carl Mulder]

look at the denon 2900.
Progressive scan
sacd.
dvd audio.
12 bit video, 108mhz
farouja progressive.
take a look.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

But will the Denon 2900 scale though? That was the main point of the thread. Also, it's probably out of his price range unless he was actually looking for a universal player.

_Man_

 

[Sean Moon]

modest price range...but progressive with scaling being the main features...the rest is butter

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Let me add that the Pioneer Elite 45a(?) can also scale, but it also has the chroma bug.

Also, other than the Philips 963sa, none of the scaling-capable players have great deinterlacing.

The upcoming Samsung HD931 will use the same Faroudja deinterlacer/scaler chip as the Philips, but it's unknown whether it will scale like we want. It'll cost a little less than the Philips and offer DVD-A, instead of SACD.

_Man_

 

[Charles J P]

here is what toshibas website says about the 3800. Is this what Man-Fai Wong is talking about?



Picture Zoom
This interactive feature allows you to select an area of the picture you want to zoom in on and magnify it. Enhanced digital processing during moving video or freeze-frame playback produces superior color fidelity and resolution, even when you're zoomed in. Also can be used to expand letterbox-only films to increase the viewable area on-screen.

 

[Dmitry]

Is this what Man-Fai Wong is talking about?

No, what he is talking about is the ability of the player to convert non-anamorphic image for presentation on 16x9 TV. In layman's terms — it adds bars on the sides for 4x3 content or reduces the size of the bars on letterbox content. The resulting image will have proper aspect ration when stretched horizontally by a 16x9 TV.

 

[Charles J P]

I understand what non-anamorphic scaling (like the RP-91 does) is, but Man said the two Toshiba models do it, and that is the only clip for the 3800 that sounds lik it might be it.

 

[Peter Loan]

I owned the Toshiba 3800/4800 and I can confirm that it does scale. It's kind of a hidden feature on the unit and it takes a couple of button presses, but it does work very well. I know most of you think that the chroma bug is the antichrist, but I didn't even recognize it till this forum had me staring at the Toy Story menu screen for minutes at a time.

 

[Charles J P]

Peter, could you describe the scaling feature a little bit more? Is it something that could be programmed into a remote macro, or did it require user input (ie push this button to activate the zoom and then push this button once if its a 1.85:1 two times if its 2.35:1 etc)? I mean, was it the exact same process each time regardless?

 

[Peter Loan]

Charles,
First off, make sure the player is setup for 16x9 widescreen/4:3 for non 16x9 material in the setup menu. When you pop in a letterbox transfer, you'll see the movie with black bars on the side. Hit zoom (once or twice, I forget) and the player will get rid of the windowboxing, and the picture will be automatically stretched vertically for proper viewing. My TV does not lock into full mode but I still found this feature to be superior to my set's zoom mode.

 

[BeatCrazy]

The Pioneer DV-45A does NOT scale.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I was not too sure of the model Pioneer, which was why I qualified it w/ the (?), but I guess you confirmed it's not the 45a. I read from a few different posters here and there that one of the 45a, 47a or 47ai does it, and thought it was the 45a.

_Man_

 

[Don Munsil]

Man,

None of the Pioneer models has scaling, to the best of my knowledge.

Don

 

[Charles J P]

What is the difference between the 3800 and 4800 (DVD-Audio)? I alreayd have a DVD-A changer.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Don,

Thanks for clearing that up about all those Pioneers. I did a search back to some old posts, and it looks like I (and maybe somebody else?) might've just misunderstood. The Pioneers seem to have an out-of-the-ordinary convenience feature that auto-switches between interlaced and progressive for non-16x9 DVDs, instead of actual scaling.

_Man_

 

[Dave F]

The Philips 963sa could've been the best choice if they did it right, but as it is, it seems to only be able to show non-16x9 DVDs w/ pillar boxes for proper OAR

So does that mean that it doesn't scale a letterboxed non-anamorphic disc?

Also, does Panasonic have anything coming to replace the RP91?

-Dave

 

[Brad Newton]

In-player letterboxing is a process by which the player converts an anamorphic (or enhanced for 16x9 Television) DVD to display properly on a standard 4:3 TV.

Isn't this the same thing as scaling, or am I way off base?