Rrivers1

Newbie, looking for a/v under 1k for upconverting standard def for 50" plasma

I am trying to get both an 50 inch plasma and an a/v receiver. The 50 inch budget is 2500.00 online with the a/v receiver at under 1k. I am switching from an crt and am accustomed to the quality of crt. Don't want to spend 3.5k and have a pic that does not have the same quality. I will research the answers given and follow up with response. Just need some ideas. THX.

P.s. upconversion of an comcast hd box w/HDMI to an 1080i/720p plasma display. Many channels are not sent in HD. Which a/v receiver will help improve the display?

Nick:G

Re: Newbie, looking for a/v under 1k for upconverting standard def for 50" plasma

The only receivers available that have internal HD scaling (as in taking a 480i signal and converting it to 1080i/p) are a bit out of your target price range. The higher-end Pioneers (like the Elite 82TX/84TXsi) have Faroudja scaling built into the HDMI switch and the flagship Denon AVR-5805MkII also sports similar technology.

Furthermore, sorry to burst your bubble, it's damned-near impossible to match the SD quality of a CRT with current digital display technology, even with fancy scalers. Fujitsu HD plasmas do the best job of upscaling SD I've seen so far. Big bucks for those guys, though. You'd be talking $6500 ($6000 after mail-in rebate) for the plasma itself with a limited dealer network (you can't buy these online).

Judging from your $2500 budget with a receiver at about $1000, that leaves about $1500 left over for a TV. It's difficult (if not impossible) to get a quality 50" plasma for that price, even online. I would probably either extend your budget a bit more or budget a bit less for the receiver.

Stephen Hopkins

Re: Newbie, looking for a/v under 1k for upconverting standard def for 50" plasma

I've been very happy w/ the scaling of my Pioneer Elite 82TXs. I'm using a Motorola/Comcast 6412 DVR. I'm outputting HD in 720p and SD in 480i. The Pioneer scales the 480i to 720p and outputs it to my Panasonic AE700u projector, which then shines on a 100" screen. The results are noticably better than letting the cable box (worst) or projector (slightly better) scale the 480i to 720p.

The only caveat so-far is that this is all currently being done over component video. In about 3 weeks I'll be moving into a new house w/ dedicated theater room pre-wired w/ HDMI. At that point I can chime in on a few different things like how the Pioneer interacts with the 6412 over HDMI... and if it doesn't handshake properly (which i'm expecting) how well the converstion from hdmi to component works (the Pioneers are known for having some artifacts when converting analog-to-digital).

The 82TXs is currently available from HiFi Buys / Tweeter for $1080... they'd likely let one go for $1000 out the door. I say this because I exchanged a Yamaha RX-V1700 (a gift from my father-in-law) which cost $1029 and asked if they could make it an even trade. They said yes without even thinking about it.

All that said the Pioneer's scaling works so well I've been letting it scale SD-DVD coming from my Toshiba HD-A1 as 480i with good results. The reason for doing this is that over component the A1 is limited to 480i or 480p for SD-DVD and the 480p component output has vertical banding. Once I'm in the new house w/ HDMI I'll let the player scale to 720p and shouldn't have any more problems there.

Rrivers1

Re: Newbie, looking for a/v under 1k for upconverting standard def for 50" plasma

I have now taken the plung and have ordered online the pioneer 82txs, pioneer 5070hd and all the connections. I am still confused then on just how to hook up the system and adjust. I will be using the comcast/motorola dvr with hdmi. The instruction manual tells you that THX recommends to turn off the digital video converstion. I would be interested in any tweeks for the 82 also.

Stephen Hopkins

Re: Newbie, looking for a/v under 1k for upconverting standard def for 50" plasma

Assuming your Comcast HD box has an up-to-date firmware you should be able to hook HDMI from the box to the receiver and then HDMI from the receiver to your display. As for setup/calibration you just plug in the microphone, place it at your listening position, press "System Setup" on the remote, and select "Auto MCACC" from the menu.

Having video conversion shouldn't affect HDMI signals at all unless for some reason they're in 480i (which being HD they shouldn't). If all of your sources are HDMI then there's no need to have it on but it still shouldn't harm anything and will let you convert anything else you may hook up later to HDMI, even a game system or video camera you hook up to the front inputs.