Advice please. 1080i/720/525p which one for my projector? (1 Viewer)

[Tim Knapp]

My projector supports the following video.1080i/720p/525p Which video mode would get me the best results? I see dvd players that support 480p but none so far that support 720p or 525p. 1080i is hdtv signal I assume which i dont get ijn my area. What dvd player would compliment my projectors video modes? I currently run a standard dvd player's signal into it using the projector's DCDi. -Which is quite impressive already I might add.

Tim

 

[brentl]

It would be easier if you told us which projector you have WITHOUT making us look around!!!

Anyway the xd250 is a 4:3 projector with a native resolution of 1024by768.

It should look best at its native resolution ESP through a HTPC.

Brent

 

[Rick Guynn]

I'm going to take a guess that you have an X1. If I'm right, then the best mode for your projector is to feed it an 800x600 image. Any of the other modes involve the scaler so they should display about equally.

RG

 

[Tim Knapp]

Sorry for the delay in repsonding. I own a mitsubishi xd200 which has 1024 x768 native res. I have tried using htpc and I noticed no better picture then the projectors Foroudja dcdi with a standard no progressive dvd player source. Could be something i'm missing or the dcdi in the projector is realy that good. Not sure. As i said before, my projector supports the following video modes.1080i/720p/525p. I just want to get the most out of it via whatever source, progressive, htpc., or whatever works best. For all the htpc hype I read on the forum, i've been dissapointed in the results I've had. Maybe the line doubler in my xd200 is simply as good as what i can get on an htpc or other.? I await someones wisdom.

Tim

 

[Rick Guynn]

DCDi is generally pretty good, especially on well-authored film DVDs. So you won't see alot of advantages of HTPC for that particular purpose (unless you have a Holo3D, or the XCard/PDI/DScaler combo). The biggest advantage of HTPC is usually in scaling and other post-processing, should you decide to use it.

If your PJ looks good to you without any external processing, then go with that.

RG

 

[DuWayne]

I have the Samsung HD931 which is one of two DVD players that will allow you to output 480i/p, 720p and 1080i.

From what I have read, you projector supports 4:3 XGA 1080i/720p. But with no Digital input you will still have to deal with a Digital-to-Analog conversion.

 

[Tim Knapp]

Thanks for the input Rick and DuWayne. No digital input? My projector has a computer input on it. Isn't that a digital input? I will take a look at the Samsung HD931. I guess what looks good to a person is some times relative. If there was something that would make a noticable improvement to the picture quality I would probably jump all over it. It's tough spending $ on stuff you don't know is realy going to improve it or not. Such is my quandary. I'm wide open for suggestions.
If there is a Progressive scan dvd player that will definitly out-do the built in DCDi of my projector i'm interested.

Tim Knapp

 

[DuWayne]

According to here this projector cannot accept a HD digital source. I supect you PC input would not allow a 720p/1080i signal to be fed to it. So by digital interface "pure", they are referring to DVI, Firewire, etc. I def. not saying you couldn't get a great picture out of componet cables, it's just whenever digital-to-analog or digital-to-analog-digital or vice versa you will ALWAYS lose some of the signal.

Also, if you suspect you are having encoding/decoding issues with your equipment, always try to feed it with its native resolution.

 

[Tim Knapp]

Thanks Duwayne. When I used my pc I never could be sure I was acualy playing a dvd in the projectors native resolution. I had my pc desktop set at that res and also used powerstrip. Although, i dont know if power strip was realy doing anything at all. I could not tell if the picture was up-resed or not. The diference in picture quality between the htpc and the dcdi fed by a standard dvd player was unnoticable. Again, I could not tell for sure if the movie was playing in my pj's native res or not. How can i be sure? I was using windvd and powerstrip.

 

[DuWayne]

I'm a "Switcher" (MAC Person) so I hook up my Powerbook via DVI and change my resolution to 1152x768 (1024x768 widscreen). I suggest you set your PC to 1024x768 (if 720p is your native resolution) Then run your DVDs at fullscreen.

I'm not sure if your projector supports it, but my Z2 will allow me to set the source res. to auto, and when I send a "digital" signal to it I can look and see what it suspects the source to be.

 

[Tim Knapp]

MY, pj,s native resolution is indeed 1024x768 Duwayne.
WEll, i experimented around with different resolutions and tested a dvd out on my pc's monitor. It seems like when windvd is run it locks its own resolution for the dvd. I was trying Fellowship of The Ring and I noticed no difference between a variety of desktop resolutions. So, it seems to me that windvd forces it's own specific resolution regardless of what my desktop is set at.? People talk about up-resing the movie with your htpc. I have no clue as what they are talking about
I guess.

Tim