Any scalable DVD players or better out there yet? (1 Viewer)

[Oswald Pascual]

I have been away from the hardware section a long time. Been busy catching up and enjoying my batch of DVD's. I currently own a Toshiba SD-6200 and love it. But I have been wondering has anything new in the image improvment area come around yet? I know there was talks about scalable DVD players down the road, but I don't know if we have crossed that intersetion yet. Thanks

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I upgraded to a Panasonic RP-91 player from the same Toshiba SD-6200 that you currently own. The Panny offers automatic aspect ratio control and zoom/scaling features. If you own a 16x9 TV (and by the appearance of your sigfile, it looks like you do), these features are great.

The zoom/scaling feature provided improved image quality for non-anamorphic widescreen (i.e. letterboxed) DVD titles compared to most 16x9 TV's zoom mode. It's a noticable improvement over the TheaterWide zoom mode on my Toshiba 56H80. For 1.33:1 aspect ratios, the player will automatically windowbox the image with black side bars.

The supplemental material on most DVD's alternates between anamorphic, letterboxed and full frame formats. With my old Toshiba 6200, I would constantly need to change viewing modes to watch the supplements. With the RP-91, I leave the TV in FULL mode at all times and let the player handle the aspect control automatically.

Even with anamorphic material, I think the RP-91 provides an improved picture over the Toshiba SD-6200.

 

[Oswald Pascual]

Hey Scott Thanks for the quick reply.

I heard that the RP-91 had a bug were the image was shifted to the right or something like that, has that been corrected? Also I have a FPTV that requires me to select the aspect ratio for a memeory that I stored it in. I do not know if your familiar with FPTV, but does this mean I just leave my FPTV in the 16:9 mode and I am done with selecting aspect ratios? (Anyone with a FPTV please chime in.)

"Even with anamorphic material, I think the RP-91 provides an improved picture over the Toshiba SD-6200."

Is it doing a 3:2 pull down like the toshiba is it actually scaling it?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Oswald,

The RP-91's image shift problem has been fixed in the latest firmware revision. A player with an older version can be upgraded by inserting an upgrade CD. The process is quite easy (the upgrade is available online for downloading). I upgraded my player with no problems.

I am not familiar with FPTV's, but with my Toshiba 56H80 RPTV I leave the set in FULL mode at all times for all viewing, whether the material is anamorphic, letterbox or full frame. The RP-91 handles the aspect ratio control automatically. I assume the FULL mode is similar to the 16x9 viewing mode on a FPTV (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

One caveat on the automatic aspect ratio control, though. This only works for DVD's that are properly flagged. I have found that about half my non-anamorphic widescreen titles are not flagged properly. For these discs, I have to manually scale the image via a menu option in the player. I do not consider this a fault with the player, but laziness on the part of the studios for improperly flagging the material on the disc.

The RP-91 does perform 3:2 pulldown, just like your current Toshiba model. I liked the SD-6200, but I think the RP-91 is superior in so many ways. The only thing I miss from the Toshiba is the ability to display the total time remaining on a disc. For some reason Panasonic does not implement this simple feature in its players (both my old Sony players also had this feature). I rarely used the dual disc trays on the Toshiba.

If you do a search on the RP-91, you will probably find lots of threads offering praise on this player. It's been a hot topic on HTF since last summer.

 

[DavidY]

The Malata N996 has a feature where you can manually adjust both the X and Y scales. I haven't done it myself, but I hope to in the near future.

Dave