Help me decide between rp56 and rp91 for a Toshiba 50H81 (1 Viewer)

[ace peterson]

JohnnyG-Thanks, Yep, set them to 'bitstream' already.

I haven't checked, but are there any 540p players? I suppose the rp91 is 540p?

 

[JohnnyG]

All progressive players are 480p. Some people get confused because the specs of some players say "540 lines of resolution", but this is horizontal resolution, not vertical.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Zooming is the same thing as scaling, from a terminology perspective. On older players, the "zoom" function was generally implemented with a really simple (and ugly) algorithm, whereas newer players tend to use proper multi-tap filters, such as the ones used in the Mediamatics chipsets and in the Genesis chipset used on the RP-91.

Ha ha ha! Vindicated at last!! Now I can retire.

 

[Richard Travale]

The RP56 is, most likely, no longer available from Panasonic Canada, to be replaced by the RP62 in May

Does anyone know which chipset will be used in the RP62 and RP82? Will they stick with the Genisis like in the RP91 or use the Sage/Faroudja like in the RP56? Also, will the new models do the "scaling" of non-anamorphic material like the RP91?

 

[Jeff D.]

However, both the raster-expanded picture and the digitally scaled picture have the same effective resolution.

This makes no sense whatsoever. Taking Toshiba sets as an example, if the set is in TheaterWide2 - there are less scan lines in the viewing area than there are in Full mode.

The 16:9 screen area is of a set size. In Full mode, all scan lines are presented in this area, with a certain amount of black space in between them (for the purposes of this illustration, it doesn't matter how big this space actually is). When you switch to TheaterWide2, the black space between the lines becomes much greater - this is why the scan lines are more visible in this mode. So, since the screen area has not changed at all, but there is significantly more black space in between scan lines, then clearly there aren't as many scan lines. The resolution in TheaterWide2 is not as great.

This is the whole reason the scaling of the RP91 is so beneficial. It allows you to keep the set in its highest resolution mode - ie. Full - and yet still view non-anamorphic material in its correct aspect ratio.

/Jeff

 

[Don Munsil]

Jeff,
When a letterboxed movie is zoomed in to fill a 16x9 screen, there are only 360 scan lines worth of information visible. When those 360 lines get displayed, it doesn't matter whether there are 360 actual scan lines, or 480 interpolated scan lines. The effective resolution cannot be higher than 360.
When the RP-91 scales 360 lines to 480, no new information is created. Yes, the new image now has 480 scan lines, but it is still no more detailed than the original 360-line image. Each of those 480 new lines is a weighted average of several of the original 360. In fact, in practical terms, the new 480-line image contains just a hair less than 360 lines of information, because some information is inevitably lost in the scaling operation. This is not just a practical limitation - it's a mathematical limitation. Information cannot be created through upsampling - it's a fundamental theorem of information theory.
Consider a very small image, like 4x4 pixels. I can scale that up to 1000x1000 pixels, but it's still 4x4 pixels of effective resolution, because the 1000x1000 pixel image contains no more information content than the original 4x4 pixel image.
The reason that scaling in the player looks better in most circumstances is NOT that there is now more resolution, it's that the scan lines are not as noticeable. When the scan lines are moved apart to do raster scaling, the black lines between them become easier to see, which makes it look more like television, and less like a continuous smooth image.
Best,
Don

 

[Westly T]

Well, you're doing yourself a disservice then. Progressive players are advancing at a very nice rate, and since the present players are all annoying in some way or another, you might regret not waiting.

Haven't you learned NOTHING is ever perfect? I waited over a year to get a progressive player, should I have waited another year? Perhaps I should have waited to get my first DVD player? Waited for my receiver? Waited for my TV? Etc... If I had done that I'd be watching movies on a 13" TV and a mono VCR still waiting for the bugs to get out of a HiFi VCR.

If you wait till it's almost perfect, it's going to be obsolete and discontinued before it ever gets perfect! Things are moving so fast that if you wait for all the bugs to get out it won't be of any value because something better will have come out by then.

 

[JohnnyG]

Taking Toshiba sets as an example

You mean previous Toshiba sets. The current models do X/Y scaling.

 

[Jeff D.]

Don;
Sorry, I was thinking of it in another way. When you said the resolution was the same, I was thinking of the TV itself - ie. the set's resolution is greatest in 'Full' mode and decreased in 'TheaterWide 2'. I was only thinking of the resolution of the TV and nothing else.
/Jeff