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Need doubler for XP21N projector? (1 Viewer)

Terry Wysocki

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 21, 2001
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69
A friend told me I should get a "doubler" for my Sanyo XP21N projector. He said it made his hdtv much better. What is it and will it help?
 

Huey

Agent
Joined
Oct 3, 2001
Messages
43
A line doubler or deinterlacer is a unit that double the scan lines on your interlaced signals giving a smoother, less-jagged, and slightly softer picture. Your XP21N has a "doubler" built-in and it's adequate for Svideo sources (better than most IMHO). Composite sources are not as good so "doubling" won't improve the quality that much ("garbage in = doubled garbage out"

External "doublers" in general are better in quality (due to PJ manufacturer's skimping and size/weight constraint of portable PJ) unless you get some PJ with especially good "doubler" built-in like Plus Piano with DVDo technology or Infocus LS110 and LP530 with Faroujda technology. Some progressive DVD players will have excellent doublers builtin like the Phillips Q50 or Pannasonic RP56 with Faroudja. Some HDTV like the Pioneer Elite has great doublers built-in.

Your friend is suggesting getting a DVDo ($300-700), Quadscan ($1-2K), Rock ($2-3K), Faroujda deinterlacer/scaler ($2-4K). Some are strict doublers like DVDo while others will scale an image to fit your 1024X768 panel. They have different inputs depending on models with some supporting inputs of composite, Svideo, component, VGA while others only supports composite and Svideo. Output is usually VGA (for most "business" PJ) or progressive component (for most HDTV or "HT" PJ). Some PJ or TV will support both VGA and progressive component (480p) like LT150 or some Mits HDTV.

Nothing (at the same cost level) will beat a Home Theater PC for deinterlacing or scaling. Thus, getting a HTPC for DVD playback with an analog Svideo capture card (Iomagic PVR) and use Dscaler (free software) for deinterlacing will do wonders for your excellent XP21N PJ. Check HTPC forum for more details.

In summary, if you want the best progressive DVD playback get HTPC; next in line would be a nice Prog. DVD player like RP56, RP91, or Q50; third best option is to run a Svideo interlaced DVD straight into a doubler and run that to your VGA port of your PJ; last in quality (still darn good IMHO) is to run a straight interlaced DVD player into XP21N Svideo port and let PJ do the doubling/scaling).
 

Jack B E

Auditioning
Joined
Dec 15, 2001
Messages
1
I've had a Sanyo XP21N (and RP91) for less than 2 weeks. My thoughts: For NTSC, a doubler of some sort is required. I am trying out the Zenith DTV1080 with my cable (while I await DirecTV dish install is a week)...it definitely makes a major improvement; I don't how much better NTSC can get at that size. The Zenith outputs NTSC in 1080i and 720p (1080i looks better). It also has VGA out (whichs works nicely with the SanyoVGA in). It also has Toslink and Coaxial digital output. [It also has really poor user friendliness (to put it one way)...hopefully a software upgrade will fix these problems. Note I don't use the word great at all when describing the picture.

DVDs through my RP91 are very good, BUT, using my neighbor's iMac (not a new one), the picture clearly beats the RP91. And, I still see real room for improvement. So, it is obvious the way to go is with a HTPC...and I'm trying to get up to speed on that.

Frankly, I think it's crazy to go with an external scaler over a HTPC (which is so much better and cheaper).

-- Jack
 

Terry Wysocki

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 21, 2001
Messages
69
Thanks for all the great feedback on this. I have a few PCs laying around so I just have to get a DVD player for one of them. Which brings up the question - what DVD player to buy and what software to run it? Better question is, how can I use a remote control for HTPC?
 

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