Question for I-Scan owners (1 Viewer)

[JoshK]

I have read a bit about the Silicon Image I-Scan, both the V2 and the Pro. I recently got a Panasonic 42" Plasma (this week) and I am on a waiting list for the Pan RP91 (spse to be Feb 28)....oh and I have digital cable as my building won't allow satellites. I find the beautiful picture and resolution of the plasma to be a double edge sword. The analog channels are pretty bad. I was considering getting the V2 (@$455) for use with my digital cable box. My cable technician is suppose to come out next Saturday to replace my box with one that has both digital out and S-vid out, the s-vid out I would use into the V2. The composite input on the V2 I would occasionally use for playing Tony Hawks PSII on PSX.

My questions are these. Do you think the V2 will make a significant improvement to normal cable channels in order to justify the modest price? Would anyone venture to speculate whether the internal deinterlacing of the RP91 or the Pro's deinterlacer, using the RP91 interlaced component out, would make the better picture, or am I splitting hairs?

If I understand correctly, the pro adds three things, component in, PAL and SECAM capatability and color/picture adjustment. I don't think I would need the color/picture adj feature with the plasma, since the plasma can do all that well enough. I have no clue about the PAL and SECAM, but I live in the US, so do I need this? If the RP91 and I-Scan are comparable on deinterlacing then I don't need the third so spending the extra $200 ($649) would be pointless.

Anything else I missed in my logic?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[Rachael B]

Josh, I doubt the iscan will help your analog channels. I tried running one of my Tivo's into my V2 and it just doesn't help. The V2 wold help your LD player if you have one. The old adage is, "garbage in, garbage out". Most cable systems are definitely serving up garbage, mine is... Best wishes!

 

[Allan Jayne]

Can your plasma TV zoom the progressive output from the DVD player? (My TV is 16:9 and zooms interlaced input but not progressive input). The iScan won't do the zooming (I wish it did) for you so it will not solve (if you have it) the problem of viewing non-anamorphic letterbox movies only as a small picture with black on all four sides.
If your cable TV pictures as seen on an ordinary cheap direct view analog interlaced TV have noticeable snow or fuzziness in them at nearly all times, the iScan (and most of the high quality doublers) will make it worse, not better.
Generally you should not buy an iScan or other separate doubler if there is nothing you see in the picture you both dislike and know is due to the deficiencey of the TV built in doubler.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/viddoubl.htm