Scaler, line doubler for TV (1 Viewer)

[Shawn_MM]

Ok HT gurus. The setup consists of an Hitachi 60v500 and *C DSR500 hd sat box, and a Panny RP91 DVD player. All hooked up with Phoenix Gold Platinum level cables. The question is concerning if a new toy is needed or not. Looking at line doublers or scalers to improve on my setup (is this hobby crazy or what). Do these things make a difference, or since the TV is fairly new would it have the internals already suited for the task.
Options: Zinwell Briteview,
Focus Enhancements CenterStage CS-HD Scaler
Silicon Image iScan Ultra Line Doubler/Deinterlacer
etc etc

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

And what exactly are you hoping to improve here? IT won't help your satellite and your DVD image won't get better ... potentially worse given that the RP91 sends a reduced resolution signal in interlaced form.

Doesn't matter how good the scaler is as it cannot create new detail out of nothing.

Regards

 

[Allan Jayne]

Do you now see artifacts or shortcomings that are associated with deficiencies in line doublers or scalers?

If you don't find fault with the TV and its built in doubler, then you don't need to go out and buy an external doubler/scaler.

TV's are getting better as the years go by, sothe performance gap between TV doublers and stand alone doublers is narrowing quickly. (On average)

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/viddoubl.htm

 

[greg_t]

I doubt you would see much improvement using an external scaler. I would use the 91 in interlaced mode, which outputs reference quality video according to Don Munsil of Secrets of HomeTheater and HIFI fame, and let the Hits perform the interlaced/progressive conversion.