Top interlaced DVD or cheap progressive? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Varacin]

About 3 years ago, I bought a first generation 73" wide screen HDTV. (Mitsubishi). At the time, progressive scan players had just come out, but I was told by Mits. that my television would not accept the output from them. So I bought an expensive Pioneer Elite interlaced DVD player.

But I just talked to Mits. again, and they said sure it will take the progressive signal from a new player. But I don't have the cash to buy a new high end player.

So any thoughts - will I get a benefit from a cheap progressive player, or am I better off with an older interlaced high end player for pic. quality?

 

[Allan Jayne]

Hard one to answer.
A "cheap" progressive scan player may or may not do a good job with non-film source programs while a good progressive scan TV will. Being high definition does not guarantee excellent handling of interlaced video.
A "cheap" DVD player, progressive or not, will probably have the "chroma bug" while a very good DVD player, progressive or not, won't have this.
An "expensive" DVD player will have a nicer user interface for things like still frame, single step, chapter skip, etc.
I will have to leave it to you to learn about the various idiosyncrasies such as layer change stutter, motion artifacts and the chroma bug, and see if you can view things you don't like about your current equipment before you upgrade to a progressive DVD player.
More:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidbug2.htm

 

[Jim J]

Do search for panasonic RP82. that unit and it's 5 disc brother are available for $200. Excellent pictures and No Chroma Bug.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Go for one with 2:3 pulldown recognition and aspect ratio control.

Why were you ever told a prog-scan player wouldn't work with that Mitsu?

 

[Neil Joseph]

I am in this dilemma also. The interlaced DVD player I am using with my 11HT (which does its own "doubling") looked pretty magnificent. Evetually I want to get a decent prog scan to let the player do the 480p. There probably will be some minor improvements but I was not exactly crazy about many of the prog players I saw.

 

[Don Munsil]

There is really no correlation whatsoever between price and chroma bug. We just evaluated a $69 Chinese player that had no chroma bug, but Pioneer still has terrible chroma bug even in their most expensive units, as does Sony.

To answer the original poster's question, you will get substantially better video quality from a Panasonic RP-82 or RP-72 than you will from your Pioneer Elite, both in interlaced and progressive. I'm assuming you're talking about a DV-09 or DV-05, in which case, it has chroma bug, significant ringing, lower quality video DACs, and significant and visible Y/C delay. So in video, there's an easy answer. If you're asking about audio performance, I'm not the person to ask.

On the other hand, your first-gen Mits locks into "full" mode when you feed it a 480p signal, which is a stupid mistake on Mitsubishi's part. In fairness to them, a lot of companies made the same mistake. But you'll probably need to use interlaced mode for non-anamorphic discs so you can change the aspect ratio on the TV. Another option would be to get a player that has aspect ratio control internally, but right now there is no player with aspect control, no chroma bug, and excellent deinterlacing. There may be some in the next year or so, so it might be worth waiting.

Don