Do Video Scalers work???

[aeh10]

I have read ads from DVDO about their upscalers and at a $1000 price tag I would hope to get near HD quality from such a piece of equipment. Do these things work or do they just make SD programming nic"er" looking? If I wanted to achieve near HD quality would a scaler do it?

[L.J.]

I'd spend the money on BR titles.

[pixelthis]

I have read ads from DVDO about their upscalers and at a $1000 price tag I would hope to get near HD quality from such a piece of equipment. Do these things work or do they just make SD programming nic"er" looking? If I wanted to achieve near HD quality would a scaler do it?

My Vizio has a dvdo scaler, one of the reasons I bought it.
It will probably take 480i and do an exelent job of turning it into 480p.
BUT 480i IS going by tne boards, sooo....
The "upscaling" in DVD players and the like will give you a great pic but you cant get
extra res that isnt already there.
Its been said that some of the more expensive scalers can extrapolate resolution,
but dont know if the DVDO can.
BASICALLY IN THE REAL WORLD THE best increase in picture is the 480i to 480p
that any DVD player can give ya.
And the way the world is moving, with HD taking over, basically, that is probably going to be all you need.
And any blu player does an exelent job of that,
So I SECOND L.J, and say GO BLU:1:

[GMichael]

I have read ads from DVDO about their upscalers and at a $1000 price tag I would hope to get near HD quality from such a piece of equipment. Do these things work or do they just make SD programming nic"er" looking? If I wanted to achieve near HD quality would a scaler do it?

If you have an HD TV it already has a scaler. A $1000 (scaler only) model may do a better job of it, but your PS3 is going to do a fine jobe as well (as long as you are using an HDMI cable).
I agree with the rest. Buy BR instead. They are worth the extra $.

[elapsed]

My Vizio has a dvdo scaler, one of the reasons I bought it.
It will probably take 480i and do an exelent job of turning it into 480p.
BUT 480i IS going by tne boards, sooo....
I haven't been able to find any relationship between Vizio and Anchor Bay, what model Vizio do you have that has a DVDO video processor?

[RoadRunner6]

Your XBR has a native resolution of 1080p. The purpose of the DVDO unit is to take the incoming resolution such as standard definition TV or DVD's (both at 480i) and upscale them to 1080p. You already have that scaler/de-interlacer in your TV and maybe in your DVD if you have an up-scaling DVD player. Blu-Ray is already at 1080p.

The DVDO unit adds lots of input/outputs, aspect control and flexibility, etc. that your TV or DVD player might not have. Hopefully for the $1000 it also will do an improved job of the scaling from 480i to 1080p and thus produce a better (if perhaps only slightly) picture than the scaler in the TV or DVD player. It will probably give you a slightly better picture from your 480i sources but it will not turn 480i into high definition (720p, 768p, 1080i or 1080p). Only high definition sources will give you a true HD picture.

The source is of course very important. The super bowl with the great picture produced by the HD cameras produced a super picture on my bedroom plasma which is a EDTV 480p plasma. No scaler will correct standard definition sources that are poorly produced or even HD sources that are the same and highly compressed. The DVDO might make them look slightly better.

The answer is to buy from a dealer that you can return if unsatisfied. Download and print out the owner's manual and read it thoroughly. Then order it and try it out/compare and see what results you get. Be sure when using the DVDO you are bypassing the scaler/de-interlacer in the TV or DVD.

RR6

[f0rge]

a lot of full blown receivers in the $1000-1500 price range have scalers, i hear the onkyo 805 has a really good one.