Allen Watson wrote:
> I have a problem that nobody else seems to have. I'm thinking about
> getting a bigger HDTV, but I have a lot of old SD and VHS-quality
> material, which looks blurry when viewed full-size on a large screen.
> Is there any way I can shrink a video picture so that it occupies less
> than the full height and width of the screen? In other words, so the
> picture has black bars all around-- letterbox AND pillarbox?
>
> Ideally, I'd like to be able to view widescreen movies and other HD
> material on as large a screen as I can afford, but that makes my old
> material look blurry. And no, I don't want to throw away the old stuff.
> Much of it is simply priceless-- that is, I can't replace it at any
> price.
>
> I've been looking at specifications for video scalers, but as far as I
> can tell, they provide only the standard presets-- fine for upscaling
> 480-line stuff to full-screen on a 720p or 1080p monitor. I want custom
> settings that would let me, for example, display 480-line video on the
> middle 480 lines of a 720p monitor. Are there scalers that can do that?
>
> I'd be grateful for any information.
>
> Cheers!
> - Allen
Considering the full raft of legacy material you have, I'll recommend
paying particular attention to two things, either or both can be applied
with an external scaler, or they can be included features within a
primary component somewhere in the playback chain.
1) 3:2 pull-down
2) 120Hz refresh rate.
#1 can be eliminated by a different feature - that being the capability
of displaying both 24fps and 30fps material natively. Most SD DVD's are
24fps, most SD VHS are 30fps.
#2 can't really be overstated, and can make a world of difference.
If both capabilities are available, you will care a lot less about the
eventual image size after it's been up-rezzed by the HDTV. In my case,
I chose an HDTV that includes these features to keep things simple.
But (there's always one of these), there are other issues inherent with
playing legacy SD material on an HDTV, and unfortunately, an HDTV will
expose these issues far more than any SD display could - and there
really ain't a whole lot you can do about that.
--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'
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