CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[ecrabb]

Hey guys,

I'm helping a buddy with a small HT on the cheap. Projector budget is about a grand (or so). Probably used 1080p from a few years ago. He's interested in doing a scope screen, so we discussed three ways to accomplish CIH scope:

1) Anamorphic lens and processor
2) Zoom
3) Fixed width on scope screen with processor

Option 1 probably isn't an option. Too expensive.

Option 2 is either too expensive with something like a JVC or AE4000, and hinky with manual shift/zoom with an Epson 8350 (which is a bit out of the price range, anyway). Might be the only option, though.

Option 3 seems like it might be a possibility. Assuming screen size is reasonable, most digitals are plenty bright to throw away 25% of brightness and use the center 75% of the panel. It's true that 16:9 source material will be displayed scaled 1920x1080 to 1422x800... The good thing is much of his 16x9 material will be sports and the like from DirecTV, which is 1440 anyway... Just losing about 20% of the vertical res. As a side-benefit, he could actually do a 9-foot wide 16x9 screen masked to 2.40 most of the time, but open the masking for the occasional movie like Dark Knight.

So, what's the cheapest scaler/processor to do option 3? We wouldn't need advanced CMS or frame rates or any of that. Just want re-formatting. Just spatial scaling to reformat. HDMI in and out would be ideal for simplicity, unless DVI with HDCP would work (though that would make me nervous.

Would something like DVDO VP30 work? Lumagen VisionHDQ? The HDQ is DVI... I assume it's HDCP and go between the AVR and projector. Do they introduce much delay?

Sorry for all the questions. Haven't really thought about scalers for some time.

SC

[Nashou66]

HDQ has the CIH option. Normal HDCP delay, and you get 11 Point Greyscale some CMS and gamma correction at 11 points.

Athanasios

[ecrabb]

Thanks, Athanasios! HDQ seems like it might be the way to go if it has a CIH scaling function.

Now, this isn't CRT where I can send it 1920x800 or whatever, then scale the source to fit that area. This would essentially be a digital reduction (zoom out) where the active output signal would still be 1920x1080, but the source would be scaled to 1400x800 or whatever, with black bars on all four sides... Essentially letter boxing and pillar boxing simultaneously.

Obviously something like the JVC RS-45 with power zoom and shift with lens memory would be a much better option to keep maximum resolution for 1.78 stuff, but I do like that 1.78 material won't be brighter than scope material.

Re: delay, I wasn't talking about handshake, but just general processing, i.e. video behind picture by xx milliseconds or whatever. He does a little gaming occasionally, so I'm assuming a very small bit of delay probably isn't a problem, but just double-checking. I assume it's just a frame or two.

Will the HDQ do 24p in and out? You don't have to answer all this stuff, either... I can just dive into the manual.

Thanks!

SC

[Nashou66]

Right about the CIH, it does it digitally, 1080p@24 in and I never noticed any image delay.

The manual is online at lumagen for the details.

Athanasios

[ecrabb]

Thanks, Nash!!! I'll start trolling the 'bay for him.

Cheers,
SC

[Nashou66]

The HDP would do the same as well just not as many inputs and no SDI unless you find one that has it.

Athanasios

[AVphile]

I tried programming my Anthem VXP with a custom res of 1920x817p.
It cropped the source accordingly but it stretched the image vertically to fill the screen.
My PJ is already at 0 vertical height just to get 16:9 so I can't squeeze it down any more.
Is this normal or is the VP doing something wrong?

[Nashou66]