Video Processor, Video Upconversion & Signal Switching
Contents
1. GREG ROGERS Reviewer s Choice The Lumagen VisionPro Video Processor is the type of product that like to review First and foremost it delivers excep tional performance Second it s an out standing value It provides extremely flexi ble scaling functions and valuable input switching that isn t included on more expen sive processors Third it works as adver tised without frustrating bugs or design errors that compromise video quality or ren der important features inoperable CoOUIPMCRIT REVIEW Product Overview The VisionPro 1 895 provides two important video functions upconversion and source switching The versatile video processing algorithms deliver extensive control over input and output formats Video enthusiasts and professional calibrators can optimize the image format for each standard definition source in a home theatre There are eight analog video inputs and an optional SDI digital video input 400 All eight analog inputs accept composite or S video signals or up to four inputs can be used for 480i YPbPr component video signals Alternatively two of the latter inputs accept YPbPr or RGBHV pass through signals The VisionPro provides YPbPr or RGB output signals with a complete selection of sync options It produces virtually any pro gressive video format between 480p and 1080p and also generates 1080i for CRT based rear projection TVs Upconversion Consumer upconverters are2. and even lines create a picture with twice the horizontal lines of a single field To avoid wide area flicker a new field is displayed approximately 60 times per second Inter line flicker occurs along horizontal edges because the top or bottom edge of an object appears to lie on an odd line in one field and an even line in the next field As odd and even fields are alternately dis played the edge appears to move up and down by one line in the pic ture Since odd fields and even fields are each displayed approximately 30 times per second the edge appears to blink on and off or bob up and down at a 30 Hz rate This is commonly called line twitter Line twitter is not limited to the edges of objects It can appear wher ever there are high contrast horizontal lines in an interlaced image The addition of slow vertical motion increases the twittering as horizontal lines or edges move up or down across field lines Inverse telecine deinterlacing can eliminate line twitter from inter laced film sources and motion adaptive deinterlacing can reduce line twitter from original interlaced video sources But to reduce line twitter on interlaced displays vertical filtering is applied in video cameras and film to video DVD transfers to soften blur horizontal edges For that rea son deinterlacing 480i video can never produce the full vertical resolu tion that would otherwise be possible from an unfiltered 480p source Jagged edges jaggies alo
3. into four menu groups IN OUT MISC and SAVE Some additional setup functions are not included in the OSD menus and must instead be accessed by entering a short numeric sequence on the remote control That simplifies the on screen menu struc ture and prevents a user from making inad vertent changes to basic setup parameters Input Features The IN menu functions can be individually calibrated for each input source The PDSTL and ENHNCE settings in the ADJ submenu should be made prior to adjusting black level contrast color saturation and hue in the COLR submenu PDSTL pedestal or setup should be set to match the nominal black level 0 or 7 5 IRE of each input signal The standard for composite and S video signals is 7 5 IRE in North America The black level for YPbPr signals is usually O IRE which follows the EIA CEA 770 2 standard but it may be 7 5 IRE on older DVD players Some DVD play ers include an option for no setup dark or enhanced black which all refer to black at 0 IRE ENHNCE expands the lowest 2 IRE of the input signal would normally turn the ENHNCE feature off it is enabled by default but it may be useful with some non CRT based displays that can t produce totally dark black levels The other ADJ submenu items are SIZE Y C DLY SHARP and SYNC SIZE provides adjustments to scale and position the incoming image with respect to the output frame It is valuable because image posi
4. motion adaptive deinterlacing for origi nal interlaced video sources Successful inverse telecine deinterlacing depends on accurately detecting the 2 3 field pulldown pattern that is used to con vert film to interlaced video and smoothly handling breaks in that cadence at edit points The VisionPro did an excellent job of handling the transitions between the film and video segments of Video Essentials Montage Of Images There were no glitch es or flashes of line combing at any transi tion It also performed flawlessly on all of the DVD movies that viewed over a period of several months It is much more difficult to deinterlace original video sources since the images originate as interlaced fields and not pro gressive frames Unlike inverse telecine deinterlacing for film sources there are no ideal motion adaptive deinterlacing algorithms EE EQUIPMENT REVIEW and there are inevitable tradeoffs between jaggies line twitter and picture softening depending on image content and the spe cific processing algorithms that are used On the Montage Of Images the VisionPro does an exceptional job with the zoom and pan shots of the bridge struc tures and the difficult zoom into the leafy tree Jaggies appear along the frozen branch and the waving American flag but the picture is sharper than deinterlacers that render those images without jaggies Sports broadcasts are the toughest chal lenge for video sour
5. provided to oper ate the VisionPro from a personal computer or home theatre controller or to update the firmware with new enhancements The RS 232 serial interface commands are included in the User Manual and firmware enhance ments are documented and posted on the Lumagen Web site www lumagen com An external power module supplies 5 volts DC through a cable to a rear panel jack The power module includes a separate power cord to connect to the AC power line and an LED that indicates when the module is receiving power Configuration Memories Configuration memories store all of the set tings that apply to processing the video signals pass through signals are not processed Each of the eight analog video inputs plus the optional SDI input has two configuration memories MEMA MEMB that are unique for each input By default all configuration mem ories share the same output format But the user can also choose to save independent output formats for each configuration memory The configuration memories are selected with the MEMA and MEMB buttons on the remote control The dual configuration memories for each input provide a number of useful possibilities The MEMA configura tion memories could be used to store set tings that are optimized for critical movie viewing in a totally dark theatre while the MEMB memories might hold settings for viewing in a brighter socially interactive environment Another possibility would
6. usually called video scalers but there is much Page 1 6 Lumagen VisionPro Specifications Inputs Eight Programmable Inputs BNC Composite Up To 8 S Video Up To 8 Component Up To 4 Pass Through Up To 2 SDI Optional Outputs YPbPr RGB BNC Video Processing 3 2 amp 2 2 Pulldown Reconstruction Per Pixel Motion Adaptive Video Deinterlacing Detail Enhancing Resolution Scaling Output Resolutions 480p To 1080p In Scan Line Increments Plus 1080i Dimensions WHD Inches 17 x 3 1 2 x 10 1 4 Price 1 895 SDI Input Option 400 more to upconversion than scaling Analog source signals must be digitized and stan dard definition interlaced video must be converted to progressive video Then the progressive video can be scaled to create the desired number of horizontal lines per frame If 1080i signals are required pro gressive frames must be converted back into interlaced fields Finally the digital video fields or frames may be converted to analog YPbPr or RGB component video to drive a high resolution projector or monitor Every step in the upconversion process visibly affects picture quality and each element is addressed in the VisionPro design It utilizes 10 bit over sampled analog to digital and digital to analog converters to improve signal linearity and reduce video noise A Silicon Image Sil 504 digital processor provides optimal inverse telecine deinterlacing for film sources and mot
7. Cr digital video signals on a single 75 ohm coax cable Lumagen recently added an optional SDI input to the VisionPro This connection bypass es digital to analog D A conversion in a DVD player and analog to digital A D conversion in the video processor That eliminates DVD player edge artifacts potential noise and jitter from D A and A D conversions and it maintains the full luma and chroma resolution of DVD images Appearance The VisionPro has a black anodized brushed aluminum front panel with only three buttons and a backlit LCD status display The all metal case is entirely black and occupies a 17 x 10 25 inch footprint Adapters are includ ed for mounting in a standard 19 inch rack 2 RU 3 5 inch height There is no fan so the video processor operates silently Inputs And Outputs The rear panel includes eight analog video inputs that can be configured to accept a variety of signal formats All eight analog inputs can be designated to accept com posite or S video Y C signals or four of the inputs can be selected to accept YPbPr standard definition interlaced component video signals Two of the latter four inputs can also be used as pass through inputs for YPbPr or RGBHV signals The pass through inputs are buffered and provide 300 MHz nominal bandwidth for high definition video signals but only standard definition inter laced signals can be deinterlaced or scaled High quality 75 ohm BNC jacks are provid ed f
8. age but a significant portion of the film frame will be lost on each side The remote control s up down cursor buttons adjust Zoom when a menu is not on screen The Zoom factor can be changed to produce 5 percent increments by entering a numeric sequence from the remote control Optimal Formats For Every Display The fundamental purpose of a scaler is to change scale the number of horizontal video lines in each video frame If there are too few horizontal scan lines in a CRT based display we see the vertical gaps between the lines and a jagged stair step appearance jaggies along diagonal edges Scalers are also required for fixed pixel displays because each row of pixels in the display device must ultimately be driven by one horizontal video line Hence the number of active visible horizontal lines in each video frame must be scaled to match the native resolution of each fixed pixel display The VisionPro provides eight preset out put formats 480p 540p 600p 720p 768p 840p 1080p and 1080i The format designates the number of active horizontal lines in each frame The preset formats will be adequate in many applications but the VisionPro can also produce any format from 480p to 1080p in single line increments For instance you can match a plasma display panel with a 1024 pixel vertical resolution by specifying 1024 lines per frame The preset formats can be selected by entering a numeric sequence or any format c
9. al frequency response which produces outlining halo around ver tical and diagonal lines The S video inputs have better than usual chroma response The 1 0 MHz color stripes on Video Essentials Snell amp Wilcox test pattern were reproduced with nearly equal brightness using S video or YPbPr inputs At 1 5 MHz the S video response was still quite good but less than the YPbPr chroma resolution Composite video signals should never be used in a home theatre because the inevitable cross color and cross luminance artifacts can be avoided by using compo nent or S video signals from digital video sources The VisionPro is not immune to these problems when driven with composite video signals The AVIA Guide To Home Theater resolution pattern generated severe cross color rainbows on the 3 0 4 1 MHz diagonal line patterns and the Snell amp Wilcox pattern from Video Essentials pro duced cross luminance dot crawl within the color stripes There was also luma smear on diagonal edges that produced a softer picture than the S video or YPbPr inputs Pass Through Input tested the pass through input with the 720p and 1080i Sharpness patterns from the AccuPel HDG 3000 There is no visible edge ringing or outlining artifacts even with the generator s fastest edge transitions Deinterlacing The VisionPro uses the Silicon Image Sil 504 Digital Video Processor to provide ideal inverse telecine deinterlacing for film sources and
10. an be set in the OUT VRES menu Most HD capable rear projectors accept only a few formats normally 480p and 1080i and sometimes 540p or 720p But CRT front projectors are usually compatible with a wide range of scan formats Although 720p or 768p is a good choice for 7 inch and 8 inch CRT projectors it may not be optimum and most 9 inch CRT projectors perform best with formats between 840p and 1080p Optimum performance is nor mally obtained when each horizontal scan line just touches the line above and below it This is the sweet spot or golden dis play format for CRT projectors The VisionPro s ability to exactly specify the number of active scan lines per frame per mits each CRT front projector to operate at its optimum sweet spot Contrary to popular belief that alone will not increase the brightness of the display but it allows a CRT projector to be calibrat ed to produce a brighter picture without degrading gray scale performance The maximum picture brightness and optimum gray scale tracking are tradeoffs that should be calibrated by a professional with appro priate instrumentation The service menu provides a special feature to improve gray scale calibration The red green and blue signal gains can be independently adjusted at 20 30 50 80 and 100 IRE to optimize the color tem perature at those levels This is particularly useful with CRT projectors which often have a bluish color temperatu
11. be to store settings optimized for film sources in MEMA and settings for live sports broad casts in MEMB The VisionPro includes special modes that can automatically select MEMA for incoming NTSC signals and MEMB for PAL signals Another related feature provides the ability to specify one output format for all incoming NTSC signals and another for all PAL signals COPY functions simplify setting up the configuration memories by allowing the current input settings or output format to be separately copied to one or all configu 2 Widescreen Review Issue 81 February 2004 ration memories A SAVE command is pro vided to separately store each individual configuration in non volatile memory which will be retained when the unit is unplugged Remote Control The infrared remote control buttons are backlit and feature distinctive sizes and shapes that make it a pleasure to use in a dark the atre Menu OK Exit and cursor buttons provide intuitive navigation of the OSD on screen display menu system A numeric keypad provides direct selection of any of the nine inputs There are also dedicated buttons for selecting the A and B configura tion memories and the 4 3 1 33 1 LBOX 16 9 1 78 1 or 1 85 1 input aspect ratios There are also component configuration files ccf for a Pronto remote control posted on the Lumagen Web site www lumagen com OSD Menus The most commonly used VisionPro features are arranged
12. ce deinterlacing watched several basketball games and the VisionPro fared well There was a good bal ance between minimizing jaggies along the on court lines and logos and only slight picture softening preferred the VisionPro to upconverters with fewer jaggies but soft er pictures Viewing Impressions used a Runco IDP 980 Ultra CRT Front Projector to evaluate picture quality using a variety of VisionPro output formats Lumagen also provided a modified Panasonic DVD RP91 DVD player with an SDI output to evaluate performance with the SDI digital video interconnect The Lumagen scaling algorithms are very impressive Aside from some slight image softening on formats other than 480p there are virtually no visible artifacts from inverse telecine film mode deinterlac ing or scaling When driven with analog video signals the VisionPro displays the same impressive performance that the Lumagen Vision did in Issue 72 Color decoding accuracy is virtually perfect and the YPbPr chroma bandwidth produces excellent color detail The 10 bit A D converters provide excel lent digitizing linearity to render superb shadow level detail without contributing visible luma or chroma noise in dark scenes also verified the excellent small signal linearity and low noise using the 1 10 IRE patterns from the AccuPel HDG 3000 generator The VisionPro s digital to analog con version system is exceptionally free of edge ringing and out
13. inates any loss of luma or chroma bandwidth during analog and digital signal conversions The loss of luma bandwidth is often insignifi cant but the reduction in chroma band width during the DVD player s D A conver sion is visible on many DVDs Although there is no difference in color accuracy the difference in chroma resolution is visible throughout The Fifth Element Small color details are slightly brighter and clearer using the SDI input instead of the YPbPr input Even more apparent is the improved clarity of intricate color patterns in Mike Myer s coat and the strands of yarn in Heather Graham s dress during the London street scene in Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me With black levels very carefully calibrat ed didn t perceive a noticeable difference in contrast or shadow detail using the SDI input However this depends on the analog small signal performance of the DVD player also tested the pass through input with 720p and 1080i HDTV broadcast signals There was no visible degradation of picture quality that could detect Summary The Lumagen VisionPro provides excep tional performance features and value It blends outstanding picture quality with extremely flexible scaling functions and includes input switching for eight analog video sources The SDI option adds a digital video input which eliminates several DVD player prob lems that can degrade picture quality The VisionPro will satisfy video en
14. ion adaptive deinterlacing for original interlaced video sources Lumagen developed its own proprietary scaling algo Manufactured In The U S A By Lumagen Inc 15075 SW Koll Parkway Suite A Beaverton Oregon 97006 Tel 866 888 3330 www lumagen com rithms to enhance edge sharpness while virtually eliminating edge outlining artifacts The scaling algorithms also provide extensive image sizing and output format options SDI Input Sadly the analog signal quality of many DVD players is rather poor Edge outlining and ringing artifacts can severely compro mise image quality and are often worse on progressive outputs than interlaced outputs Digital and analog filters in the digital to analog converter system are the main cul prits Unfortunately the problems are not limited to lower priced players many high er end DVD players are the worse offenders Consequently its not surprising that DVD players with Digital Visual Interface DVI digital video outputs have been well received A DVI output bypasses the digital to analog conver sion in the DVD player to eliminate a major source of artifacts For the same reason video www WidescreenReview com Issue 81 February 2004 1 COUIPMERIT i REVIEW Y enthusiasts were adding SMPTE 259M serial digital interfaces SDI to DVD players long before DVI outputs began to appear SMPTE 259M is a professional SDI standard that trans ports uncompressed 480i or 576i YCb
15. ion review both products have been enhanced with perform ance improvements and additional features via firmware upgrades that are available from the Page 4 6 Lumagen Web site The remote control described in this review is also new and can be purchased from Lumagen for the Vision One of the more significant firmware enhancements is a vertical filter that improves the Chroma Upsampling Error CUE that is pres ent in the MPEG decoder of many DVD players The filter also improves the video quality of origi nal interlaced video sources that suffer from a similar type of chroma upsampling problem There have also been new features to automatically switch between an S video and pass through input for satellite cable boxes that auto switch SD HD outputs side bar panning to help CRT and plasma dis plays avoid image retention problems burn in genlock discussed earlier and individual input size position and zoom set tings for each input aspect ratio Other improvements include a reduction in video delay now 3 to 4 frames addition al output size and position range for dis plays with excessive overscan additional resolution for the grayscale gamma calibra tion feature adjustable H sync width for dis play compatibility and improvements to avoid black level differences between sources with or without Macrovision Resolution And Scaling The VisionPro provides exceptional scal ing performance when its Sharpne
16. lining artifacts Combined with its excellent scaling it can render pictures with superb clarity and image definition But it is critical that the DVD player s digital to analog conversion system provide signals that are free of edge artifacts to realize the full benefits of the VisionPro Video system performance can get even better when the VisionPro is supplied with digital signals through the optional www WidescreenReview com Issue 81 February 2004 5 COUIPMERIT i REVIEW SDI input Eliminating the DVD player s digital to analog conversion completely eliminates that source of edge artifacts that degrade picture definition The SDI connection also eliminates sampling jitter during analog to digital conversion which can result from noise on the DVD player s analog signals Sampling jitter blurs fine details and reduces picture definition The improvements you will see with an SDI connection obviously depend on the quality of your analog signals Compared with the best analog DVD player signals the differences in image definition are subtle but the serial digital video interface is supe rior The difficult to render haystacks at the beginning of Star Trek Insurrection have never looked clearer The rock formations at the opening of Indian Jones And The Last Crusade and the rough textures in the Cairo scenes of Raiders Of The Lost Ark are also examples that exhibit better definition The SDI connection also elim
17. ng diagonal lines are an unavoidable consequence of a discrete line or pixel structure but interlacing exacer bates jaggies Segments along a diagonal edge will appear to flicker on and off because they lie in different interlaced fields If there is slow verti cal movement the jaggies may appear to strobe or move running jaggies Interlaced combing occurs when an object is in motion Our eyes tend to track the object particularly on a wide screen Since the object appears at different locations in the odd and even fields we perceive the odd and even scan lines separately rather than integrating them into a complete picture Vertical and diagonal edges of moving objects may appear like teeth in a comb because each field has only half the scan lines of the frame Even when objects aren t in motion a small compo nent of vertical jitter in the picture may cause our eyes to lock onto the fields and see scan lines as individual fields rather than frames This is more likely on larger screens where the scan line spacing is greater The remedy for interlace artifacts is to deinterlace the video and dis play progressive frames Then by scaling the video to have more hori zontal lines per frame the visibility of the individual lines and jaggies along diagonal edges can be reduced or eliminated Hl Page 3 6 www WidescreenReview com Issue 81 February 2004 3 COUIPMERIT i REVIEW frames that represent any aspect ratio fr
18. nu adjusts the intensity of the gray sidebars 0 49 IRE when dis playing a 4 3 image on a wider screen There is also a sidebar pan feature that is enabled with a numeric key sequence Every few minutes it moves a 4 3 image slightly left or right to minimize differential phosphor aging burn in The LEVL submenu permits an output black level pedestal 7 5 IRE setup to be turned on or off This should normally be set to 0 IRE unless it is necessary to match the signals from another source that also drives the display The MODE submenu provides a versa tile set of options that associate the output format with incoming signal formats The COPY submenu permits the output format to be copied to other configuration memo ries Other Menu Features The MISC submenu provides the ability to enable or disable on screen status mes sages lock configurations to prevent changes set the power up state enter a user defined power on message and change the AUX connector function unless the SDI option is present 2 CQuUIPMENT REVIEW The MISC submenu also enables test patterns Red green blue and gray fields gray windows and crosshatch test patterns are included The intensity of each pattern can be adjusted in 10 IRE increments from 10 100 IRE The SAVE submenu provides a com mand to save the current configuration in non volatile memory and an UNDO com mand that restores the configuration that was overwritten by the la
19. om 1 33 1 to 2 35 1 in 0 01 increments The remote control provides four Input Aspect Ratio buttons Select 4 3 to correctly display full frame 4 3 images in the center of a wider screen Select 16 9 to display widescreen movies that are available in the 16 9 anamorphic DVD format or LBOX for other widescreen movies The 1 85 1 selection provides a special mode to display film material that was verti cally stretched to convert a 1 85 1 film aspect ratio to the 16 9 DVD format However this doesn t apply to all 1 85 1 films using the 16 9 DVD format The aspect ratio conversion is sometimes accom plished by cropping the width of the picture by 4 percent or by including 4 percent more of the image height on the DVD than was seen at the cinema CRT front projectors include analog siz ing to display multiple aspect ratio formats in which case the VisionPro input aspect ratio scaling isn t required but it may still be useful It is more convenient to set up and maintain a CRT projector to display a single frame format than multiple formats Although analog sizing is technically advan tageous in practice the reduced effort or cost to maintain only a single display format may encourage improved projector calibra tion and consequently better picture quali ty Zoom The Zoom function enlarges the image by 15 percent or 33 percent The latter will fill the height of a 1 78 1 16 9 screen with a 2 40 1 widescreen movie im
20. or all video inputs and outputs which are preferable for their superior electrical and mechanical properties Lumagen includes a selection of conversion cables and adapters to accommodate consumer video sources that use RCA or 4 pin mini DIN connectors Two sets of three BNC to RCA cables two BNC to S video cables and three BNC to RCA adapters are provided Additional conver sion cables and adapters are available from Lumagen or other cable manufacturers Either YPbPr or RGBHV signals can be out put 5 BNC jacks RGB signals are configurable with separate HV or composite sync or embed ded sync on green Embedded sync can be bi level or tri level Any combination of H V or composite sync polarities can be selected YPbPr signals with bi level or tri level sync can be produced for any format but only 480p 720p 1080i and 1080p are industry standard YPbPr formats All YPbPr formats are output with ITU Rec 709 high definition color matrix encoding So unless a display has a user selectable option to apply Rec 709 color decoding to 480p sig nals that YPbPr format should be avoided When the SDI option is included the AUX BNC jack becomes the serial digital video input Otherwise the AUX jack can be used as a TTL level input to turn on the VisionPro or as an output to turn on another device The VisionPro does not have a DVI output which would complete a purely digi tal video path to a DLP projector An RS 232 connector is
21. re in the mid dle of the brightness range The adjustment resolution was increased from 100 to 1000 steps in a recent firmware enhancement Output Format Adjustments The VisionPro provides other output for mat adjustments in addition to the number of active lines per frame These include out put SIZE and position POS horizontal line rate HRATE and vertical frame rate VRATE The POS adjustments reposition the out put image horizontally and vertically within 4 Widescreen Review Issue 81 February 2004 the total scan lines of the frame The SIZE adjustments scale the image to occupy more or fewer scan lines and more or fewer pixels per scan line without changing the total number of scan lines in the frame or the total number of pixels per line The HRATE value along with the VRATE value determines the total scan lines per frame which includes the active scan lines plus additional black lines for the vertical retrace interval When the VRES active scan lines value is altered the HRATE value is automatically changed to maintain an acceptable vertical retrace interval Hence there is no reason to alter the HRATE setting unless a display specifically requires a par ticular timing that is different from the auto matic setting The VRATE setting specifies the number of video frames displayed per second The North American broadcast standard is 59 94 60 1 001 frames per second FPS although ATSC standard
22. s also permit 60 FPS The VisionPro factory default value is set to 59 94 FPS Nevertheless slight timing differences produce a dropped frame about once every 10 minutes Although this would rarely be noticed Lumagen has implement ed a genlock function for 59 94 Hz NTSC and 50 Hz PAL rates which ensures that one frame is output for each incoming field Lumagen s genlock implementation pro duces slightly non standard output formats that may not work with every display For that reason the genlock function can be enabled or disabled through a numeric key sequence The VRATE setting can be adjusted from 48 75 FPS in 0 01 steps for all formats rates up to 120 FPS at 600p but can t envision a reason to use any setting other than 59 94 FPS Higher settings force repeated frames and lower settings result in dropped frames For movie viewing it would be desirable to display each 24 FPS film frame exactly 3 times at 72 FPS actual ly 71 93 FPS to create smoother motion but there is no provision to ensure that each deinterlaced film frame will be repeated exactly 3 times Instead 60 percent of the time a 4 2 pattern will result rather than a 3 3 pattern which makes judder worse rather than better Shared Enhancements The Lumagen Vision 995 and VisionPro share the same video processing algorithms and key integrated circuits reviewed the Vision in Issue 72 May 2008 shortly after it was introduced Since the Vis
23. ss control is set to the default 0 position Its scaling algorithms maintain excellent sharpness while avoiding visible edge outlining or ring ing artifacts when scaling horizontal and vertical line patterns with standard video edge transitions from an AccuPel HDG 3000 Calibration Generator www accupel com Even when the generator is set to produce much faster edges there is only an insignifi cantly faint halo on vertical lines which is barely visible when standing close to the screen Therefore the VisionPro won t add edge artifacts to the output of DVD players that seek to maximize sharpness and reso lution by pushing video filtering beyond standard frequency limits Horizontal resolution is excellent for all output formats The 540p and 1080i formats exhibit excellent modulation depth contrast between the closely spaced black and white lines and no aliasing on the AccuPel pixel burst patterns Slight aliasing is visible on some output formats but the modulation depth remains extremely good on the 6 75 MHz single pixel burst lines The vertical resolution is also consistently excellent There is no loss of vertical resolution when deinterlacing 480i to 480p static patterns and vertical scaling creates only modest softening along horizontal edges for other formats The Sharpness control should be left at Page 5 6 the default 0 setting Otherwise it adds band pass peaking centered at about 2 6 MHz to the horizont
24. st SAVE command The FCTRY command sets all parameters to the factory defaults without overwriting the non volatile memory Input Aspect Ratio If the aspect ratio of a source is not the same as the screen aspect ratio scaling is required to display a picture with correct proportions In most cases a projector or monitor provides the necessary scaling But aspect ratio scaling in some fixed pixel pro jectors and display panels may be consid erably less than optimal and some early HD capable rear projectors only display 480p signals correctly when they are received in a 16 9 format The VisionPro includes Input Aspect Ratio scaling so a display need only receive and process video frames in its native screen aspect ratio For most home theatre displays the screen will be 1 78 1 16 9 but the VisionPro can be set to output Interlaced Video Artifacts The purpose of converting interlaced video to progressive video deinterlacing is to eliminate interlaced video artifacts The most objec tionable interlaced video artifacts are inter line flicker line twitter jagged edges and motion combing Interlaced video is composed of a sequence of fields where each field contains only the odd or the even horizontal lines of picture information In the A80i interlaced format each field contains 240 active visible lines of picture information When the fields are sequentially displayed on a CRT monitor we perceive that the odd
25. thusiasts and professional installers who want to optimize the image format for each standard definition source in a home theatre Hill Provided By REVIEW This review Copyright 2004 Widescreen Review has been reproduced in its entirety from Issue 81 February 2004 of Widescreen Review The Essential Home Theatre Resource Take advantage of our no risk subscription offer 13 For 34 1 free trial 12 monthly issues 1 special edition full access pass to WSR s paid subscriber Web site a 56 savings off the monthly newsstand price over 43 savings off the cover price Phone WSR s Customer Relations Department at 909 676 4914 or 888 WSR SUBS or fax at 909 693 2960 to order or request on line at www WidescreenReview com 13 Or you can mail your request to Widescreen Review 27645 Commerce Center Drive Temecula CA 92590 All major credit cards are accepted Foreign subscription rates are 40 00US Canada Mexico and 75 00US International Canada Mexico and International Special Edition Offer Plus Shipping Cost The Essential Home Theatre Resource WIDESCREEN 6 Widescreen Review Issue 81 February 2004 Page 6 6
26. tion Page 2 6 errors are common from many sources It can also be used to remove an annoying line of vertical blanking interval data visible as white dashes at the top of an image The Y C DLY adjustment delays the luma signal relative to the chroma signal by 7 steps at 0 25 pixel per step The SHARP adjustment provides four settings The default setting is 0 which provides the most level frequency response The SYNC item only appears when using pass through signals Incoming RGB sync signals can either be processed to automatically match the polarity of internally generated sync signals or simply buffered without altering polarity This is an important feature because many displays use sepa rate configuration settings based on the polarity of incoming sync signals The TYPE submenu configures appropriate inputs to accept composite S video compo nent or pass through signals The NAME submenu permits the input configuration memories to be assigned names with four or less characters The COPY item provides the ability to copy the IN group settings between configuration memories Output Features The OUT menu provides precise adjust ment of the video output format The RES submenu specifies the number of active scan lines the vertical frame rate the hori zontal line rate the output size and position and the screen aspect ratio The latter can be set from 1 33 1 to 2 35 1 in 0 01 incre ments The GBAR subme
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