# Video Scaler Question (Long)



## Guest (Mar 27, 2007)

Hello and thanks in advance for any answers. I have looked all over for the answer to this question but haven't found it yet.

I have a home theater setup in my basement that I absolutely LOVE. The HD TV and DVDs and are just flawless and everyone loves to come over and watch movies with us. My setup is as follows...

- Panasonic PT AE700U Projector fed by compnent cable from Amp

- 110" Theater screen - (I made it from screen material that I bought from ebay.)

- Onkyo 1000 watt 5.1 surround sound system (Model HT-R520)
(This drives both the home theater system and the Klipsch speakers in the game room)

- Comcast HD DVR - Compnenet cable to Amp

- Sony DVD HDMI DVD Player (Model DVP-NS75H) HDMI feeds projector

- Sony VHS - DVD (Model RDR-VX515) Compnent cable to Amp

- Home built 3.4 Ghz Mega PC with TV tuner card. S-Video to projector

- Philips Pronto Pro remote (I've had over 1 year and still haven't had time to finish programing it!)

So... Here are my issues / questions...

As long as I am watching HD content, whether it's one of the the DVD players or HD TV the picture is astounding! I still can't believe how crisp and lifelike it is. However... When watching regular TV -OR- using my PC it is WAY fuzzy. I use large fonts on my PC and I still have trouble seeing icons and letters on the screen. It doesn't matter how well I focus it is still not good enough. The same with regular TV. As long as you are far away (In the very back row) you can watch regular TV and it's not too bad but if you are in the front row it's way too fuzzy. I've heard that I need a video scaler to enhance the picture in order to clarify the PC and regular TV. I know that it won't turn regular TV or the PC into HD quality but I've heard that it will take off some of the fuzz. This may be a stupid question but how expensive a scaler do I need to do the trick? I've seen them on ebay from $89 to $2000! I'd really like to get one to solve my problem but I don't want to break the bank.

Other questions (Not as important) are... What is the "Smart Card" slot on my Comcast HD DVR used for? No card was given to me when they delivered it. Also... It has an ethernet port on the back of it to use as an Internet connection with no modem needed supposedly. Has anyone ever tried this? (I ran CAT-5 from my office directly above the theater to my PC.)

I really would like an answer to my video scaler question... The other ones are not as important as I am just curious about them.

Thanks!

Rick


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## Harold Dale (Jun 26, 2006)

Well I can tell you that your connection to your PC is not good enough. Svideo does not allow a very high resolution image to pass through. If you use DVI or HDMI for the HTPC you would be able to pass through the projectors native resolution 1280x720p. As for the TV standard def channels just don't look so good. You could get an outboard scaler that might help it some but they are a little pricey. But deffinately if you change your connection type on your PC it will greatly increase picture quality. Your PC should be HD quality honestly! So whoever told you your pc can't be as good as HD well.... As for a scaler its going to be probably 1000 bucks at least if you want a good one. Check out DVDO... this page has a bunch of info on them but they are generally the standard for video processing. http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVDO.htm


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## bobgpsr (Apr 20, 2006)

I would try to get either a VGA connection (or DVI-A) straight from PC to projector or a component connection from PC through Amp to projector. Do this before doing any type of scaler. Your PC should be able to do a scaler's job using Dscaler or ffdshow applications. Like Dougie085 says a Svideo connection is just not good enough.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2007)

Thanks guys... I should have known about the PC... I bought the TV card for it and it has a DVI output on the back I believe. What about regular TV though... Is it worth it to buy a scaler? I really don't want to sink too much more money into it since we usually watch DVDs or HD TV. But every now and then there is a show we want to see and it's on regular TV.


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