If I were rich I could play all my SD consoles @ 1080p using the best upscaling

[Gouk]

While surfing around for better scaling solution I stumbled along this - Crystalio 2 external broadcast quality upscaler naturally I'm blown away by the specs & features though would love to see this in action.

http://www.crystalio.com/flash_presentation.html

cost around £3500 - yes its a proper AV fanatics item!

The scalers that you get built into modern LCD TVs rarely impress so I'm wondering if external scalers are any better - anyone else seen anything similar or better or cheaper?

Also heard that some top class amp come with built in high quality scalers - any truth in this anyone? I need to play my Wii the way it was never meant to be played

[Salsa Party Animal]

There are bulid in scaler in amps but not in budget range. There is one available about 450 pounds. Which was discussed in this forum in the past.

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/574587/art/yamaha/rx-v861-7-1-audio-video-a.html

[andrewfee]

Still won't look as good as using the Wii VGA lead on a CRT monitor.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Do those cable actually work ? with 480i games on HDTV.

[andrewfee]

Do those cable actually work ? with 480i games on HDTV.

Not tried with any 480i games, but I doubt it. I don't see why it wouldn't work on an HDTV, but I just use a CRT as it avoids any nasty scaling. Looks better than anything I've seen the Wii running on.

Some very quick shots I just took for you there:












(looks a lot better than it does in the photos though, and ignore any lines on the screen, that's the camera)

[Baseley09]

What screen are you using there?

[Salsa Party Animal]

So anyone with HDTV let me know what the vga cable is like

[andrewfee]

What screen are you using there?

Viewsonic G90fB

(looks washed out because of the flash)


Best CRT I could find for sale earlier in the year, and I don't regret the purchase a bit. It may be on the small side (19") but nothing I've seen compares when it comes to image quality.

The only thing that could top it is a better CRT monitor, I reckon.

Maybe this year's HDTVs will finally have good black levels (rather than lighting up a dark room) but even then, they'll look crap with low-res content.

[Baseley09]

Well I use a 480p CRT TV and it looks very great, tho i have to say yours there looks a little better, tho 19" compared to 32" may be a bit more forgiving, nice.

[MarioMark]

Major spoiler in that 2nd picture Andrewfee.

[Profit]

With a PC and this £200 component dScaler compatible card, you can play every single console game in progressive and upscaled to any resolution you want.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/video/pdideluxe.asp

Edit: even a £30 card with s-video input works. DScaler and a low end AGP graphics card has better the more diverse set of deinterlacing algorithms and upscaling techniques than any settop box.

[andrewfee]

Well I use a 480p CRT TV and it looks very great, tho i have to say yours there looks a little better, tho 19" compared to 32" may be a bit more forgiving, nice.

Generally CRT monitors provide a better picture than TVs - if I could have found anything bigger, I would have gone for that instead but you just can't find good CRTs anymore.

As a CRT TV is only ever going to be used with low-res stuff, so the screen structure is larger. This does 1920x1440 so the shadow mask/aperture grille has to be much, much finer. (which gives you a smoother image)

Just can't beat a CRT when it comes to low-res stuff really, and I doubt you ever will be able to, as anything new has a fixed resolution whereas a CRT can handle low and high resolutions equally well. (well, a monitor does, TVs are generally only low res)

As good as expensive scaling is (I would expect Lumagen's Radiance to scale better than a Crystalio II) it's still not going to look nearly as good as the "real thing."