Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 598 Component out vs SDI to Scaler?

Just to give others an update that's considering this. Duncan's cable worked perfectly.

Hint for installing the SDI Board.

The hole that is already their is slightly large.

The SDI Board I got is the all metal BNC jack and it was hard to get enough backing to mount it securely. So this is what I did. I put the lock washer on the BNC Jack, then this smaller spacer washer. The Small spacer washer just fits inside the hole and keeps the BNC jack perfectly centered. If it stays perfectly centered the Lock Washer is just big enough to support the back. Then I put the Nut on the outside (which also is just barely large enough if kept centered) but with that spacer washer holding it in the center the nut gets enough support on the outside.

So it's BNC Jack, Lockwasher, Spacer, Meridian Back Panel, then Nut. You'll see what I mean if you get this variation of the SDI board(which varies slightly I think, some have plastic BNC jack).

I basically converted my 598 Player to DVI for about $900.00 !!! Avia shows a large clear difference but in the one DVD I checked so far (MIB) the improvement is smaller, but their. This is on a 1280x768 50" Pioneer Plasma. Those with large screens or projection will probably see much more improvement.

$150.00 SDI Board
$072.00 Duncans Easy Install
$675.00 iScan HD w/SDI (I was very lucky on price on this onecall.com)

Plus cables.

Definitely try 1280x720p over dvi/HDMI, the deinterlacing in the dvdo should be alot better than the deinterlacing in your screen, sending it 1080i is not a good idea as your screen is still deinterlacing plus you are scaling in the scaler and then again in the screen.

Give 1280x720/59.94 a try and see how that looks.

gizze,

Tried your VGA settings.

I could not set iScan HD above 75hz.

With all other settings you recommended checker pattern test looked very good. But Judder test was tearing. 1080i or 720p over DVI Judder test look very smooth.

So I went back to DVI and compared 720p and 1080i. The Checker test looks fair on 1080i (not as good as VGA) but not terrible, judder test is very smooth. on 720p judder test was also smooth but checker test was way off. had very dark rows vertically and horizontally at a coarse pitch.

Hey George,

Did you get my email on your gmills account on your homepage?

Thanks

OK, what I would do is this enter the following settings whilst using VGA

Horizontal total active 1280
Horizontal front porch 048
Horizontal sync width 112
Horizontal back porch 248
Vertical refresh rate 59.94Hz
Vertical lines 768
Vertical front porch 001
Vertical sync width 003
Vertical back porch 030

The with the checkerboard pattern adjust the H and V size until it snaps into place, it should become obvious when it happens.
This will then be pixel mapped and you will be bypassing the screens internal scaler.
Worth trying it over HDMI too, you may find that 1280x768 is so close to 720p it allows it.
Adjusting the screens H and V size is the most important thing to do though, and you will have to adjust thee position on the screen too when you are done to get it central.