Video Processors

The rise and rise of flat panels and projectors into the home has been absolutely immense, yet as display technology continues to improve one thing becomes clearer and clearer. Our almost half a century old video signal technology does not cut the mustard and desperately needs a helping hand.

Current video standards (such as PAL or NTSC, DVD or Digital TV) have less than 300 complete horizontal lines of information which are used to build up a picture. This information is "Interlaced" into twice as many lines, but with half the information on each. Traditional CRT televisions "flicker" this information very quickly and the human brain will reassemble the lines giving the appearance of a full detailed image. TV has worked this way for years. However, plasma screens, LCD screens, digital projectors and the like are now what it's all about, and these all use fixed pixels rather than a dynamic CRT gun to generate the image.

Each and every display has some form of video processing technology within. These are the circuits which process video information ready for display by your plasma screen or projector. The better-known tasks these processors carry out are deinterlacing (turning into progressive scan) and scaling, although there is in fact much more to it. How well this is done is directly related to how good your picture will be, and while the quality of these implementations varies from display to display, overall there is always room for improvement.

“Progressive Scan” DVD players are a step in the right direction. Manufacturers of progressive scan DVD players include a deinterlacing circuit, which converts the signal into progressive scan within the DVD player rather than allowing the processor in the display to do it. The idea being that the circuit in the player will be better than that in the display, which it often is. More recent DVD players have also included upscaling circuits, which can upscale the signal to 720p or 1080i (HDTV resolutions) for use on a HD display with a matching resolution. Again, the idea being that the upscaler put into the player will be better than the one in the display. With the added advantage of these processes happening inside the DVD player, while the information is all still digital straight from the disc, the picture often is significantly better than that which the displays internal processor is capable of achieving.

A dedicated video processor takes this to a more comprehensive level. Here the device has been created for the sole purpose of doing all the video processing within your system, it's scaling and deinterlacing certainly being better than that in the display or DVD player. This is why processors are often referred to as “scalers” or “deinterlacers”, the main operation which processors undertake. But there are many other functions that the scaler employs to improve your video image. I prefer to think of the processor as the core nervous system for all the video needs of your system. The processor acts as a video hub between all your video sources (DVD, Digital TV, HDTV), translating the various signal types and resolutions into the best resolution and refresh rate for output to your display. This is done using superior processing hardware and software, using filters to repair errors and reduce noise, combined with advanced tools for adjustment of gamma and overall LUMA. The result is the most accurate and detailed playback of the material at hand.

Signals Your Processor will come Across

What exactly is an interlaced or deinterlaced/progressive signal?

Film Mode Deinterlacing Process

Video Mode Deinterlacing Process

The Scaling Process

Other Features a Video Processor Has

HDTV (High Definition TeleVision) is the buzzword for latest video signal technologies. It will be launched in the UK very soon, with High Definition Discs (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) being available in 2006. HDTV uses much better quality video signals made up of as many as 1000 horizontal lines, and with far more information stored per pixel than DVD or Digital TV has. HD is usually broadcast in 720 line Progressive Scan format (720p) or 1080 line interlaced format (1080i). The progressive 720p picture is never interlaced and then flickered as normal TV is, and so is not susceptible to deinterlacing errors. However, the 1080i one is... Even though the signal is very high in resolution, it still requires full deinterlacing back to 1080 progressive (1080p) lines for error-free reproduction of the image once rescaled. This requires immense processing power and only few processor we have are capable of doing this without some error or another. In any case, both of these types of HDTV signals are still susceptible to softening and jaggie through the scaling process. So you might have a high resolution signal, but it will still need correct deinterlacing (1080i), sharp scaling, and may still contain colour errors, grayscale imbalances, and require accurate gamma adjustment to truly reveal the full character of the picture.

For more information, please browse the following sites which represent the manufacturers of the various chipsets used in video processing. Beware, if you thought this page was a lot to get your head round - it gets much more complicated!!!

Below is our selection from 3 top manufacturers of Home Theatre Video Processors. Each is different in both it's quality and application - similarly priced products are not necessarily better or worse than each other, but better or worse suited to your individual application!! We are dealers for a wider range of processors from other manufacturers and are happy to supply other prodcuts on request, but wehave singled out these three ranges as our most recommended products and ones that we believe do the job the best.

It is very recommended that you contact a member of sales to discuss your requirements fully before committing to a particular model...