|
March 24, 2008
NEW BATCH: EXT-HD External HDMI/Component
Converter
Moome has told us that a new batch of EXT-HD HDMI to RGB Converters is available and will ship at the end of April 2008. Only 20 are available - These sell out fast! This external box adds two digital HDMI and one analog component (YCrCb) input to any CRT projector or other display device with an RGBHV (VGA) input. It gives you the best image quality possible by providing a direct digital path from HDMI devices as well as support for older legacy component video devices. IR remote, gamma adjustment, and Toslink digital audio are just some of the features. HOME THEATER QUESTIONS & ANSWERS We get a lot of questions every week, so we thought we'd try something new and post some of them in our newsletters! We keep all questions anonymous of course! _____________________________ Q: I want to add Blu-ray to my home theater setup and everyone seems to say that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) seems to be the best way to go. Is this true? Why? For home theater use, is there any difference between the various PS3 models that I should know about? It seems the only difference is hard drive size. I'm willing to spend more money on a larger hard drive but I'm not sure I need it. They're right! We highly recommend the PS3 as your Blu-ray player even if you have no interest in gaming, the PS3 is by far the the best choice in Blu-ray players out today for the following reasons:
For those of you interested in a Blu-ray player, stop thinking of the PS3 as a gaming machine. I (Kal the webmaster) was short-sighted enough to do this and am now kicking myself now for not thinking more openly. I did not want a gaming machine in my home theater but after researching the options it was the only player that made sense so I jumped in with both feet. I didn't think I'd want to play any of the games, but after downloading some of the free demos (just a few clicks right in the PS3 menus) they're actually quite fun even for non-gamers. 1080p HD movie trailers are also available for download and are fun to watch as an intro to movies. The interface is incredibly easy to use, or should I say, there's really nothing to do! To play a movie you simply insert a disc. That's it! The PS3 will also scale up your standard DVD so your regular DVD player is no longer needed. For Blu-ray playback, there is no difference between the different versions of the PS3. They will all give the same result. The 40 and 80 GB models are currently available. The 20 and 60 GB versions are discontinued. (eBay and Amazon.com sellers have used ones available for slightly cheaper if you look around). We've downloaded just about every game demo and movie trailer available and our 60 GB drive is not even half full so hard drive size isn't important to most. Different versions come packaged with different movies or games so buy whichever one has the movie or game that interests you.
_________________________________ Q: I'm interested in adding High Definition (HD) to my home theater but am afraid that my Barco 708 CRT projector with 7" tubes is too old or not capable enough. Can I display HD from a Blu-ray or HD DVD player or am I going to have to upgrade to a newer projector? A: The 7" tubes in your projector are actually PERFECT for displaying a 1080i HD signal. It will look absolutely fantastic. The same is true for all other 'lower end' data or graphics grade CRT projector such as the Sony 125x/127x, Barco 808/801, Electrohome ECP, Sony D50, Ampro 2000/3600, Zenith 895/900, etc. Your Barco 708 won't be able to do 1080p but 1080i looks just as good as both are 1920x1080 resolution. I'm skipping over some finer details but the only major difference is that 1080p refreshes the screen 60 times/sec, and 1080i does it 30 times/sec. Since film is all 24 frames/sec, 1080i is already higher and will display Blu-ray and HD DVD perfectly. (See a question below for further details on 1080i vs 1080p or search our forum for details). The difference between DVD and HD sources like Blu-ray and HD DVD is astounding. Be warned however: You'll never want to watch regular DVD again once you've experienced HD on disc! If you really want to make HD sing however, a high performance 8" or 9" projector with electromagnetic focus and liquid-coupled optics will really make a big difference. Since you have a Barco now, something like a 9" Barco 1209s would be a substantial upgrade and the basic setup procedure would remain very similar. You'd set it to run at 1080p since the scanlines are so sharp that they'd be distracting at 1080i . The Barco 1209s is a lot bigger than the 708 so be warned! To connect a Blu-ray or HD DVD player to your CRT projector we recommend either the HDfury Advanced Kit coupled with the RTC2200 or the Moome EXT-HD HDMI to RGB converter. Both packages offer similar performance with slightly different features.
_____________________________ Q: I'm interested in adding Blu-ray (or HD DVD) to my home theater and already have a long (25 foot) RGB cable to my CRT projector. Should I put the HDMI to RGB converter near the source equipment and keep using my RGB cable, or should it go near the projector using a long HDMI cable? Which is best? A: If your analog RGB cables are of good quality, then it doesn't matter where you do your conversion. Do whatever is most convenient for you. Keep in mind that some HDMI to RGB converters (like the HDfury) do not have a cable driver stage however, so you cannot drive long analog cables. You're limited to using a short (under one foot) output cable with the HDfury which means you need to install the converter near the projector, or use something with a cable driver built in like the RTC2200 or TC1500. Moome's EXT-HD converter does have a cable driver so you can user longer analog output cables directly from the converter to your projector.
_____________________________ Q: Can you recommend somewhere to buy HDMI cables and switchers? Is there a difference in HDMI cables? I've seen some selling for hundreds of dollars! What should I look for? A: There are two online stores that we always recommend when purchasing HDMI cables: Bluejeanscable.com and Monoprice.com (they're featured on our website's Links page). Both make excellent quality cables using good parts at affordable prices. No matter what the marketing/sales guys tell you there is absolutely no need to buy esoteric "boutique" cables costing hundreds of dollars. Bits are bits! Spend your money elsewhere! You can safely run lengths up to 50 feet or more with cables from both companies at resolutions up to 1080p. A high quality 25-30 foot HDMI cable should not cost you more than $50-75 USD. Longer cables often need to pass through walls, so make the cable you use is CL2 rated for fire/insurance reasons. For longer HDMI cable runs, make sure to go with a thicker gauge wire. The thicker the wire, the smaller the gauge number or "AWG". If you run extremely cheap HDMI cables with thin gauge wiring for very long distances, you may have problems with what are known as 'sparklies': Little bright flashes of light that appear on the screen from time to time. These are due to data dropouts. For very short lengths you can use just about any HDMI cable. We've had no problems with the $5 six-foot HDMI cables from Bluejeanscable.com. They're quite well made for the price and work well. You do not need to spend $100 on a 6 foot HDMI cable! Not to mention any names (starts with "MON" ends with "STER"), but whatever you do, stay away from the incredibly overpriced highly marketed cables. :) While the cables are well made, it's our guess that 95% of what you pay for is marketing.
I take this back - I've had enough emails from Monoprice.com HDMI switcher owners to no longer recommend them. It seems they can be problematic with certain sources, requiring you to unplug/replug and power on/off devices in certain orders to get things to re-handshake again properly. The two HDMI switchers that do stand out in other forums as being bulletproof and are often recommended by other online sites like Audioholics and Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity for their reliability are the following: OPPO HM-31 Certified HDMI 1.3 and 1080p Switch (3 inputs, IR remote, HDMI 1.3) and the Radiient Select-4ce 4-Input HDMI Switcher (4 inputs, IR remote, HDMI 1.2 only I think if that matters to you). A little more money than the monoprice HDMI switchers but if they work without hassles the extra $20+ is worth it in my mind.
_____________________________ Q: I have a Sony VPH-D50 CRT projector that is connected to a Blu-ray player by component video cables. I am getting a picture at 1080i resolution. How much more resolution will the Sony IFB-HD HDMI card give me (1080p)? Are there other advantages besides higher resolution to going with this upgrade in my present setup? A: HDMI has many advantages over component. Using component has the following limitations:
The Sony D50 is not known to have the best internal transcoder unfortunately, so your results will likely be the same as when I (the webmaster) used a PS3 Blu-ray player with my Zenith 1200 / Barco Cine 8 Onyx for a few months and then switched to HDMI by using the HDfury (a product similar to, but not as high-end as the Sony IFB-HD HDMI card). I had heard
that using the HDfury produced a better image
quality than using component out on HD DVD and Blu-Ray players (not to mention
that you can now upscale standard DVD's too), but I
really wasn't ready for how much better the HDfury
made my Blu-Ray movies look! I expected a subtle
increase, but was shocked when I was presented with
a substantial increase in image quality. I was
pessimistic as Blu-Ray discs from my
PS3 component
output already looked fantastic on my setup so I
really didn't understand how things could look
better. I was already using what's considered the
best component to RGB transcoder out there (the
RTC2200) as follows:
PS3 component out ->
RTC2200
component to RGB transcoder -> 25' RGBHV cable ->
Barco Cine 8 Onyx projector. Man, was I wrong! Going
digital and bypassing what's likely average quality
DACs and op-amps in the
PS3 made ALL the difference!
The first things I noticed right away was the better
dynamic range even just in the PS3 menus: The whites
were just a lot tighter / purer / punchier /
brighter, the contrast range is better, the colours
richer, and the image is actually considerably (not
just a little bit) sharper! The difference isn't
subtle: I switched back and forth between the two
and it's like a gray haze was removed when using the
HDfury over the HDMI output vs. the component
output. Over component the image lacked punch,
wasn't as sharp and was somewhat muted. Using the
HDfury also resulted in better small object detail.
The smallest details and variances in image detail
are now perfectly resolved. I didn't know what I was
missing. I did try 1080p on my projector quite a bit
and 1080p is 100% resolved now. No problems at all.
1080p looked fantastic. The other advantage that the IFB-HD has is that it provides a gamma boost (like the RTC2200) to restore perfect shadow detail. If you've always found movies too dark or missing detail in dark scenes, you need a gamma boost. Take a look at these pictures here of what gamma boost does for a different product (the RTC2200). The Sony IFB-HD HDMI card does the same thing. As for 1080p vs 1080i, while the Sony IFB-HD HDMI card supports 1080p, forget about it on the Sony D50 projector. The 7" tubes in the D50 cannot handle 1080p properly but can do 1080i with ease. While this oversimplifying a bit, 1080i is every
bit as good for movies as both 1080i and 1080p are
1920x1080 resolution. The difference is only in how
often the screen is refreshed: 30
times/second for 1080i and 60 times/second for
1080p. This difference is a non-issue for movies as
they are shot at only 24 images/second. So 1080i at
30 images/second is already high enough! While my Barco Cine 8 Onyx projector can handle 1080p and 1080i, I only use 1080i for the reasons stated above and because 1080i is 'easier' on the projector. The projector only has to work half as hard which results in a sharper picture. Sort of like driving your car at 5000rpm instead of 10,000rpm but going just as fast. No point in pushing it any harder than you need to without any real benefits. You should use 1080i on a Sony D50 for everything. It's an absolutely perfect match. The only time you'd want to use 1080p on a CRT projector is on really high end 9" machines (like the Sony G90) because the individual scan lines that make up the picture become visible/distracting since the projector is so sharp. On your projector (and mine), the lines aren't noticeable from the seating position.
BLU-RAY RELEASE DATES, MUST-HAVE TITLES, and DEALS!
When you purchase Blu-ray
discs from
Amazon.com using these links a small percentage
automatically goes towards our forum server hosting fees at no
extra cost to you! Want to buy something other than Blu-ray
discs? Use
this link instead. We thank you!
Blu-ray deals:
National Treasure 1 & 2 on Blu-ray - Bundle for only $39.99 -
SAVE 43% HD DVD deals:
$8.95 Weinstein HD DVDs Must-have Blu-ray discs: Recent Releases: March
18, 2008
POPULAR FORUM TOPICS
|
          |
Click here
to receive this newsletter by email or to change your
subscription options
Contents
copyright (c) 2008 Curt Palme. All Rights Reserved.
