Keith Bailey wrote:
I have read the really good explanation of progressive scanning at
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com & I can see that it has significant
advantages for NTSC which uses 3:2 pull down to display 24fps film on a
60 field display.

I'm not so sure that there is as much improvement for PAL which uses 2:2
pull down & so just needs to interpolate the two fields into one 25Hz frame

I have a Hitachi TV which offers progressive scan & I use this for
displaying normal TV broadcasts froma Freeview box. I know that this is
really no more than a field store but it does improve the perceived
vertical resolution.

Does anyone have any first hand experience of a progressive scan DVD
player in the UK on PAL connected to a display device such as a
projector or plasma where any improvement would be most noticeable.


I haven't seen any progressive DVD players or TVs but find interlaced
intolerable, so I watch DVDs mainly on my PC - the progressive scan
display looks much better than an interlaced TV. I'm considering getting
a freeview card so I can watch TV the same way. Another advantage of
turning the PC into a multimedia centre is flexibility. For example, the
terminator 2 (extreme edition) DVD includes a high definition version in
windows media player format at 24fps progressive, i.e. the way it was
intended to be seen, yet this isn't a part of any HDTV standard.

On 27/7/03 5:50 pm, in article ,
"Ben" wrote:

[snip]

I haven't seen any progressive DVD players or TVs but find interlaced
intolerable, so I watch DVDs mainly on my PC - the progressive scan
display looks much better than an interlaced TV.

Presumably most of the DVDs you are watching are sourced from film anyway
though - so are inherently progressive 25 fps rather than interlaced
50fields/sec in nature?

I have yet to find a PC DVD playback solution that plays back 50fields/sec
interlaced video source material acceptably - they all seem to either blur
or double-image quite badly in comparison to an interlaced source. Film
DVDs look lovely - video DVDs (and off-air video sourced DTT) looks horrid.

I'm considering getting
a freeview card so I can watch TV the same way.

Off-air films lovely - off-air video IMHO unwatchable.

Another advantage of
turning the PC into a multimedia centre is flexibility. For example, the
terminator 2 (extreme edition) DVD includes a high definition version in
windows media player format at 24fps progressive, i.e. the way it was
intended to be seen, yet this isn't a part of any HDTV standard.


The ATSC standards in the US include 1080/24p I believe (though whether it
is used I don't know) - and that is certainly an HDTV acquisition standard
as there is quite a lot of kit available to shoot on it (as well as 1080/25p
for the UK - Rockface is shot on this standard I believe)

Good luck if you want to Play the WM9 HD version of T2 in the UK. I believe
you need to find a proxy server that will convince the rights owners that
you are based at a US IP address before it will allow you to play (and that
they are aware of most proxy servers) and you have to do this every 5 days
to renew the licence.

Not sure whether the quality is higher than a 25Mbs-ish D-Theater D-VHS HDTV
recording.

Steve

Stephen Neal wrote:
On 27/7/03 5:50 pm, in article ,
"Ben" wrote:

[snip]

I haven't seen any progressive DVD players or TVs but find interlaced
intolerable, so I watch DVDs mainly on my PC - the progressive scan
display looks much better than an interlaced TV.


Presumably most of the DVDs you are watching are sourced from film anyway
though - so are inherently progressive 25 fps rather than interlaced
50fields/sec in nature?

I have yet to find a PC DVD playback solution that plays back 50fields/sec
interlaced video source material acceptably - they all seem to either blur
or double-image quite badly in comparison to an interlaced source. Film
DVDs look lovely - video DVDs (and off-air video sourced DTT) looks horrid.

Yes, now you come to mention it all the 'making of' documentaries and
extra stuff that's 50fps interlaced look terrible - maybe I won't bother
with a freeview card after all.



I'm considering getting
a freeview card so I can watch TV the same way.


Off-air films lovely - off-air video IMHO unwatchable.


Another advantage of
turning the PC into a multimedia centre is flexibility. For example, the
terminator 2 (extreme edition) DVD includes a high definition version in
windows media player format at 24fps progressive, i.e. the way it was
intended to be seen, yet this isn't a part of any HDTV standard.



The ATSC standards in the US include 1080/24p I believe (though whether it
is used I don't know) - and that is certainly an HDTV acquisition standard
as there is quite a lot of kit available to shoot on it (as well as 1080/25p
for the UK - Rockface is shot on this standard I believe)

Good luck if you want to Play the WM9 HD version of T2 in the UK. I believe
you need to find a proxy server that will convince the rights owners that
you are based at a US IP address before it will allow you to play (and that
they are aware of most proxy servers) and you have to do this every 5 days
to renew the licence.

Hmmm, not too impressed with that, although I expect if I were the
copyright owner I'd feel a little more positive about it. In any case,
I've downloaded the trailer and my humble PC is a bit too slow to play
it properly, so it will be a while before I'll be investing in that. As
it happens, I've just watched Terminator 2 courtesy of channel 5 anyway.
Interesting decision to show it in 4:3 format, chopping off all the text
that appears down the sides of the screen when Arnie's taking his first
look around.


Not sure whether the quality is higher than a 25Mbs-ish D-Theater D-VHS HDTV
recording.

Steve