I am a owwner of a 990 and from an audio perspective feel the unit is great. Won't upgrade until HDMI analog issue are final.

On the video side, I have an nice 65 inch Mitsu diamond series HDTV (but lack digital inputs). Paid alot of money a few years back and the wife will not allow upgrade.

In my quest for better video, I have found limited analog scalers. The one I have zero'd in on is a DVDo VP30. This apears to be able to enhance regular TV / DVD up to 1080i, plus pass through 1080i signal.

Any experieces with the DVDO scalers? Alternatives?

Back when I had a non-fixed pixel HD display, I used a DVDO iScan to line double the output from my LD player - because the display did not have 3:2 capabilities (even though it did do line doubling) and the DVDO did. The DVDO worked as advertised.

As for their current generation of units: I've not seen any in action but I have read a few reviews. Apparently they also perform mostly as advertised - but that any improvement when upconverting say a DVD's output is minimal. Given their price, and assuming you're looking for improvements to DVDs, I'd say you should find a DVD player that upconverts to 1080i and outputs that signal via its component cables.

The DVDO concept was great in its day - but it's living on borrowed time.

With fixed-pixel displays and BlueRay and HD-DVD, I personally think that buying the VP30 would be a huge waste of money.

Keep your current display if you'd like. Buy a new playback unit (or HD cable / satellite box if those are your primary sources) instead. You'll be much further ahead.

Jeff Mackwood

I have to disagree with you Jeff. I use a VP30 to clean up all my video feeds and it can work wonders. Although it is true that for native HD sources (xbox 360, PS3, HD-DVD, HDTV programming) the DVDO doesn't have much to do, the quality it adds to 480i viewing is tremendous. Especially for our Directv SD signal the difference is night and day.

The other thing that these scalers does that never gets mentioned is that it takes the entire video input signal and scales it to your TV's native resolution. So even if your DVD player or satellite box scales the signal to 72op or 1080i, it also commonly adds a good 5-10% of overscan to the image. The DVDO box reclaims that extra area and passes the entire picture to your TV set.

We love ours, I wouldn't do without it. With used VP30s going for ~$1000, it's not such a huge bite for the quality gained.

Zot,

What type, size and resolution of TV are you using? Plasma, LCD, projector? Does your TV provide 1:1 pixel mappping and if so, do you take advantage of it? Do you have the deinterlacing upgrade for the VP30 and if so, what has it done for your picture quality? I'm particularly interested in your scaler's ability to improve 480i input from standard DVDs, standard definition TV sources and a VCR.

FYI, this all relates to HDMI's ability, if implemented, to carry video and audio. If a video processor can be my video hub and improve the video quaility I don't feel like upgrading my 990 for HDMI switching and/or scaling. I'd let the 990 handle the audio since I'm not sure I'd benefit from the lossless audio formats of HD-DVD or BluRay.

Zot,

My first impressions are that as much as every one toots the horns of HDTV, HD/Blu ray DVD, the majority of program material is still in 480i content. SDTV via my component hook up to my HDTV sucks. Yet my high quality HDTV signals on my antiquated analog 65" HDTV holds its own with the best 1080i systems today!

I am looking to the DVDO VP30 as one of the few HQ analog processors. Regardless of what people say, today's upsampling DVD's do so in the digital domain only. I am assuming the VP30 will give my 5+ years life on my HDTV while being able to pass through newer formats via component unaffected . . . . for $1000 this is a much cheaper option than buying a new 65" TV. In addition w/ the 990 processor, I gain a net of 2 new extra Component video hook ups.

Thanks,

Adrian

To the original poster, you might consider a b-stock DVDO iScan HD or HD+. Less than half the cost of new VP30.

Scooter / all,

After several weeks of debating, common sense kicked in. As much as I'd love to own a top of the line DVDO, the TV can't accept digital input or output 1080P. So, I picked up on e-bay yesterday a used DVDO HD+ with the SDI input for $550. The unit upsamples analog 480i and 480P to 1080i via analog and does allow pass through of 1080i. I am planning to put the HD+ between the 990 and the HDTV, which will net a few extra Component connetions.

In fairness, I was always happy with true analog HD signals on this TV, the problem is simply how little content there is.

With the SDI input I'll likely mod a DVD w/ a SDI output. Won't address the HD/Blu DVD issue, but these formats will likely take years to catch on. . . . Wonder if you'll be able to Mod an HD/Blu DVD to add an SDI output?

Thanks to all for input.