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Projectors and Scaling

G

Goosemaster

Lifer
Interesting....

Any given projector has just one physical resolution, usually called the native resolution. Native resolution is the number of pixels actually available on the display. So an SVGA projector, for example, has display panels or chips with a native 800x600 pixel matrix. In order to display a 16:9 signal, it uses an active area of 800x450 on the display. So any HDTV signal that it gets, whether it is 1280x720 or 1920x1080, it must reformat (compress) that incoming signal into 800x450 before feeding it to its internal display. So no matter what, it cannot display any HDTV signal without compressing it, and losing a bit of image detail in the process.

This is true of standard XGA resolution projectors as well. They have a native resolution of 1024x768. In order to display a 16:9 image, they use an active portion of their display that is 1024x576, which is a 16:9 matrix. Therefore the HDTV signals, whether 1920x1080 or 1280x720, must be compressed to fit into a 1024x576 matrix before they are displayed.

Many new home theater projectors have native 1280x720 LCD panels or DLP chips. These are built expressly for the purpose of displaying HDTV 720p without needing to compress it or expand it. Some would say that projectors with the 1280x720 matrix are true HDTV projectors. However, some wouldn't, because when they get a 1080i signal these projectors still need to compress the 1920x1080 information into their native 1280x720 displays.


.....


So this whole issue about "true HDTV" misses the point. Even the cheapest low resolution projectors will display HDTV pictures that look better than any television you ever saw. The fact that you are seeing a compressed signal is quite beside the point. Scalers have gotten so good these days that even low resolution projectors deliver amazing HDTV quality for the money, even after the compression. So who cares if it isn't "true HDTV?"

Yes, it is true that today's 1280x720 format projectors are indeed particularly impressive for 720p display. But the amount of 720p material you will view compared to everything else will probably be rather small unless your weekly video entertainment consists mainly of HD sports broadcasts from ABC, ESPN, and Fox. And meanwhile, 1080i can look spectacular on a 1280x720 projector, even though the 1080i signal is compressed and not "true" 1080i.

Therefore, next time a salesman says, "Don't buy that projector, it doesn't do true HDTV," think twice and don't take his word for it. That relatively inexpensive projector you are considering just might deliver the best possible HDTV picture for the money on the market.

-From Projector Central.
Click to expand...


Question: To those of you who have experienced both good low-budget projectors with non-HDTV native resolutions and projectors with native 720p resolutions, how dramatic would you say the increase in quality was?

For Movies? For Games? For Computer usage?

In the Future I might be interested in getting a nice 720p, and just wanted to be educated on the practical differentiation in quality between having to scale and not having to scale.

The projector I am interested for the future is the Infocus ScreenPlay 5000 which has a native rez of 1280x720 according to projectorcentral.com.

That said, the Infocus 4805 has a native resolution of 854x480 and is supposed to do 1024x768 really well. On the other hand the Infocus 5000 is supposed to do 1280x1024 really well.


<--Dazed and confused🙁
 
According to the distance calulator on the Infocus site, the screen would be 84inches if I put the projector 14ft away:Q

Will the scaling be quite noticable at this distance when playing HD material on a Non-HDTV projector
 
My Infocus 4805 looks ok in HDTV but when you compare it to my 720p LCD RPTV, there is a huge difference.

That said, 480p which it is specifically designed to display looks very good on it. However, if you are too close, you can see pixellization.
 
<--- 4805 owner. HD looks amazing, far better than SD or even DVD's. And that's on a 102" screen. I'm happy with my setup, I won't upgrade until I can get a 1920x1080 DLP for $2500 or so.
 
The screen is something that really needs to be considered in any PJ set up. It's as important as your speakers are to a hifi setup! Think about it.
 
I have!

In fact I saw the 4805 vs 5000 in a showroom using HD. There is no comparison. Thats why I bought the 5000!

If a person plans not to use HD, then the 4805 is the perfect projector. But if the person plans to use HD, plan on the HD looking no better than 480p quality (aka EDTV).
Click to expand...

Sweet😎
 
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