Wired@Home.blog

How-To: Scale video for better HDTV viewing

Today we'll show you how to make a DIY video scaler to get the most out of your HDTV.  Videophiles have been using dedicated video scalers to improve the picture quality on high end displays for years. We'll use free software and an inexpensive tuner card in our HTPC to scale and de-interlace regular television to look great on your HDTV. Click on to find out how in today's How-To!
HDTVs are built to display HD material, but SD television signals were designed for CRT television sets. While most HDTVs have on-board signal processing for viewing normal television, it's often a compromise of quality and cost.

Dscaler is free software that turns a normal PC into a very high end video scaler. NTSC and PAL video are both delivered in interlaced format -- in a nutshell, half of each video frame is drawn at a time, NTSC drawing the screen 60 times each second, but delivering 30 frames per second. We'll use Dscaler to grab the incoming television signal, de-interlace it and scale it for our display. (In our case, a projector with a 103 inch wide screen.) While this How-To covers using windows software, die-hard linux fans should check out ffdshow at http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net.

Full Stoy How-To: Scale video for better HDTV viewing

[via Engadget]

CES 2006 Camcorder Round-Up

Designtechnica has posted a new article: CES 2006 Camcorder Round-up

Excerpt:

"Although hard to find, there were a ton of new camcorders nestled among the overwhelming forest of flat panel televisions at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in lovely Las Vegas. (Don't laugh, I actually like the town.)


Here are the broad strokes:

*DVD camcorders are more prevalent than ever as almost all manufacturers have jumped onto the disk-based bandwagon.

*Companies have cut back on the number of MiniDV tape models and cut prices.

*A gradual shift is occurring as non-tape formats (DVD, hard disk drive, solid state) become more common and less expensive.

*And since America has gone widescreen TV crazy, more camcorders than ever take true widescreen video rather than stretching it like the old days (three years ago)."