Just bought a mint condition DVDO VP30 video processor

[MatthewB]

Okay for years now I've been on the lookout for a great video processor that will output both component and HDMI and the DVDO VP30 has been my only choice (most are strictly HDMI or older models that do SD only). Anyway the cost was always an issue but today on eBay I scored a mint condition one only used by the owner one month before he moved and boxed it up and never used it again. Why anyone would spend 2,000 use it a month and box it i have no idea but he says its in mint working condition. He's also throwing in the BNC to RCA adapters so I can finally have a great scaler on my ten year old Pioneer Elite TV. Now the Pioneers already have awesome scalers built in (in fact one of the best) the issue I have is with overscan. I've gone into the hidden menu and reduced overscan to 5% but alas it also gives me geometry issues in the top corners with full screen images that nobody really notices but I sure do. So the DVDO has overscan and under scan adjustments and 35 built in easy screen adjustments that from what I read negates the need to get the set ISF calibrated. Can't wait to try this feature out.

It also has four screen resolutions for 1080i so hopefully my Pioneer will be able to process the better 1080i screen resolutions that the DVDO offers. Brand new these things retailed for 1,999.00 I got mine for 150.00. GF says its my anniversary gift. I have no plan on upgrading my Pioneer for a long time (I just love the PQ and black levels) so hopefully this will take it to that next level.

 

[Haywood]

That's very cool. It also sounds like your Pioneer set held up way better than my Toshiba, which is fading fast and has developed both color and clarity problems.

 

[MatthewB]

I only use my Pioneer once or twice a month ( even though its my main system cost wise) but the GF hates sitting in leather chairs so I don't get to use it as much as I like. In fact in the 12 years I've had it, it has less than 4000 hours on it. Still gives me an awesome picture when I do watch it but alas stuck with 1080i and component but I'm fine with that. HD movies and show look great but hoping the scaler will give it that extra pop. It has advanced sharpness and edge enhancements that should improve image quality. It also has chroma and gamma features that are not available in the picture setup menu on the Pioneer. This is gonna be a great learning experience but in a few days I have to back into the hidden service menu and revert everything back to original settings and then let the DVDO do all the work. So looking forward to reducing overscan to 1%.

 

[Haywood]

That explains why your CRTs are still in good shape. My Toshiba was used constantly for almost 7 years and then used intermittently since. It is in use in my kid's play room right now, but is definitely on its last legs and needs to be replaced.

The great thing about you breathing new life into your old set is that the longer you are able to keep that set and stay happy with it, the better and cheaper displays will continue to become. I know not everyone is a fan of the now-dominant LCD technology, but it is getting worlds better as time goes buy and is pretty damned close to where the better plasma sets were (if you're talking higher-end LCD sets).

 

[MatthewB]

Although I love the clarity of new flat panel sets and how it's like looking through a mirror I find it distracting also. I prefer the more "film like" image of my RPTV the other thing I love is how inky black my Pioneer looks without any hint of pixcellation as my plasma does. As mentioned I got this strictly for reduction of overscan and of course edge enhancements. I've read the VP30 does a "bobbing" of 1080i images which means it down coverts to 540p than doubles that image to give you 1080i hopefully I'll not notice anything different than straight 1080i but from what I read I'd have to have eagle eyes to notice this. The VP30 does have issues with 1080p via HDMI but considering I'm using straight component ( no HDMI at all) and my set can't process 1080p. If I do notice issues with 1080i and "bobbing" I'll just hook this thing up to my 720p plasma in my bedroom from what I understand the VP30 does 720p perfectly, so either way for 150 clams I'll get to try it out and use it either way.

 

[Haywood]

I'm still bummed that Samsung killed their LED Light Engine DLP sets in favor of doing nothing but flat screens. My set has fantastic color rendition, black level and contrast. I find that it out-performs a lot of the flat screen sets that are currently on the market for more than I paid in 2007. The bang-for-the-buck factor of these sets was simply off the chart and I will be very sad when it eventually wears out. Fortunately, I expect to get another 8 or 9 years out of it.

 

[Rickster]

That's very cool. It also sounds like your Pioneer set held up way better than my Toshiba, which is fading fast and has developed both color and clarity problems.

Haywood, see my post in the display section. I have a Hitachi and I have resurrected it!

 

[MatthewB]

Got my DVDO today and was in brand new condition. My quick review. This scaler is advertised as scaling all inputs from 480i - 1080i and outputting to 720p, 1080i/p. I will say first off this scaler did a pretty piss poor job of up scaling 480i sources (Sat TV and regular DVD). In fact the instructions ask you to set your sat/cable to 480i for SD channels and DVD but the picture output was far too soft and looked horrible. It's when I set my Sat box and DVD player (Oppo 970) to 480p that the image really sharpened up and the scaler did a slight improvement on the picture than without the scaler. Nothing really to brag about but did slightly improve the image.

Now where this scaler shines is with my HD sources. On Sat TV HD channels the image really looked better. Not a vast improvement but the image looked sharper and cleaner and the scroll on the bottom of news channels was far easier to read. I would compare the PQ to that of my plasma TV with how sharp and clear the image is as before. Would this scaler be worth the advertised cost of 2,000 retail well no in fact if I spent 2,000 I would expect all inputs to look fantastic and that wasn't the case but with the improvement on HD it was well worth the 150.00 I did pay for this unit. Now I have not tested any of the HDMI scaling or the 1080p which I understand are fantastic on this scaler by since my older RPTV only does 1080i and component inputs I stuck with component on all the inputs. This scaler has HDMI 1.1 inputs but since I didn't want to bother with HDMC issues with inputting HDMI and outputting component I just stuck with component. All audio was just put through my receiver and never put in the scaler as HDMI 1.1 won't pass DT'S-HD, Master,DD+ or lossless audio so no since in using that besides my receiver has audio sync which would be the only reason to hook audio up to this scaler.

My main reason buying this was to control the overscan issue that comes with all RPTV. I previously had gone into the service menu on my Pioneer Elite and reduced overscan from 8% to 4% but even at 4% it would still cut off half the ticker at the bottom of news and sports programs. The DVDO has something called "under scan" which reduces the image. You can first put on a geography screen and leave it on which shows you the lines on all four corners and mid border lines and then you adjust under scan till those lines are on the very edge of your display. You can also adjust horizontal and vertical shift of the entire image to make sure everything is centered. This was a helpful tool as my Directv box even when "centered" was applied on the Directv setup was off kilter horizontally by about 5% on my TV. After adjusting to get perfect centering and adjusting the horizontal and vertical image I then applied under scan and wow what a difference. Now the entire Sat image is displayed and because the image was essentially shrunk it sharpened up the image even more giving more of a new flat screen image quality which I really liked.

I have my Directv, Sony Bluray and Toshiba HD-DVD player going through my receiver and then output via component to the DVDO component 1 input while my Oppo DVD player is input directly to Component 2 on the scaler. What was strange is each input has to be saved individually and so you have to set up and save each input to maximize the PQ. When testing out the Oppo I noticed that the displayed image left a blank gap if you will at the top and bottom of the screen so I had to use the zoom feature up two notches to fill the screen. If I used Overscan to fill the image you lose what is called 1:1 pixel matching and this is what makes the scaler so great so by using the zoom it will cut off about 2% of the image on the sides but its so slight I can live with that. Besides I rarely watch regular DVD's anyhow so it wasn't that big a deal.

Overall I am glad I got this this scaler. The Pioneer RPTV already have great built in scalers but have no overscan features so this outboard scaler did a better job of scaling and of course no overscan issues anymore WooHoo. I am positive that if I was using this on a 1080p display with HDMI I'd want a VP-50 or higher scaler as those do a far better job of deinterlacing 1080i sources but since I am stuck on 1080i and component this VP-30 was a wise investment and well worth the 150.00 (also considering the seller was very honest explaining that was in mint mint condition and barely used and made the transaction very enjoyable). I'm seeing VP-50's going online for about 250.00 - 400.00 for those who want to take their cable or Sat to the next level it might be a fairly inexpensive upgrade to look at this, it did a great job on my older TV.

 

[MatthewB]

Okay little update on this baby now that I've played with it two weeks now. I love the color correction feature as it fixes the red push inherent in most sets. Then I discovered Gamma correction. Wow does this give a "depth" to images almost but not quite 3D like. Just more "depth". It did darken the image some but from what I understand this is because Gamma correction is producing deeper black and brighter whites. I have no idea what "Chroma" correction does but I clicked "yes" anyway. Watching CNN HD is just breathtaking. I've never seen the PQ this clear and to finally read the news scrolling below is nice.

Now when dealing with Gamma correction I had the Bluray "The Avengers" playing and when Thor is fighting Loki in the woods with Gamma off (how my TV was before) the image actually looked washed out is the best way to say it. Not knowing any better before I'd think it was great but once Gamma correction was put on the details really popped. The bark on the trees had far more detail you could notice the thin detailing in Thors costume and when Ironman arrives and they fight the flames that are generated are far more detailed than without Gamma correction. I wondered how Gamma would do with non film like material and it did fantastic.

I still love the under scan feature in tightening up the image. I was also glad to see that the version 1.14 my model is running doesn't down convert 1080i sources to 540p but does a " pass thru" same as the DVDO VP-50 does. I was having buyers remorse thinking I should've gotten the VP-50 because of the 1080 de- interlacing but that only applies if you are using a 1080p display which my Pioneer is not.

The unit does get warm but a small fan behind the scaler fixed that issue. The VP-50 does have mosquito noise correction and edge enhancement that my VP-30 doesn't have but the vast improvement in PQ and the fact this almost brand new box cost me only 150.00 I can't complain. I can now see proudly owning my old RPTV for many years.

Had an old buddy over yesterday and after seeing the image he wants one for his older RPTV. For those with newer displays I'd recommend the DVDO Edge which can be hand for 499.00 and has everything the VP-50 has and more and is made strictly for HDMI devices and with 8 HDMI inputs and dual outputs would make a nice switcher too.

 

[Orbison]

New toys are always fun! Glad it's working out for you, Matt. :handgestures-thumbup:

 

[MatthewB]

Thanks Orb for a few years I thought in passing about trading in my Pioneer RPTV for an LED. Basically for how clear and sharp the image looked but it was hard knowing my Pioneer has so few hours on it and how good the tech inside is. I calibrated it and it matched my 720p plasma but still not as good as those 1080p sets. This DVDO literally took off the veil and brought the image to near LED quality. It's not quite there but it now surpasses my 720p image as far as PQ and I no longer think of upgrading.....at least until 4K displays drop to affordable range.

 

[MatthewB]

Well guys just got my DVDO Edge for my 720p Samsung. The PQ difference wasn't as pronounced as the RPTV but for what I paid it was worth the purchase. My Samsung Plasma has issues with blocking during dark scenes and I don't get any of those anymore. I had overscan and never realized it but was able to use the underscan feature and shrink the image down 6.2% to get an even better picture.

Now my image was good but knew a scaler would do a better job than my sat box or Blu and HD-DVD players and they did, I can now output 1080p and have it scaled down to 720p where before I could only use 720p. Using 1080p gives me a better sharper picture.

The difference for an upgrade using my Pioneer RPTV was about 30% improvement where the plasma using a scaler was about 10% improvement. Not that great but good enough to notice a better picture and the end to macro blocking and lip synch matching is also a bonus. Worthy of the purchase.