Wow, there's suddenly a lot of Faroudja's on eBay. I haven't figured out how to get the top off yet and I've also been busy with the holidays so haven't given it the attention it deserves. Its an amazing player though.

The Onkyo does not have S-video inputs. It has HDMI (8 inputs - 2 outputs); composite ins and I believe one component input. So that wouldn't work.

However; there are a few places that do in fact make a basic composite to HDMI converter; Ill look at those down the road; maybe buy something. I can look at things differently since I have the basic scaling nailed down the the Onkyo; and the filtering it is doing doesn't distract/bother me.

I watched seven movies yesterday without even being concerned about bad combing; it was just pure movie goodness.

...and I did make my first order yesterday from a seller, so the serious collecting can commence!

That's not a terribly difficult problem to solve.

TLK

No, its not.

However its pretty low on my priority list right now.

From researching things, it appears that the minimum model you need to get good processing/comb filtering is the TX-NR818 with its HQV Vida VHD1900 video processor.

TLK

I ordered the Onkyo 717, patently due to your review of the 515. My first new receiver in 13 years. I hope it does for me what the 515 does for you.

Oh, it will. The 717 is cut from the same cloth as the 515. I think up to the 818; only power output is different; though the 717 may be THX certified.

Maybe sure you head over to Onkyo's website and check the firmware update. I kept thinking mine was up to date; but turns out the last update for it was USB-only. Afterwards; while I did gain SACD playback from .dsf files; it screwed up handshaking with my TV. For a while I kept turning the 515 on; then the TV; and switching TV inputs about 20 times before I finally got HDMI from the 515. I soon realized if I turned the TV on first; let it set about a minute...the "HDMI Standby" mode would finally handshake and I could then turn the unit on as normal.

But, no; it does an extremely nice job of scaling LD; and a nice job outputting sound too.

No, the TX-NR818 is cut from the same cloth as the more upscale TX-NR5010, 3010, and 1010...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008J834ZS

The key video chip is the "HQV® Vida™ VHD1900 Video Processor." Notice that the TX-NR818 has it, but the TX-NR717, 616, and 515 models don't...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JOO4XE

TLK

I hooked up my LD to the receiver with the Toslink cable as well as RCA. I put on a DTS LD and the sound was fantastic, I've never been able to play one because I didn't have a decoder. Then I put on an old concert, S & G in Central Park and got no audio. Is there a way to listen to the older discs that aren't digital auido and still have the Toslink cable connected? I was thinking of hooking up an additional LD player with just the RCA. Any advice is appreciated.

If the S&G disc only has analog sound, no, there is, AFAIK, no LD player made that will covert A to D and send it over the TOSLINK. Every maxed out LD setup uses three different inputs; analog, digital, AC3.

You don't have to have another player though, just switch the source.

Switch the source on the AVR or LD player? I tried
Switching analog to digital with the LD remote and nothing happened.

Yeah, pure laziness at the time prevented me from looking that up; I couldn't remember where the cutoff for HQV was. For what it's worth; the 504 I picked up at Goodwill, while having a slightly softer overall picture; does not have the same chroma checkerboarding as the 505.

As far as your loss of analog audio; did you set the audio input on the Onkyo? Since you played a DTS disc; it's looking for audio coming from the spdif input, ignoring the analog. So, you'll have to switch it to analog. Put your 818 on the input for LD; hit home on the remote, select setup, go to source setup, go to audio selector. Change it to analog.

Again, the TOSLINK will *only* output the digital version of the digital track. The AC3 will only output AC3. The analog RCA jacks will put out an analog version of the digital track by default but can be switched to the analog track.

So on the receiver you have to select the TOSLINK for digital sources. To hear the analog you need to hook the RCA up, select them with the receiver, and change to analog on the player.

Thanks for your help, I'll give that a shot.

I was fiddling with my iScan HD+'s settings a few nights ago. The unit's contrast settings go to 100- I experimented with settings just to see what would happen, boosting the contrast to 25. No noise, but the whites were WAY too bright. Tried 20- perfect. No noise, and a slightly more than subtle sharpening effect. The image POPS now, like never before!

Here's my setup:
Pioneer Elite CLD-99 going into:
Panasonic DMR-E20 via S-vid, going into:
iScan HD+ via component, going into:
55" Sanyo LCD via HDMI

The results are incredible. The only bad-looking discs are, unfortunately, Discovision titles, including some made by DV for Paramount (i.e., "Friday the 13th"). My "Addams Family" TV discs look incredible. I finished the CLV Criterion "Citizen Kane" 50th Anniversary disc today and it looks incredibly detailed- I woulda thought it came from a nitrate print, but the sleeve said it came from a fine-grain positive print. It was so incredibly detailed.

Overall, I have to say that with a '99 an iScan HD+, proper connections and settings, an LCD TV can look incredible for laserdiscs. For what it's worth, the 2-disc DVD of "Kane" does NOT compare with the laserdisc, aside from the scratches and breaks the laserdisc has.

You need Video Essentials or A Video Standard LDs to optimize settings. Basic settings can be done via just eying the screen and following guides on the patterns. You can set the correct brightness, contrast, color, tint, and sharpness. You need special tools like spectrometer and/or color meter to correctly adjust white balance, grey scale. If your white balance is off, say too much blue, your picture will look bright even if you had the contrast/brightness on correct settings. Grey scale/ gamma is important for consistency. Your display/player/video processor will have a fluctuation, something like brightness on the lower IRE (dark) areas might be lower than higher IRE (bright). With gamma adjustments, you adjust blue, red, green at each IRE in 2,5,10,20 increments(depends on video scalar/display, most do 9 point) for a straight gamma y of 2.2. You can go one step ahead and work with cms for secondary colors magenta, cyan, yellow but this will improve less than another %1 and only for perfectionist.

Cost is somewhat like this:

-Have a professional do calibration: $200-400 per display(I doubt they will touch laserdisc) Efficiency: %95-99 depending on available adjustment on make/model of display/video processor.
-Video Essentials or similar calibration disc via eying the display: $20-30 Efficiency: %70-80.
-Using calman or chromapure, spectro and/or colormeter: There is free sw available(need pc), colormeters start at under $100 and good ones start around $150. Spectros(optional) are expensive. Efficiency: %95-98 depending on available adjustment on make/model display and your efficiency in understanding calibration/sw.

The improvement on scientific/with tools calibration made bigger improvement on my video then anything including upgrading to hld-x0, adding crystalio II, highend cables, power filtration etc.. it is well worth it for any source.

Thanks, substance.

I did use "Video Essentials" to adjust everything, but in the past I never touched contrast because I've read it will only add noise. However, I read the comments on the upconverting Onkyo receiver and figured, what the heck, why not give it a shot. Selecting "NR OFF" on the 99 helped immensely as well (leaving only 3D filter and 'sharpness' on), adding more detail and removing artifacts as well. Also, I set the iScan's screen aspect ratio to 4:3, since zooming adds a poop-ton of artifacts; if the title is an open-matte, I can select whatever aspect ratio it is and view it that way.