I recently acquired a laserdisc player (DVL-919) as an early Christmas present. Unfortunately, my TV does not have any analogue inputs (LG C1 48"), so I picked up an Extron DSC to convert the composite out to HDMI. I did have a look to see if there were any other scalers, but recommended ones like the DVD0 I couldn't find for sale, or they were out of my price range. To me, the Extron looks pretty good, and I have no complaints about it. Since I have this scaler, is it still worth being on the lookout for others? Are they a big improvement?

Take a look at this thread, If you have the space for an AVR these receivers have a top of the line comb filter (similar to Lumagen 2144) onboard and excellent video processing. I picked up a fully working Onkyo TX-NR818 for very little money and it does a fantastic job, I use mine for video processing only, the lower spec TX-NR609 & 709 & several other models also have the same comb filter fitted but with a few less adjustments available on the processor, bar the lack of of blanking/ masking that is usually found on a dedicated video processor/scaler I think you would find one of these will do a rather better job than the extron on the comb filtering quality alone.

Onkyo AVR's with ADV7844

I opened up the Exton DCS 301 HD to have a look at what comb filter it was using. It uses the ADV7842, which is the same as those Onkyo receivers it seems, so I'd assume comb filtering quality is quite similar. I'd say what isn't similar is the scaling, while using the Exton I'm constantly noticing quite a lot of a doorstepping effect. I picked up a cheaper Onkyo TX-NR626, which doesn't have the nice 3D comb filter, but I didn't mind since I can use the Extron's. I wanted the Onkyo so it could handle the scaling to 4k, and I also wanted a way to play the digital PCM audio track from laserdiscs as I didn't have a way of doing that. The image to my eyes is quite good, definitely sharper than it was before, and I'm not noticing the doorstepping effect. The only thing this Onkyo receiver is not doing well is the noise reduction, I've kept it at low as putting it any higher destroys so much detail. I think I might keep an eye out for the TX-NR809 or TX-NR818 as the screenshots posted in that thread have a much more pleasing noise reduction. But overall this receiver was worth it for the digital tracks on LDs, they really do sound great.


Edit: After playing around with the Extron some more, I've realised the default sharpness setting (called Detail on the Extron) was much too high. Lowering the number has greatly reduced the amount of noise, that must have been a result of digitally over sharpening the image.

what parameters does the Extron offer for the ADV chip.
Can you please check if there are settings for the comb filter like 3D Y/C sensitivity

for example: The Pioneer HLD-X0 has following parameters that can be adjusted:

3D Y/C sensitivity 2D/3D
3D YNR Luma Noise Reduction
3D CNR Chroma Noise Reduction
3D VNR Video Noise Reduction
NR Noise Reduction
Sharpness

From what I can see, I don't think it offers any parameters for the ADV chip. On the Extron website, it's advertised as a 3D adaptive comb filter, so maybe it's automatic. You can read all the available settings on the website if you'd like to:
https://media.extron.com/public/downloa ... _HD_UG.pdf.
https://media.extron.com/public/downloa ... -50_B2.pdf

I think there are definitely better scalers with more settings, but this is something that was readily available, and also budget friendly compared to recommended models on this forum.

Good to hear the TX-NR626 gives you some improvement in video performance, I think you should definitely now keep a lookout for a TX-NR818/809 though as they do offer considerably more in the way of adjustments over your current AVR. I can certainly confirm the effectiveness of the noise reduction options on the 818 (4 in total) the Random NR & NR being the most useful in that order to my eyes, just don’t go near the edge enhancement control though - best kept switched completely off! Scaling is also very good on the 818 and it seems to do cadence detection better than my Lumagen Radiance 2144. Tbh if I wasn’t using a projector in my home theatre set up where masking is required for the multi format screen, I think I could almost live without the 2144 and rely just on the Onkyo for video processing, shame the audio isn’t quite in the same league though!

I'll take your advice and keep a lookout for the TX-NR818. There's none for sale near me right now, but there is a NAD T785 from around 2009 for £200. It seems to have been pretty high end as it says it was $4000 in 2009. From reading about it, it says it uses the Sigma Designs VXP, which I think is also used in the Crystallio II. I read the service manual, and it seems to use the ADV403 and ADV7320 for decoding the composite video. Do you think this is worth picking up instead? Or should I hold out and wait for the TX-NR818?

If it were me then I would definitely be patient and hang on for an 818/809 to show up at the right price, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed! There are of course several similar looking and rather more expensive Onkyo’s from this range but unfortunately not all of them have this sought after Analog Devices comb filter onboard unfortunately. Good luck