Throw the EasyCap in the garbage and pull the HDMI cable out of the laptop. My long awaited Key Digital iSync scaler arrived today. I've had a few minutes to put it through it's paces, and thought I'd share them with you. Before I do, this may qualify as a tl;dr post...I try to be detailed when I review things about the entire setup just so you have a reference. If you want the absolute minimum one-line review...scroll to the bottom of the post.

For starters, I'm feeding everything in to a 46" Dynex 1080p flat-panel. The panel is made by AU Optronics, and was one of the ones listed in a lawsuit against AUO by Samsung for patent infringement. I bought this thing for $400 open-box off Best Buy's floor, mostly after I threw a collection of my DVD "samplers" and one or two Blu-Rays through the Sony Blu-Ray player they had set up. Did they want me doing this? They didn't seem to, but I bought the TV so what's their problem? Feeding it a quality 1080p signal resulted in an outstanding picture I didn't expect to find on a no-name TV (till I saw who made the panel). The Dynex TV's are made by Orion, which is an OEM, and makes several other budget TV's. Offhand, I know Westinghouse TV's are made by Orion. It was also nice to find the thing accepted RGB colorspace over HDMI, so my laptop automatically defaults to 1920x1080 "PC mode" rather than 1080p "TV Mode"; which "TV Mode" simply uses YCbCr for colorspace rather than RGB (and if anything says it's outputting YPbPr over HDMI, it's half-wrong. YPbPr is the analog version used on component video, YCbCR is the digital version. Likewise if you see an analog connection labeled YCbCR. Does it really matter? Probably not. Same basic encoding). It saw a lot of use as a giant computer monitor for both movies, gaming; and the brief stint where I tried to use a $5 USB capture to substitute a scaler. Let's just say being able to read text from across the room is great.

Naturally, such a sharp, clear and vivid picture at under $500 at that size didn't come without it's drawbacks. While driving the TV at it's native input is outstanding; anything else is...anything else. It's ability to deinterlace is sketchy, at best. My main HD source is a Motorola STB, very similar to the ones Comcast and other cable companies have been using...except mine has built in MoCA since it's on FiOS. The problem with the Motorola boxes is you have a fixed resolution output up to 1080i. It does a nice job of scaling 480 resolution stuff up, I've never watched a lot of it's progressive output to mention how it's deinterlacing is. It doesn't seem to handle interlacing a progressive signal that well. So, while the 1080i content looked good, there were a lot of brief moments of comb-effect. But I've also noticed the same amount of combing when watching a DishHD signal on a Samsung 3DTV, which I'm sure has nice processing. Even the Sharp Aquos I had access to, whose internal scaling made my LaserDiscs look outstanding; suffers from it. The best video source on my Dynex is my LG BD630. Blu-Rays look fantastic, and it's 1080p upscaling is basically what I've been using as a reference. I know using a DVD as a reference point isn't the best idea in the world...mostly because I'm getting anamorphic video out of Clue, so it's not zooming the height any. I haven't bothered finding the boxes of DVD's I kept to see if anything is non-anamorpic. However, it's still a somewhat valid point in evaluating the quality of the scaler, at least to me it is. I feed the DVD directly in to my composite input...and even anamorphic video looks bad.

I do need to cover one more variable before I begin to talk about this iSync, and that's me. I'm not really a videophile; my last TV was a 52" rear-projection RCA HD unit. You can *barely* tell a real difference between SD and HD on that TV when it's set up right. Yes, you can tell a difference; I know those projectors are scanning at 1080i...but they could also scan at 480i and take up the same screen real-estate; something a fixed-pixel display cannot do. I'm sure most of you guys understand all that. Basically, if something is upconverted properly, displaying it at a resolution x amount larger shouldn't yield in a MAJOR picture degradation.


The iSync is an older unit, from sometime around 2006/2007 I believe. It shocked me that it even had 1080p support; I'm not sure when actually added to the de-facto standard for consumer equipment. Based on it's highly configurable outputs, it'll support any display you have and seems will handle any NTSC or PAL video you throw at it.

When I say this thing has a plethora of inputs and outputs...well...I'm sure I've seen more on modern home-theater receivers; but still, it has a bunch. The Input side features:

2 x HDMI
3 x Component
3 x Composite
2 x S-Video
4 x RCA Stereo In
4 x S/PDIF Coaxial RCA
2 x S/PDIF Optical Toslink

HDMI and Component support 1920x1080i and 1280x720p at 50/60hz, 720x480p @ 60hz, and 720x576p @ 50 Hz. Composite and S-Video inputs are listed at 720x480i/576i @ 60hz and 50hz respectively. Audio input is either analog or PCM, and any audio input can be assigned to any video input. I've not tested 1080p input, but have read it doesn't support it.

The output side is pretty minimal, as expected for a device like this. A single HDMI, a set of component outputs, and even a composite video out. The resolutions read much like the inputs; with the addition of 1080p. I've not tested if it does 1080p over Component; nor have I really read up on that since it wasn't of a concern to me. However, I found that other resolutions not listed in the specs were there; which I'll list later. DVI-D is fully supported through the use of standard HDMI-to-DVI-D adapter. This is one reason you're able to assign any audio input to any video input, including HDMI; as DVI-D does not send audio on the same cable. HDCP is supported.

Since the unit lacks an on-screen display; setting it up and changing options can be cumbersome. The unit does feature a nice dot-matrix display for doing the task. I'm sure a remote would come in really handy; I didn't get one. Which is why as of right now; it's hooked up with 20 ft RCA and HDMI cables, to keep it within reach. Once tweaking is done, then it'll mostly just be switching inputs and aspect-zooms, again, easier with the remote. It also features picture adjustments for; contrast; brightness; saturation; tint; sharpness; horizontal and vertical positioning and size. . A PAL (2:2) Film mode is also included.

Looking at the basic specs is a bit deceiving, this thing was obviously aimed at the high-end home-theater market; because it does stuff not even mentioned in the specs. Not only are audio inputs assignable; they can be shared. When I wanted to compare the composite and s-video output of my Laserdisc, all I had to do was set each video input to the first analog input, and comparison was (somewhat) flawless. All configuration options set on an input are automatically memorized for that input. Which is something I kind of expect these days; even my cheap TV memorizes what video settings I was using with which input.

The output modes available are better found in the menu. Aside from the standard set listed above, it also features:

1400x1050p (50/60 Hz)
1280x767p (50/60 Hz)
1366x768 (60 hz)
1920x540p (60 Hz)
1920x1080SP (24hz)

You will also discover that the analog video output can be set for YPbPr (they call it YCbCr in the unit) with embedded sync or RGB HV. This configuration isn't really mentioned in the manual; so I don't know how to fully use it. I do know from my research that the RGB analog mode has a bug and isn't very bright. But since I don't own a projector, that feature, and the other resolutions, I haven't really tested. The 1920x540p gave me a pink-tinted output.

Also included is a rear-mounted IR sensor, a jack for a remote IR sensor, and an RS-232 jack for firmware upgrade and system integration. These are things I don't use...and haven't tested. It was also, at one time, rack mountable..but since I bought my unit used, it didn't have the brackets.

The technology behind this unit is...well..a mystery. Key Digital used all their own proprietary stuff, and as they'll only give the names they gave it; they won't tell anyone anything about how any of it works. But the beginning of the manual does list all of them...including little logos they created:

Clear Matrix Pro
SDS (Super Digital Scaling)
DPE (Digital Picture Enhancement)
DEE (Digital Edge Enhancement)
HOVO (horizontal offset - vertical offset
DVIC (Digital Video Internal Clock Exchange)
DVPC (Digital Video Phase Controller)
LHBC (Linear High Bandwidth Controller)

and if those weren't a stretch...they included multi-player board technology and surface mount technology, I guess to look fancy. So I don't know if it has a 3D Comb Filter or Motion Adapted DeInterlacing or any of the other fancy stuff that's out now; it's got a bunch of stuff Key Digital won't talk about.

The real question is, how does it perform? Well, I'm impressed.

The first thing I saw on it was the 1080i HDMI output from my STB. Any real difference? The video was a bit smoother. Some of the 720p-to-1080i content was comby, that's probably more the boxes fault for sending fields wrong or something. The 1080i content I watch did in fact look a bit sharper and smoother. It wasn't doing any of that frame interpolation like you see on 120hz TVs. Was it a substantial improvement? Maybe not to most people. As someone who's been watching it for 7 months, I noticed something. I didn't see *any* combing effects on 1080i channels, so I was quite impressed with that.

Ok, the real thing is; how does it handle LaserDiscs? My previous references for big-screen was the 52" RPTV, which natively handles the 480i signal just fine. The Sharp with all of it's processing inherent with adding that yellow pixel, did an outstanding job. My tv's processing...sucked. You always had combing, and when you had to zoom for letterbox...it looked extra blurry. The largest resolution loss I'd been dealing with was having the STB zoom in widescreen SDTV content...and most of the time the compression was the more annoying factor.

The good news is the LaserDiscs have the appearance on my TV of being in native resolution. 4:3 content looks just, outstanding. The deinterlacing appears to be superb; I see no combing or motion artifacts at all. Much like watching it on a CRT. Zooming was much better than expected. Did it magically make the resolution loss from zooming a widescreen look HD? Well, no...nothing can do that. All I can really say is that when zoomed...it simply looks like it's being displayed at native resolution. It doesn't have that whole blurry loss-of-resolution effect I got with my TV's stock hardware, at the same time it's not adding lines. I was never expecting that. Even with DVD upscaling, I knew a lot of the magic was with anamorphic transfers. If I ever get a SqueezeLD disc, I'll be sure to add my comments on how that looks. I did not notice a huge difference between its comb-filter with composite, and what my LD player puts out it's S-Video. The S-Video tended to have a bit more "analog" look to it. I'm not too sure about the comb filter...I'll explain what I found when I talk about the DVD test.

Overall, I got what I expected. I can see where my DL-505 isn't the best player in the world, and I'd probably get better video out of a higher-end player; I just know my scaling is not the limiting factor.

However, I did decided to throw my "reference" DVD-test in to the mix. As I said before, I've watched that disc a hundred times or more through my LG BD630; which does an outstanding job of making that DVD be confused for Blu-Ray. It's an anamorphic disc; so scaling it to my widescreen TV doesn't involve any zooming, just horizontal stretching. However, to throw a monkey in to the mix, I decided not to try my LG's SD outputs (although I guess I should). For DVD output in to the iSync, I used a Sony NS-775 (or something like that) combo-player. It's a combo player as it does all the standard CD/DVD stuff, but has SACD playback. In fact, the only reason I bought the thing was for the SACD playback.

The result I got was *VERY* close to the output from the LG player. I'm sure if I spent some time tweaking the video settings on the scaler, I could nail it down. One should also take in to account is that if the DVD was encoded with Progressive video. It's been years since I bothered digging in to the DVD spec...I know interlaced video is standard...but I think I recall something about they could use progressive video as well. I can't remember.

With the movie itself; I didn't notice any difference between S-Video and Composite. What I *did* notice was a substantial amount of dot-crawl from the OSD using Composite. While I've kept up on technology...and I know why dot-crawl occurs; the thing I don't know is if it's actually a reflection of the scaler's capabilities. The OSD on the Sony DVD could just have dot-crawl, even with a good filter. The OSD on the sony is also simple graphics and text on a black background, that may cause problems as well. My LD player's OSD is simple text generation on a blue background. I saw more "action" between letters with the S-Video than the composite. Take that as you may....I noticed no problems with composite during movies.

Overall, this thing makes my HTPC idea look like garbage. With a retail price tag of $1795 when it came out; it's obviously in a class of stuff I don't usually get to buy. It's dated; and I'm sure some of the newer offerings have more "features" and might have a slight edge on quality. I'm an audiophile, not a videophile; and for $125 used....this thing has 1080p and is absolutely outstanding in my book.

While I've made comments in the past in past that looking at a picture of a TV to get an idea of how good it looks like like judging a stereo over a cell phone...and I've made them everywhere..and not just here (if I've done that already)...I'd be lying if I didn't admit that right now, I do kind of want to do the same thing. I haven't, yet. I've spent maybe an hour with the scaler, and since I had to leave feedback for the seller, I figured I'd write this up. I'll take some later and if I'm able to see a difference between them, I'll share them so you can get an idea. There's also things I haven't tried yet; like freeze frame on CAV discs. But I used the thing long enough to be able to chime in with an opinion....and get long winded.

So, if you have the chance to get one of these at a decent price, you shouldn't be too upset.

-Jay

TL;DR version:
Does a nice job despite being unknown proprietary technology. Loads of customizable inputs; suits any display/projector; supports PAL input. Clean deinterlacing, good scaling. Excellent value if you find one used.

Very nice review, but would you know how well the reverse pulldown works? And how did the comb filter look on the S&W pattern?


I think you're right. I remember Spears & Munsil saying in an interview that DVDs can be written as progressive or interlaced, but that all DVDs are (supposed to be) flagged for 480i. I can't find the interview, but here's an article where Munsil writes about it.

As I said, I'm not much of a videophile, so I wouldn't know well reverse pulldown worked if ran up to me and pulled down my pants. I don't really know exactly what to look for. As far as the S&W pattern, what? I have no clue what you're talking about. This is really the first time where I've ever really tried to say anything about how the comb filter worked. In the past when I've used S-Video, it's been from non-composite sources.



According to what I can tell from the DVD specification, MPEG-2 is allowed to use all progressive scan content, but there have to be flags so the player can do proper pulldown and convert it to an interlaced signal. Back when I used to back-up DVD's, a lot of them were interlaced and you had to deinterlace them before converting them to another format. I also noticed mixed interlaced and progressive video. Later DVD's tended to use progressive. I stopped paying attention at some point because I lost interest/time. It was also common for progressive releases, from what I did notice, to be 24fps.

But the point I should add to that is with the BD player, the signal would be progressive the entire way. Of course I could set the BD player up to the scaler and do a reference...then I can compare composite with component...but I wasn't wanting to get that scientific right now. It's an option, I'll play with that the next time I'm stuck inside.

But, seriously, I lost the time for all that and the interest. It's only been in the last two years since majorly upgrading my connection that I cared about video formats at all. I'm way out of the loop on a lot of this stuff, honestly.

Well, are there any apparent problems when converting to 24hz on LD?

And the S&W pattern is the Snell & Wilcox pattern at the end of the Video Essentials and A Video Standard discs (the one with the big moving ball)

Haha. Good point.

I've fed my TV a 24hz signal before; however I don't know if there isn't something inside converting it. I had a BD player on the thing that would let me force 24hz mode; my LG only activates it "if supported". If it does, then the display isn't reporting it. If it doesn't...then something's likely converting it, which would throw things off.

I don't have either of those discs. I guess I'll have to find them.

So I was up entirely too late watching Return of the Jedi and Jurassic Park last night. I also had a few random discs in and out.

I discovered this unit won't blindly output 24hz over HDMI, that option is not available when hooked to my TV.

My return of the jedi is a older non-faces edition. My new hope is a faces edition. The difference between overall subjective picture quality was the THX mastered disc looked much better. My Jurassic Park looked *fantastic*. When the helicopter was flying in, nothing but smooth blurry rotors, no jumpy combed picture here. It was about as clear as I could expect from zoomed in letterbox. In fact, all my THX mastered discs looked amazing. I couldn't see a difference with the TV. This scaler is *really* doing a fine job.

I also spent some time comparing composite and s-video. Clearly, despite the fact the S-video looks like its a tad sharper, the comb filter in this thing does an outstanding job. The "edge" of the blue from my LD player (normally cropped out by overscan), shows slight dot-crawl with svideo and none with composite. The S-video also had "chroma noise", were on vivid backgrounds you get "color" noise. That's why I said it looked more "analog", I'm used to seeing that kind of chroma noise on VCRs. Composite produced exceptionally clean color, no slight splotches of noise at all.

Between my TVs picture setting and the scalers built-in adjustments, I was able to tweak down the settings. I even was able to crank the sharpness all the way up and activate my TV's low setting for video noise reduction and things looked oustanding.

Again, where as everything on my TV looked almost the same, I can really see differences between disc mastering more than I thought.

Freeze-frame on CLV was exceptional. On my TVs internal stuff, a freeze frame resulted in a not-so-freeze frame. You could see it jumping between both frames. I can capture this with a camera, and will at some point. I stuck in a dead side...the turtle was just as clear regardless of scan speed or freeze frame. I've got a Close Encounters Criterion CAV waiting on me to watch this evening. I feel I can really evaluate.

Overall, this thing is *just* what I needed. Its taken the problem of scaling out of the equation. I can see the mastering differences. Things aren't a washed out blurry mess.

I still have a bunch of movies to watch, and with my scaling issues solved; I can begin to spend money on collecting movies. Of course, the three friends that were over marveled at the fact I even had a piece of equipment "that sophiscated". Were they impressed with the quality of LD? Oh yes, they were. My one friend who watched Pulp Fiction while I was mowing grass (at 11pm, my neighbors love me) said it was the most enjoyable expierence he'd ever gotten from a "low-resolution" format. Ill take it!

Most DVD releases from the major studios are encoded with true 24 frame per second progressive scan with flags set to tell the player where the first field should be when outputting an interlaced signal. Many are also encoded with the full 3:2 sequence at 29.9 frames per second with flags to tell the player where the cadence breaks from 2 to 3 fields - this allows the player to perform inverse te
Wine and remove the redundant frames, outputting a true progressive signal. Sadly, most DVD's have errors in the flags, so the better deinterlacers also do motion adaptive deinterlacing to find the proper fields when the flags are incorrect - or to drop to intrafield deinterlacing to hide any combing that would otherwise be visible with the flag errors. The video mode in most players cuts the vertical resolution to half or 3/4 that of the full 480 lines a true progressive signal would have.

A DVD could be scaled to a higher vertical and horizontal resolution, with more real resolution, if a Super Resolution up scaling process was implemented. Super Resolution processes 4 or more frames at a time to extract real extra resolution that's otherwise unused - IMAX uses just such a process to convert 35mm films to the IMAX format and have real higher resolution instead of just a bigger picture. It's almost like applying the MUSE Hi-Vision 4 field decoding process to standard resolution signals.

The THX Definitive Collection LD box of the Star Wars films was processed to ensure that there were no hanging fields left due to the 3:2 pull down process - some discs have errors due to the way films are tramsferred, which is one sequence at a time and not a full reel at once. The Definitive Collection was the first LaserDisc release where they payed strict attention to the 3:2 conversion, so if a deinterlacer is working correctly, it will never show combing.

I have a small Westinghouse flat panel and, like your set Dewdude, it can show an outstanding picture when it's internal processing is bypassed. Your description of the set, it's processing and the results you are getting with scaling LaserDisc, is wonderful and fun to read.

My main television is a Toshiba 52 inch LCD that I got at a Black Friday after Thanksgiving sale for $299 - it was normally $1799 and they were selling 4 sets for that low price as the store opened at 5am. It's deinterlacing from 480i to 1080p, 24 Fps, is wonderful and it has a superb algorithm to remove jagged diagonal edges. My Denon receiver uses the Faroudja chipset for scaling and also has the DCDi diagonal processing - it will scale 480i to 1080P with excellent results, although on some LaserDisc's I prefer the Toshiba's internal scaler. I've never been able to determine why some discs look better via the Faroudja and some the Toshiba. One thing I've noticed is if the LD transfer has a lot of jitter and weave, the Toshiba's scaler looks better, but the widescreen discs released I the last 5 years of LaserDisc's life look much, much better when scaled and deinterlaced via the Faroudja. Some discs, like Deep Impact, The Mask of Zorro and Bringing Out The Dead, look almost as good as a DVD - and in the case of Deep Impact, have better sound than the DVD release since the actual theatrical mix was used on the AC-3 tracks of the LD unlike the DVD which used a slightly remixed and re-EQ'd near-field home mix.

Which pressing and jacket version is it? I bought it the day Criterion released it and that first version if full of chapter errors which were mostly corrected on a later pressing - some errors slipped by Criterion and they never made a version without chapter errors of some kind. It was the first time the original theatrical version had ever been available on home video on any format and I was really excited to own it since I always thought the original version was better than the Special Editiion. The first jacket was a 3 panel fold where the discs came out via openings inside the jacket - it was a horrid jacket. Criterion's repressing used a box and they would even send a box free to owners of the first jacket since it was so bad - I never took advantage of that, nor did I exchange my set for a corrected one. The Perfect Vision magazine ran an article about the mastering errors of the first and subsequent pressings. The aspect ratio isn't quite right but the picture quality and Pioneer pressing was, for the time, outstanding. The Dolby Stereo sound quality is stunning, especially the bass during Dryfus' first encounter at the stop sign - it goes below 20 Hz at high level. The supplements are neat but I don't like the multi-image presentation where you have to select the soundtrack to match the video you want to watch - I understand why Criterion did it that way though.

I got my copy of the CAV Criterion Close Encounters for $24.95 that first day because the person who applied the price sticker didn't notice that the 1 from $124.95 was missing from the sticker on that copy - the 2 other copies were correctly marked and I fully expected the cashier to correct it, but she sold it to me for the mismarked price. I bought so many discs from West Coast Sound at their full, non-discounted price, that I didn't feel bad about taking advantage of their mistake. I didn't feel right about exchanging my copy for the corrected version though, so I never did.

Thanks.

I've tried to describe things as best I can, which requires me being a tad long winded. I'm used to trying to describe audio, which is even more subjective. So something like "listen to the bass" becomes "pay attention to the smoothness and detail of that bass. Rich undertones accent the bass while the clarity allows it to tickle your ears and revel that the entire thing is being bowed and not plucked, you can hear bow-drag, meanwhile Taylor's voice stands out with a silky smoothness that's like butter to your ears. The guitar tracksabsolutely ring, and the inherent harmonics are faithly reproduced, and a tad enhanced, by the tubes. It makes for a very exciting "I've never heard this before!" moment. The song leaves the studio and jumps in to your living room."

That was how I described James Taylor's Fire and Rain after swapping some preamp tubes for "computer grade" tubes.

But, I recall seeeing Westinghouse TVs and being shocked at how vivid the picture was. I remember when most LCDs looks bad, and only super expensive ones looked good. Now that a lot of people are using the same panels, it all boils down to the driving circuitry.

Like I said, I wasn't ale to get 24fps output..its outputting 60hz and my TV is pretty adament about its not doing 24hz. So I can't really comment if the pulldown is or isn't doing anything. I've not noticed any motion errors or otherwise. Jusassic Park looked like really high-quality analog, even after zooming.

The Definitive Collection is something I've been on the fence about. I've read the faces used the same transfer...but I can't resist big CAV releases. I did enjoy watching my old Return of the Jedi disc...even if theletterboxed video is at the top of the frame. I think I missed some of Jabbas subtitles,
Like I haven't memorized what he's saying. It was also nice to see all those dust specks from the original transfer in special effects scenes.

Yeah, I was 5 years old again. My beta copies through the scaler, well, like I said, they're beyond worn out. A non-worn beta tape looked...ok.

Overall, I'm very glad I was convinced not to get a reciever for the video chip and that my not giving up on ebay paid off. I've never seen analog video look this good on a flat panel. (Ok, its digital, howabout we just agree its not mpeg compressed)

Ill also add that, from some research, that iSync uses all 300mhz video chips. Most video converters are what, 100mhz 10-bit? I don't know if these are higher than 10bit, but they do look amazing.

As far as my close encounters, its a former rental. I did not get a jacket, the atypical discs in thick poly bags stapled together. I haven't even stuck it in the player. One won't even come out because the edges have glued themselves to the bag. I suspect ill have to cut the bag and carefully remove the stuck pieces, then remove the glue. I have a spare rental bag since my copy of Shakedown was cracked...and now broken in two.Its a shame, I was gonna make a clock out of it.

I've decided, since I had some windshield time here at work, Id give more review of the scaler since I had half a weekend to play with it. Friday's epic line of storms knocked my in to the third world for a couple days.

Laserdiscs look outstanding. I do notice some blockyness on some types of fonts when zooming, but its only noticable if you really get up on the TV. Close Encounters looked fantastic, best discs I've watched yet. Inverse telecine seems to work. I had some fast scrolling credits that looked jumpy for a few frames but then got all smooth and clear; it was obvious the deinterlacer/inverse telecine got a lock. So it seems the thing is motion adapted? I've noticed on 1080I channels with scrolling text it has the same behavior.

480I signals from the BD and cable box are...I don't know. While I see very little jagged diagnoals from laserdisc, Family Guy from my cable box in its "native 480I" looks bad. Very jagged edges. Also, some of the netflix stuff from the BD player in 480I over its composite had the same effect. I blame the devices. Perhaps they're interlacing progressive content. No idea. The cable box doesn't like running in this native mode. Its been very buggy. I'm gonna lock it back to 1080I and see just how bad the 720p content looks.

The comb filter, its not as good as I think it should be. On my BD player's menu, for example; I can point towhere dot crawl occurs. The picture going directly in to the TV produces a picutre with no crawl anywhere. Of course, that's subjective since the LD is the only thing that's pure composite. But again, what was the state of 3d comb back in 2005?

The bigger advantage I didn't think about was with HD channels that stretch a 4:3 picture to fot 16:9. I can set the scaler to pillarbox and it undoes it; unless they used intelligent stretching.

You're only using composite from your BD player for testing though, right?
Oh and also, does the scaler have any sort of Y/C delay setting?

If you want to try a calibration disc or a Squeeze LD, I can rent them to you, but I know Kurtis Bahr lives in your area, & he can probably lend you something.

Well, pull the EasyCap out of the trash and turn the HDMI cable back in to the laptop. The Key Digital scaler just decided to become a paperweight.

That was a lovely waste of money.

Is it too late to get a refund?

Bought it on eBay. Refund was never an option.

No, I'm out 125 minus whatever I sell the corpse for.

I'm actually considering, knowing what I know now, of giving up on laser disc. I can't afford to keep buying hardware to make it look acceptable on my tv and I don't have the room for a crt unit. Once I transfer the ones I promised someone, I'm gonna have to weigh options.

Are you sure? I order from eBay all the time and if it breaks before your eBay seller protection thing is up (I think it's at least a month), even if they said no refund, they'll refund you (it's happend to me a few times). You'd have nothing to lose by at least attempting a refund.

Also, I have a Hitachi AVC08U sitting in storage for pretty cheap (it's missing a remote, but you can just use your universal remote or contact rixrex for a remote), if you're interested.

so why now give up on the LD dream?

i can't due to the fact that at least 30% of the discs i have i prefer over DVD or can't find them
on DVD or anything else.

or i don't want to buy a LD set i have already on R2 DVD for 1000.00

Ill be honest, I've only ever had success with buyer protection if its DOA, if it dies two weeks later, I've usually been told to go stuff it. Ill have to look, but this guy wasn't accepting returns or giving refunds *period*. Ill have to look in to it.

My whole problem is I have to live on $300/week in an area where you need at least $500/week. I'm one of those people who, literally, has to eat ramen and mac & chees every night. This week I'm on White bread and bologna diet just for the change.

So when I get a hobby that starts costing hundred of dollars every time I turn around, I have to wonder if its really worth it just to "kill time". Actually, its mostly something to do to distract me from how pathetic and depressing my life has turned out.

It took me 3 months to save up for Laserdisc. It took about a month to scrape the money together for the scaler.

I also tend to say I'm gonna do stuff then sit and think about it for months. Ill likely keep all the LD stuff, except to maybe sell some of the apparently rare discs out there. I saw where one dealer online had the LD of "Why Me?" Listed for $99. Its rare, not on DVD, I see $80 in my pocket.

It'll all sit there while I try to cobble money together for another scaler. On the KD subject, a friend of mine who's an integration specalist had it on his bench hooked up with RS232, its not responding to the power up command nor is it accepting a firmware flash.

Another prime example is that nice linear tracking turntable I bought. It worked great for a while, but it never tracked properly. Its got major alignment issues with its carriage I can't figure out. I put it back together just to free up my workbench so I could rebuild my Akai deck. (Which is taking forever, but my parts were free.) I've changed about 150 caps so far, another 245 to go, along with 24 transistors that need to be changed and some interconnects I have to repair. Then there's the fun task of aligning the head, and its an auto-reverse unit. After that, I discovered my Onkyo tape deck has issues. July has been really bad on my gear for some reason.

been there, sometimes i still am there.
i was told about one that was pretty good. cooked ramen, can of chilli and chilli cheese fritos, put it all into a burrito wrap. good sutff.
and you have a large bowl of it for a while.

i did a fancy version once, put inside of an egg roll wraper and deep fry, amazing stuff for a couple bucks.