Let's hear it for the Leitch DPS-290

nissling · Posted: 08 Jan 2015, 21:28

The DPS-290 doesn't support PAL, but I do have a couple of PAL Laserdiscs that I could get some captures from using the Faroudja NR (which I haven't used in a while). Though I'll sell the D515 on Saturday and may not have time to get any new captures tomorrow. As you can see, it's a very noisy player in NTSC at least.

EDIT: One more comparison. Same chains as before.

DPS-290

Color tests in upper right and left corner look better with DPS-290 but there's something up with the color bleeding in the down right red pattern. Could've been some settings I messed up. The 2D comb filter on the 2300 is great by the way and exceeded my expectations when I first tried it.

happycube · Posted: 08 Jan 2015, 22:51

Looking at the service manual, running in unconverted NTSC or PAL mode with the sharpness switch off may bypass some rather crappy circuitry there (including a primitive analog comb filter - on a player with only composite output - with then runs luma through a 3.2mhz low pass filter :sick:

)

If the diagonal 400/500 line bits don't clean up, the 515's a lost cause without mods to bypass the PALB board circuits - recombined comb filter issues as bad as the S2's, along with mediocre analog filtering (i.e. the echoing on the resolution slope)

The DPS-290, aside from the brightness being off, is doing a pretty good job considering what the 515's doing to the signal.

landisman13 · Posted: 08 Jan 2015, 22:59

Ok, I'm sold! Now I see why all the people that own this wonderful piece of equipment rave about it. I once read a post by Disclord about a way to align the chroma and luma using a specific test pattern on VE. Is this pretty straightworward to do?

gumbyandpals · Posted: 09 Jan 2015, 02:58

Super easy as long as you can see red and yellow

I was happy with my DPS-290 for a long time. I found a DPS-575 which has everything the 290 has and then some so that's the only reason I sold it.

landisman13 · Posted: 09 Jan 2015, 04:42

gumbyandpals wrote:

Super easy as long as you can see red and yellow

Ummm...yeah, I reckon I can handle that! :lol:

bguzman · Posted: 09 Jan 2015, 23:36

landisman13 wrote:

gumbyandpals wrote:

Super easy as long as you can see red and yellow

Ummm...yeah, I reckon I can handle that! :lol:

I find that it is much more defined if you use the blue filter that is included with VE.

sdraper · Posted: 15 Jan 2015, 21:11

Would one of these make noticeable improvement on 480i CRT with comb filter?

nissling · Posted: 15 Jan 2015, 21:20

Yes, certainly. Perhaps even more significant than on an HDTV as the visible loss in detail is very little to none on a CRT. On a propely calibrated LCD set, movements can have a slightly ghosty look (more noticable in darker scenes) with the noise reduction enabled. With an SD CRT you will most likely not be able to see it.

sdraper · Posted: 15 Jan 2015, 22:07

Great, I'll look for a cheaper one--any to go for in particular?

nissling · Posted: 15 Jan 2015, 22:19

If you compare the DPS-290 to the 475 and 575, noise reduction should be the same but the 290 has a 2D comb filter wheras the other two has a 3D. The 575 also has an SDI output, which I think the 475 has as well. Other than that I don't know of any major differences for LD processing. The 290 is the cheapest and easiest to find, especially if you're located in the US.

landisman13 · Posted: 16 Jan 2015, 04:07

naiaru wrote:

On the 475 most of the NR options are disabled in 3D mode. I've heard the 575 can do both at the same time though.

I found this in the DPS-575 manual, but don't understand much of it as I'm still learning about such things. So what I gather is you cannot use both NR and 3d comb filter on chroma or luma at the same time. But you could use NR on chroma and 3d comb filter on luma and vice versa. If this is the case, which would be better to use NR on and which to use the 3d comb filter? Would there be any advantage to such settings, as opposed to NR on both vs 3d comb filter on both? Or am I just completely lost and incorrect about everything? :wtf:

Quote:

The 3D Comb Decoder option selects between adaptive 2D and adaptive 3D combing, whether to comb luminance, chroma, or both. 3D combing combines information from previous frames in order to eliminate residual subcarrier artifacts such as cross luminance and cross chroma.

3D combing can be utilized even for non-composite input signals. For example, if the component input video source was decoded from composite by a less sophisticated decoder, the 3D comb filter in the DPS-575 can be used to clean up the signal and remove cross luminance and chroma artifacts.

When set to Disable, 3D combing is disabled, and adaptive 2D combing is used.
The Luma and Chroma settings enable 3D adaptive combing on luminance and chrominance respectively, while Both Y+C enables 3D adaptive combing on both.

Under normal circumstances, Both Y+C is the desirable 3D combing mode. It is not possible, however, to use both Temporal Noise Reduction and 3D combing on the same channel simultaneously. For example, if Temporal NR-Luma is enabled, 3D combing of luminance is not possible, so the 3D Comb Decoder must be disabled or set to Chroma. However, this is not a problem; with a sufficient Temporal Noise Reduction setting, there is no benefit to using the 3D comb filter simultaneously.

Setting this option to Luma or Both Y+C automatically disables Temporal NR-Luma (sets it to 3D Comb mode). Similarly, setting this option to Chroma or Both Y+C automatically disables Temporal NR-Chroma (sets it to 3D Comb mode).

substance · Posted: 16 Jan 2015, 04:30

Both 3d comb and noise reduction is needed more on chroma. Luma can benefit from 3d comb but not as much as chroma. Luma has much less noise opposed to chroma. Since you can't run both at the same time I would try

1- 3d comb on both luma and chroma, dnr disabled.
2- 3d comb on chroma, dnr on luma. Too much dnr will remove detail so use it conservatively.

Then decide which looks better. My guess is 2.

landisman13 · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 02:56

So I finally scored a DPS-290 & I'm sooo happy! This has made the biggest improvement in PQ for me since I calibrated with Video Essentials. The settings are so precise, I ended up reverting my display back to default settings and re-calibrated through the 290, saving custom settings for each of my players. I run LD, composite out -> DPS-290, Svideo out -> Faroudja NRS, HDMI out -> LCD TV. Big thanks to all who shared their recomendations on this fine piece of equipment. Especially Gumbyandpals, who, as far as I can tell from my research, was the first one to discover this "magic box." The only problem I've had so far is when I first turn on the unit, the video is really wavy. It's kind of hard to explain. Back when I had analog cable, the screen would get all wavy if the vacuum cleaner was plugged in to the same outlet as the tv. This is what it reminds me of. Anyway, it only lasts for a minute or two, then it goes away. I know these things were meant to be on pretty much 24/7, so I'm hoping it's just "warming up" and not getting ready to crap out on me. Anyone else experience anything similar?

nissling · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 11:47

Could you provide a picture of the wavy picture? I'm interested to see what it looks like.

Also, what player are you using?

landisman13 · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 14:50

This is what I get when I first power everything on. Didn't happen until I started using the DPS-290. I have tried a DVL-909 and CLD-3070 with the same results. It all goes away after about a minute or two, and doen't come back unless I power everything off for an extended period of time.

nissling · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 14:58

Haven't seen that at all on my unit so I'm sorry, I have no idea what do about it.

landisman13 · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 15:19

Well, as long as it doesn't get any worse, I can deal with the "warm up" period. It kind of reminds me of a vertical hold problem on a CRT. Possibly a sync issue?? I don't really know much about sync, but could it just be that it just takes a little bit for the 290 to sync up to my Faroudja? I could try running sync cables between the two & see what happens.

happycube · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 19:39

Sounds like a capacitor wearing out, and taking a while to charge up.

landisman13 · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 21:08

happycube wrote:

Sounds like a capacitor wearing out, and taking a while to charge up.

Now that you mention it, that probably makes the most sense. Without undertaking an entire re-cap, should I maybe start with the power supply and go from there?

happycube · Posted: 25 Jan 2015, 23:09

If you have a multimeter measure the main power lines?

Let's hear it for the Leitch DPS-290

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