Progressive Line Doubler
Not
long ago, I recall reading an article that said one day high quality (3:2 pull-down)
de-interlacing technology would come down to a reasonable price which most people
could afford. Needless to say, that occurred with the release of the original
iScan about three years ago making it difficult to justify spending several thousands
of dollars on similar products. The performance of the processor surprised industry
professionals as well as consumers who believed deinterlacing had to be expensive.
The original iScan took advantage of the low-cost of ASIC (Application Specific
Integrated Circuit) technology and powerful PC-based tools resulting in an amazing
deinterlacer for under $1,000. Since then, two additional iScan deinterlacers
have been released making this latest iScan Ultra the fourth generation
model. According to Silicon Image, the older iScan V2 will no longer be offered,
making the new iScan Ultra and existing iScan Pro their current products.
The
new iScan Ultra offers several significant changes made to the previous
iScan model. First of all, the chassis is now full size and fits nicely in a rackmount
setup. Rackmount ears are also available for this type of installation. The unit
has a solid build making it easy to operate with tactile buttons on the front
panel along with a three digit alphanumeric display. A small remote control has
been added to the list of new features. More importantly, each video input can
now be configured independently and the data is stored in nonvolatile memory in
the event of a power loss. This is very important since all video sources have
slightly different video characteristics and must be adjusted accordingly. These
new features are a great addition to an already excellent performing iScan. The
user can adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, sharpness, Y/C delay and
activate the chroma filter to minimize color problems related to DVD players with
the chroma bug in the MPEG decoder. The latter two adjustments are new to the
Ultra model. The Ultra also has a pass-through mode for the video
coming from the input VGA connector. This is especially useful if the VGA connection
on the display is already occupied by another source. In our review, we ran our
RCA DTC100 set-top box (running HD 1080i video) into the pass-though connector
and we saw no video degradation on the display.
Peek
Inside
The
internal design of the new iScan Ultra is similar to its predecessors,
but with far more capabilities, resulting in a larger board footprint. Power forms
are generated using linear voltage regulators for minimum power supply noise.
The input video interfaces to the same Philips SAA7118E multi-standard video decoder
with the integrated 2D adaptive comb filter used in the iScan Pro unit. This powerful
chip provides the high quality Y/C separation for composite video sources and
incorporates the front-end video switching needed for the large number of video
inputs. Analog video is converted to the digital domain using four 9-bit analog-to-digital
converters sampling at 27MHz (twice the standard sampling rate). Digital component
video is then sent to the new Silicon Image Sil-504 deinterlacer chip where 3:2
and 2:2 pulldown detection and motion adaptive deinterlacing takes place. The
digital progressive video is sent to the custom Xilinx Spartan XC2S200 FPGA that
performs aspect ratio conversion and chroma filtering. Finally the output of the
FPGA is sent to an Analog Devices ADV7301A chip with 12-bit video DACs for the
VGA output, and to Silicon Image's SiI 164 PanelLink chip for the DVI output.
The DVI output takes advantage of Silicon Image's arsenal of video interface chip
technology.
As a side note, manufacturers such as Denon Electronics have incorporated the latest generation of the deinterlacing chip (Sil 504) into their flagship DVD-9000 ($3500) as well as in their less expensive DVD-3800 ($1199). This is the second generation of DVD players in which Denon has decided to implement the Silicon Image deinterlacing chip. Obviously the technology has impressed them enough to put it into their highest performing and most expensive DVD players. Other high-end companies such as Camelot have also used this technology in their DVD players.
Back
Panel
On
the rear panel, the wider chassis easily accommodates the six video inputs, pass-through
connector and two video output connectors (VGA and DVI). There are two of each
type of inputs (composite, s-video and component video) providing users with not
only a great deinterlacer, but an added video switcher with independently stored
video parameters. The output video can be sent to either the analog VGA connector
or the new DVI output. We didn't have a DVI capable display for this review, so
we could not test this function. However, displays with DVI inputs avoid unnecessary
conversions that tend to degrade video quality, so we would expect this interface
to be highly desirable.
Color space on the analog VGA output can be set for YUV component or RGB. The sync option is selectable between RGB/HV, RGB/S, RGsB and YPrPb. Three different aspect ratios are offered (Full, Letterbox, and Squeeze Mode). The Squeeze mode has four different video selections for the side bar area (Black, dark gray, medium gray, and light gray). Using non-black bars decrease the chance of screen burn when watching content in this mode for extended periods of time. The letterbox mode allows non-anamorphic (non 16:9 enhanced) DVDs to fill the screen while maintaining the proper aspect ratio for 16:9 displays. This was great for those old DVDs in our collection.
The unit comes with composite, s-video, and component video cables to help you get started with the unit. However, it does not include the output cables (VGA or DVI), so you will have to buy these separately. The switching AC adapter supplied with the unit works with any voltage between 100V and 240VAC making it a universal power module for both the USA and Europe. They even provide the round two-prong European plug with the supply.
Performance
Our review system consisted of a Sony DVP-NS900V DVD player running in the interlaced
mode with the s-video and component video connections to the iScan Ultra.
We also used a Mitsubishi HS-U82 S-VHS VCR and Pioneer CLD-99 laserdisc player
to supply us with composite source material. We were interested in evaluating
the front end of the iScan Ultra to see how well the Y/C separator worked.
The output of the iScan was connected to our Pioneer Elite PRO-610HD monitor.
Using the composite video inputs on the iScan we tested a variety of laserdisc material and some not-so-great VHS recordings that had substantial jitter in the video. The Time Base Correction (TBC) circuitry in the iScan worked extremely well on poor VHS material by substantially reducing the line-to-line jitter, resulting in an improvement in overall picture quality. Interlacing artifacts were removed completely without the introduction of new artifacts from the deinterlacing process. Yes, some deinterlacers do actually make the video look worse than the original interlaced video, but certainly not the iScan Ultra. We were pleasantly surprised to see all the great attributes of the earlier iScan models with new and improved features.
Now it was time to put on a DVD to see what we had been waiting for. The video we fed to the iScan from our Sony DVP-NS900V was refreshing, especially after looking at VHS and laserdisc. While I was a big supporter of laserdisc, it doesn't even compare to the best DVD releases. The beautiful color accuracy and flesh-tones found in Shakespeare in Love show how good this format can be. The progressive image generated by the iScan was stunning and looked very natural on our display. I carefully watched the edges of various images during motion and could not detect any significant problems with the deinterlacer. It did a wonderful job processing the incoming component-based source material.
The
iScan Ultra from Silicon Image is one of the easiest and most affordable
ways to improve the quality of your home theater video while also providing video
switching for each of the six inputs. The latest iScan represents a fourth generation
product that has been refined to offer real value-added features along with proven
core deinterlacing technology from past and proven iScan products. Any serious
home theater system with multiple video sources whether they be composite, s-video
or component, would benefit from the iScan Ultra.
- Kevin Nakano