Interesting Upconverter to HMDI

[BobFoster]

Here's an interesting piece of equipment. I can imagine a number of scenarios where this might be very beneficial. Outputting your Cassie II via S-Video to an HD monitor, Going from your RGB computer output to an HDMI equipped projector, VGA computer output to HD TV etc. etc. etc. http://tinyurl.com/mfk4a6
Anyone have any experience with this unit. It appears to be in the consumer category. I have one on the way to play with and see what it can do.

[LouBruno]

I have a similiar unit and I use it to output my standalone Panasonic DVD burner to HDMI then to my HDMI switcher and OUT to my HD MONITOR. However, the S-Video conversion is a little sub par than an actual HDMI feed, which is to expected.

[BobFoster]

Some first impressions after integrating the HDMI Upconverter into my editing setup. Test: Feeding S-Video signal into Panasonic distribution amp from Reno+ editor. Output 1 to Sony PVM14-M4U 800 line hi rez monitor. Output 2 to 32" Sharp Aquas HD monitor via S-Video Input. Output 3 to Up Converter and then HDMI to Sharp Aquas HD monitor via HDMI input set to 1080P.

Material: Still Slides transferred via camera S-Video to Reno +, DV video transferred via firewire to Reno +.

Video Played back from Reno+ on HD TV looked more color saturated and film like using Up Converter and HDMI 1080P input than using S-Video input. Not as sharp of course as HD 1080i material played back via HDMI.

Sony PVM14-M4U monitor looked sharper than either S-Video or HDMI on the Sharp HD TV. Scan lines could be noticed if you were looking for them and sitting close to the monitor.

The Up Converter has a number of settings that can effect the output resolution, brightness, and noise reduction. I have not tried the PC scaling capabilities.
Conclusion: a little early, but 1st impression is that it could improve the display for presentation purposes compared to S-Video, but doesn't approach real 1080P video. The Sony CRT is still the best indicator of what's actually happening to the video signal. I will probably keep it in the system for customer playback but use the CRT for editing of Reno+ jobs. The Sharp is nice for using the S4000Pro and HDMI 1080i out for editing. No problems there.

[BobFoster]

I just hooked up the upconverter to my Macbook pro via VGA and then Sharp 32" HD TV via HDMI. WOW! A 32 inch laptop. At 1080P, the TV looked nearly as sharp as projecting from a VGA projector with a computer. Tiny text was very sharp.