DVI scan converter for under $1000?

Question

I've just gotten some e-mails which indicate DVI scan converters are downright expensive. Considering many DVI HD-TVs are now well under $1000, you'd think that you could get a scan converter for less. Sure there is DisplayConfigX and SwitchResX, but they are complicated to setup, and it appears not all HD-TVs respond well to them. So here's the question, anyone know of a simple DVI based scan converter that will reduce the picture so that all four sides of the screen which are overscanned on my set actually appear on my HD-TV? I don't want to have to step down to VGA just to do scan conversion. Right now the VGA scan converters are only $200 to $300 depending on where you look. Why some companies charge as much as $12,000 for DVI versions is beyond me!

Answer 1

there are scan converters that do the simple job of converting a signal from 1 format to another then there are converters (scalers) that are designed to take NTSC (or PAL, SECAM, etc...) material and upconvert it to a higher resolution. back in the day when we used to deal with $50,000 9" gun CRT front projection systems, they often used $30,000 boxes that did the scan conversion. with CRT based systems on a large projection screen, you can actually see the black gap between the scan lines of the electron beams. the original reason to upscale NTSC video to different formats (differente VGA resolutions, really) was to increase brightness, not increase detail... for the higher the resolution, the smaller the black lines in between the scan lines on the screen. the reason that this is not so easy to accomplish is because film, which was originally shot in 24 frames per second, is being asked to play back on a device that is 60, 80, or higher frames per second (the vertical refresh rate). when dealing with film, you are of course dealing with people who are very critical with all technical processes being applied (rightfully so) and the same with the viewers. when done incorrectly or without proper processing, this scan rate conversion is visible by "rips" or jittery motion artifacts during playback.
because more and more of today's modern sources are digital (DVI and HDMI) and the display devices are also digital (LCD, DLP, and plasma) scan converters and scalers are somewhat obsolete. it is still downright confusing, though. 1080i from an HD-DVD is played back at 1080p. 1080p from a Blue Ray player is played back at 1080p. HDMI, while supposed to make life simpler, actually has a whole list of incompatible sources and display devices with more HDMI #.# versions to come.
i retract my statement, scan converters are no longer obsolete, they are just packaged with the display devices and sources so there is no market for them. a 480p DVD player with DVI out does not really give you a 480p output direct from the 480p MPEG stream. the video DSP takes the MPEG, internally outputs 480i, then the built in converter processes it back at 480p. seeing how these DVD players are very cheap, there no longer is a market for affordable scalers. you now have the all or nothing scenario where the only vendors alive rely on high end clients that want to pay for the best and not settle with what is bundled.
anyways, some of the companies still in the business...
Faroudja (recently bought by Meridian UK)
DVDO
Silicon Image
Focus Enhancements (exiting / exited the market?)
Snell and Wilcox
gefen (is a newcomer beginning to offer some product)
i'm sure that i'm missing a bunch, but these are the ones that i recall off the top of my head