scan converters?

zooph_ · Post by **zooph_** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 14:12

I found out that the amazing resolume cant ouput to firewire. I need to ouput my vaio vga-out to a sony projector ( which only has s-video / composite in! ) i take it the best way to do this is by using a scan converter?
Im running resolume at the lowest res so am wondering if there will be any further degradation of resolution after scan converting. Is this the best. easiest method? also can anyone recommend a cheap and preferabley small scan converter to buy?

thanx
z

evomedia_ · Post by **evomedia_** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 15:45

Cheap scan convertors are always terrible quality, look on ebay for a better spec one second hand.

Typical to have a laptop with no comp out and a projector with no vga in.

zooph_ · Post by **zooph_** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 16:13

thanx for the reply..
am just wondering how bad? ive my first gig in two days time and have to show something! need to have a simple set up fast! anyone any ideas? Ideally i need a SICHS30 projector cable that connects the laptop vga to the PJ input on the projector but these take two weeks to ship!
what about vga -> tv cards, any good??
any help greatly appreciated
z

wes_ · Post by **wes_** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 06:50

Up until very recently I've used cheapo scannies like the AverKey 100's (from Maplin). They are a bit crap, but scaling from 320x240 you won't notice in my opinion. A bigger problem with them is they're not so good at removing the black borders from your VGA-out. The zoom&pan buttons get rid of this, but it zooms in too much, losing some of the image. If you can live with these compromises it's a good cheap (Â£60 each) fix for now.

Apparently the Corioscan Connect from Vine Micros (Â£190) will adjust for black borders automatically and appears to have decent resolution, haven't used one though. http://www.vinemicros.com/products/coriosel.htm

I'm using the video outputs on Radeon 9600's now (in fullsize PCs, don't know about the lappie version of R9600) instead of seperate scan converters and the quality is much better than the Averkey crap, and borderless. Has anyone compared these onboard scan converters with mid-range and high-end external units?

zooph_ · Post by **zooph_** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 22:39

heh wes,

thanx4 the tips. I picked up a very cheap scan converter today from maplins to cover me for a gig on friday until i get a dedicated sony vga->pjMulti lead which is ordered. As for the quality, yeah its not too great, but if i mess with the output setting on the projector i can get something not too shabby. At the end of the day i guess its the material and what you are saying that counts, cant just rely on quality output if the material is shit eh? sorry if the post seems to have drifted off topic (resolume), its just if i hadn't of discovered resolume i wouldn't be getting involved in this quagmire in the first place!

ether_ · Post by **ether_** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 23:20

if you're desperate for a good quality scan converter, hire one from a local AV company. They should have very high quality ones and are reasonably cheap to hire.

Dan Brown_ · Post by **Dan Brown_** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 23:04

I've got a Dual Head Matrox Video Card with Composite output. Quality is plenty good enough for 320x240 (It'll handle full rez PAL 720x576). It's a Mega Reliable Card as well.

z++ph_ · Post by **z++ph_** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 13:36

interesting.....

so i bought a 50quid averkey-lite scanny, a tiny thing that to all intents and purposes is a cable with a switch on ( handy for portability ). It also has some of the usual handy controls. The main problem for me is sharpness. I finally received my dedicated sony projector cable and very fine the sharpness is too. But thats the main difference. I guess if you need hyper resolutions cheap scannies are out of the question. But in a way for me its kinda cool as the lack of sharpness improves quality for ultra jaggy 320x240 clips - did anyone ever think that a cheap scan converter is also doubles as an aliasing control!

z++ph
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