Hey Dudes! I have a client with a Vidikron Vision One, Faroudja VP-401. Wants HDTV.......HMMMMMM. Any help out there....anybody come across this yet. He had an AMX Landmark that crashed, so I got the call to try and fix it. Now he wants to upgrade. Can a progressive scan rate be fed into 401 or not. Tests have show when DVD set to interlaced it works fine.....switch it to progressive and it goes wacky. Same for the HD-200 Sony Satellite......no sync! I'm thinking he is going to need a new video processor/scaler to match his new HDTV Sat and Prog Scan DVD.

ANY HELP OUT THERE????????

THANKS, RADIO RHEA

The Faroudja VP-401 is a fine video processor. It does only proces NTSC or PAL sources. I would not recommend changing it unless you want to do major changes to the system.

Place a 2x1 or larger (for future expansion) RGBHV or VGA/DB15 switcher between the Faroudja and the Vidikron. The Sony SAT-HD200 can then be fed RGB/VGA into the switcher.

You will likely have to create a new program and do some convergence work on the Vidikron for the SATHD200 frequencies.

You should rule out using progressive DVD players as they only output 480p.

So you wouldn't use a new Faroudja scaler? Reseting the system will be no problem in terms of picture sizing and presets.

No I would not. The VP401 was a great line quadrupler. Extron and Focus Enhancements (among others) make some products that can process non-480i scan rates, but in my opinion, they do not do a better job than the VP401 in overall performance. Remember that the Vision 1 / Marquis projector is a 9" gun CRT. These devices have a bit different video requirements than your typical fixed pixel device.

There are scalers that you can buy now that are better than the VP401, but should be considered only if the client wants a major upgrade. The most significant upgrade would consist of an SDI (4:2:2 component) transport with an SDI equipped scaler. Theta, Key Digital, Faroudja (DCS integrated serial digital transport / scaler), and Electrograph are some places to start looking at SDI solutions. Some HTPC solutions would also qualify.

bottom line... think about this decision very carefully before you commit to a course of action. The VP401 cost the client quite a bit of money and if you are going to make him spend more, there had better be a good reason for it.