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[zoom+slomo]

Except for about 30-odd movies and one TV series on 1080p BD, the rest of my large vintage collection are mostly well produced and pressed DVDs. Most of those DVDs have not nor are likely to be issued on BD, nor would I otherwise wish to repurchase them as such. For obvious reasons I don't plan on buying any 4K BDs and if I ever subscribed to a movie streaming service it would have to be at 1080p resolution.

Though I do all of my viewing in a dim lit room and 10+ feet from my 32" CRT, it's questionable how acceptable my DVDs would look even on Sony's latest top model 55 or even 48" OLED. But thanks to some invaluable feedback here at AVS forum I've compiled a list of the best late model 50" 1080p plasma TVs. Then perhaps later one of the smaller Sony OLEDs for my other room to watch BDs.

I don't doubt that the scalers in my Oppo 95, and hopefully my Pioneer LX500, can make my DVDs look respectable at least on the plasma under my viewing conditions. But while DVDs don't have the DTS-MA audio quality that BDs do for JRiver to decode, the lossy Dolby Digital on many of my DVDs may still sound quite respectable through the surround system which JRiver will feed via USB. But the concern here is if the HTPC I will now soon have built has the Nvidia 1650 card will that and JRiver alone be enough to equal the scaling quality of my Oppo 95?

While aware of video scaling software I've no actual experience with any such apps. And from what I've heard from users about madVr's learning curve I get the sense that if JRiver and something like an Nvidia 1650 4GB card alone can't match the Oppo's scaling powers that I might be unable to get madVR to do so either.

Therefore, would hardwired 480 to 1080p scalers placed between the pc and the plasma give my DVDs a true Oppo player quality appearance? Would this model below equal what the Oppo can do for DVDs on the plasma? https://www.kramerav.com/us/product/vp-424c The only difference between those two units is one adds a VGA and audio input. They're not cheap though not crazy expensive and CDW and others may have it for for less than list. There's a discontinued version minus the USB C input that available for about half the price. https://cdn.kramerav.com/web/downloads/manuals/vp-424.pdf I only wish that it didn't offer 480 scaling up to 4K as may be another comparably priced model that did so only up to 1080p would do it better.

But the question is how would this OR another scaler box you might recommend compare to the Oppo for this specific application?

[tij]

Scaling quality is proportional to processing power ... more processing power you have, more complex scaling algorithms you can use ... there is a diminishing return, where substantial increase in processing power will only result in small increase in "quality" (arguable not perceivable unless you start pixel peaking)

There is no way ... "ordinary" scaler or oppo, gonna match 1650 ... they just dont have raw power of 1650 ... there is reason why Lumagen cost heaps of money

Thats why ppl flock to MadVR ... superior scaling at fraction of Lumagen price

JRiver JRVR best scaling algorithm atm is Jinc ... which is darn fine by the way ... i highly recommend you try it ... minimum hassle to set up

But imo ... MadVR NGU scaling is better ... noticeably better ... arguably better than Lumagen scaler (i cannot verify that) ... for me ... the diminishing return start at MadVR's NGU Low ... the quality leap from Jinc to NGU Low is substantial and noticeable ... going NGU Low to NGU high/very high, the quality increase is not so obvious to justify money you need to get GPU that are capable of running NGU high/very high

So if you have will and time to tackle MadVR ... NGU is way to go ... 1650 should be able to handle it for 1080p ... which level of NGU 1650 can handle - this you have to test

But if you are not THAT nuts with quality ... Jinc is a very good alternative (likely better than oppo or "scalers") ... and minimum effort to set up with JRVR

[zoom+slomo]

Scaling quality is proportional to processing power ... more processing power you have, more complex scaling algorithms you can use ... there is a diminishing return, where substantial increase in processing power will only result in small increase in "quality" (arguable not perceivable unless you start pixel peaking)

There is no way ... "ordinary" scaler or oppo, gonna match 1650 ... they just dont have raw power of 1650 ... there is reason why Lumagen cost heaps of money

Thats why ppl flock to MadVR ... superior scaling at fraction of Lumagen price

JRiver JRVR best scaling algorithm atm is Jinc ... which is darn fine by the way ... i highly recommend you try it ... minimum hassle to set up

But imo ... MadVR NGU scaling is better ... noticeably better ... arguably better than Lumagen scaler (i cannot verify that) ... for me ... the diminishing return start at MadVR's NGU Low ... the quality leap from Jinc to NGU Low is substantial and noticeable ... going NGU Low to NGU high/very high, the quality increase is not so obvious to justify money you need to get GPU that are capable of running NGU high/very high

So if you have will and time to tackle MadVR ... NGU is way to go ... 1650 should be able to handle it for 1080p ... which level of NGU 1650 can handle - this you have to test

But if you are not THAT nuts with quality ... Jinc is a very good alternative (likely better than oppo or "scalers") ... and minimum effort to set up with JRVR

Thanks so much for all of this info. I will certainly start with Jinc, which appears to be JRVR’s own “built in “
scaler. But having a “virtually silent” HTPC is very important for me, so when scaling 480 DVDs to 1080p for the plasma using Jinc would I have to deal with noticeable fan noise with the 1650 video card in a case like this? https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=233&area=en

And would fan noise further increase when using madVR algorithms, at least if I used that same case? Or if I wanted to minimize fan noise would I have to go with a more powerful card? If yes, which? If it matters in this regard my cpu will be the Comet Lake 1290t 35 watt. Please advise.

[tij]

Fan noise can be issue ... depending on cooling design (some cards are noisier than other)

If money is not an issue HDPlex do completely passive cooling including GPUs up to 95w tdp ... plus they can do that with linear power supply

https://hdplex.com/hdplex-passive-video-card-gpu-heatsink-system-for-hdplex-h5.html

I dont find my 1070 to be an issue

[zoom+slomo]

Fan noise can be issue ... depending on cooling design (some cards are noisier than other)

If money is not an issue HDPlex do completely passive cooling including GPUs up to 95w tdp ... plus they can do that with linear power supply

https://hdplex.com/hdplex-passive-video-card-gpu-heatsink-system-for-hdplex-h5.html

I dont find my 1070 to be an issue

Money is always an issue, but far more so in how much of it is spent in one way or another to best achieve goals. But audio quality is at least as important to me as the video, and the 10 or more DAC brands I've researched isolate the inputs of their DACs against any potential ground loop noise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_isolation https://www.exasound.com/Products/e688-channelDAC.aspx

I would think that the biggest question regarding whether to opt for a linear supply for an HTPC is how much better would it make video coming out of it look-aside from how likely it is that the plasma or OLED TVs will be using a linear rather than a smps.

Aside from that question is fan noise and heat to do 480 upscaling; even an 82 watt Nvidia 1650 card is something I'd rather avoid-UNLESS JRiver's Jinc is NOT a GPU hog. Otherwise, what do you think of this idea: Use a box like this to scale 480 to
720p. https://cdn.kramerav.com/web/downloads/manuals/vp-424.pdf  Then use the plasma's (or OLED's) scaler to finish the job? Might this allow for the plasma to make less interpolating errors. when it then goes finish having to scale up to 1080p (or an OLED up to 4K)?