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Darbee/Dvdo iscan to go with Epson tw9200/6030


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Long time lurker looking to benefit from the vast expertise on this forum...

I've been using an Epson TW9200/6030 projector which I am thoroughly pleased with, but my home theatre is tight and I sit close - about 2.5 metres from a 120" 2.35:1 screen. I mainly watch blu-rays and HD rentals from the Sony network through a Sony BDV-N9200 home theatre system. So by no means as hardcore as many on this forum but having a crack ;)

I'm considering adding a Darbee or a DVDO Iscan Mini, and I do realise it's not like-for-like, but was hoping to get your views on which delivers better bang for buck? I want to make the picture even better for good quality HD material, and try to smoothen out blocky images I'm seeing on blu-rays that have less-than-perfect transfers. I use of the Epson Super Resolution feature today around level 2-3, so if I put the Darbee in and lower this to say, level 1, I'm thinking I might get the same or better in terms of image and get rid of the blockiness that super resolution sometimes adds?  Or - do I get the iScan which looks to me like a jack-of-all-trades across video enhancement, noise reduction, etc.

Appreciate your help

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Are you zooming or using an A-Lens?  And are you needing to scale the image or process/enhance?    

From my experience with the Darbee, "the less is more" rule as you can have too much of a good thing.  I have a Darbee built into the OPPO 103D and it seems to give a contrast boost over everything else.  There is EE and Detail that do make a difference, but I found these controls in my projector make more of an impact.  I think I have Darbee set at about 30% right now.  The image is sharp.  

The last time I played with a DVDO, it scaled for CIH but it was limited doing this in only one direction at a time - ie it could do Vertical Stretch or Horizontal Squeeze, but not at the same time, so odd ball ARs like 2.00 to 2.20 could not be set up.  This also means the CIH Shrink Method is out as well.  If I was not using an anamorphic, this is one method I would certainly want to use over Zooming.    

The ONLY scaler I've seen that actually did everything including 3D was the Radiance Mini 3D.  These are now redundant since the introduction of 4K (they have a 4K version out now for about 6 grand) and so you may find one a Mini3D on eBay for a very good price.   

 

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Thanks - yes I'm using an anamorphic lens and zooming on the projector to match the size of the screen, but my inputs and outputs are both 1080p. If I ever watch DVDs I'll play them through my PC over HDMI and use MadVR to scale them to 1080p before it hits the AVR or projector. So I'm really after an enhancer rather than a scaler. It's sounding like the Darbee is the better fit as the DVDO is just replicating settings on my avr and projector?

I did try renting a HD movie on iTunes recently and playing it through my PC. On the projector it looked terrible! I had to check it was really 1080 (it was). The picture looked extremely grainy and 'broken up' and I was wondering whether the DVDO would be useful here to smoothen it out? Or whether I could get the same result by lowering the sharpness /super resolution settings on my projector and then adding the Darbee in?

 

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7 hours ago, luke_h said:

my inputs and outputs are both 1080p.  try to smoothen out blocky images I'm seeing on blu-rays

A 4k dvdo scaler  is at least a bit redundant with 1080p luke and a darbee isn't designed for blocky images if that's the main worry ? . I would think outside the box and set yourself up for true UHD sources as well as 2k bluray at the optimum your 9200 can take for WCG etc

https://www.hdfury.com/shop/videoprocessors/linker-4k60-444-600mhz/

One of these with a Samsung UHD player ; which are quite cheap atm ; in one hdmi in and your bd source on the other . This linker device is designed for your hdmi 1.4 projector as it has less bandwidth coverage than a hdfury integral ; so maybe have a look at what your Epson can take :)

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Thanks - I realise 4k is the way of the future, but the 9200 is not a 4k projector, so I'm really looking for something just to enhance a 1080 signal to a better 1080 signal. I know the Darbee won't fix a blocky image, but I was wondering if the blockiness was actually caused by my pj, so if I lower the sharpness on the pj but use the Darbee to add the sharpness back in (which it is meant to be good at doing so without adding a lot of noise) - Id be better off overall?

 

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1 hour ago, luke_h said:

Thanks - I realise 4k is the way of the future, but the 9200 is not a 4k projector, so I'm really looking for something just to enhance a 1080 signal to a better 1080 signal.

Instead of a rec709 bd signal your getting now the linker would feed a bt2020 wide colour gamut SDR signal with better colour gradations and also the ability to strip any HDR metadata to better match the epsons dynamic range .

I had an oppo 103d in tandem with a tw9000 and sold the 103d as its algorithm didn't impress me ; more than 40% hd was too harsh to me and as Mark said it seems to boost contrast rather than detail . If by blockiness you mean motion issues try setting the cfi frame interpolation quite low ;)

Quote

 

There is a slight issue with motion stability on the EH-TW9200W, and we were quite surprised to see motion instability on a projector of this calibre and price.

There’s scope to iron out motion issues by turning on the ‘Frame Interpolation’ and ‘Super Resolution’ settings – but those options add an artificial smoothness over the picture, and movement ends up looking unnaturally processed

 

.Read more at https://www.whathifi.com/epson/eh-tw9200w/review#Y2BMb5VwD3YLuXWf.99

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I have used DVDO scalers ( up to DVDO 50), Lumagen Scaler (including both 1080p and 4K model with Darbee).  Lumagen are more expensive than DVDO but they generally performs better than DVDO.  The 2K models I have used Lumage is better specially in area of upscaling and on deinterlacing they are pretty much equal in performance.   Lumagen is probably the only dedicated scaler maker that is still developing and improving their product.  A current  4K model Lumagen will cost you at least $7K  that is pretty much out of ball park for most people.   I think out of a scaler and Darbee,  I would agree with Mark a Lumagen Mini-3D is probably better in improving PQ of video sources and it is also a fantastic box that give you much fuller set of calibration control than all the TV/Projectors on the market, that is probably one of the biggest selling point for Lumagen.   For me Darbee did not do much .

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I have the same projector almost tw9300 and I also use a 120 inch screen but the picture is beautiful. I use the oppo 203 with no upscaling and the picture is smooth and crystal clear. I agree if you use the super resolution it does get the picture clearer but adds noise and grain in the picture so your best bet is to set that to 1 or 2 and no more. Streaming videos never have full blu ray content as there compressed. Try downloading mkv or other files for movies around 15 gig or higher or alternatively try using blu ray discs and you will notice a immediate improvement on your picture side. Hope this helps

Sent from my SM-G928I using Tapatalk

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