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One other ‘option’ is to pick up a Toshiba HD-X2. It does an incredible job of up-scaling SD/dvd’s plus it plays HD/dvd’s. This particular model was in a recent shoot out by some guys at AVS. They put it up against a $5000 stand alone video processor (Crystalio 3300 / CII) and it did as well as the VP with a whole battery of tests.




Thats amazing. When I was shopping for upscaling duties, I decided to take a peek at VPs. After I picked my jaw off the floor at the astronomical prices on these units, I went with the Oppo.

What makes those damn units so expensive when they are doing nothing more than the Oppo or the Toshiba, except with multiple video inputs?



Stand alone video processors give you the absolute best SD / HD scaling and deinterlacing there is. But that’s just a very small piece of what they can do. They give you darn near infinite ability for video calibration, lip sync on different inputs, infinite aspect ratio control…..man the list just goes on and on. Don’t ask me how to do all this, because I don’t have a clue. They come with a very steep learning curve. What got me looking at them was 1) I need vertical stretch for my constant height image set up 2) I want the best SD processing I can get. I’ve got around 800 SD/DVD’s, and with BR and HD in use now, I didn’t want to feel the ‘need’ to replace all of them.

The Toshiba HD-X2 uses the Genum video processing chip and they actually implemented and configured it’s use very well. It’s the same VP that is in Lumigen and Crystallio VP’s.