Basics about Progressive Scan - Help

[moonlightdrive21]

Hi:

I have a 4 year old Pioneer DVD player with a button to press when you want to turn on "progressive scan". What is progressive scan and when do you want to use it?

Thanks!
Dave

[AK47]

Put it simply:-

A NTSC TV picture consists of 480 horizontal lines, but not all 480 lines are displayed at the same time. Lines 1, 3, 5, 7 ... 479 will be displayed first, followed by lines 2, 4, 6, ... 480 and so on and so forth. This is interlaced scanning.

Progressive scan means that all 480 lines are displayed at the same time (some people simply refers this as line-doubling).

Why do people broadcast in interlaced mode? That's because in the early days of TV, there wasn't enough bandwidth to display in progressive scan mode. There is much literature on this subject. Pls. do a search over the net.

Hope this helps.

[ChrisWiggles]

you need a display capable of accepting and displaying progressive video 480p. It is preferred, but unless your TV is capable of it (like an HDTV or EDTV) then you're stuck with 480i.

[Paul Bigelow]

This may be information overload but an exhaustive explanation on progressive scan is found here (along with pictorial examples):

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html

As Chris stated, the display needs to be capable of 480p and would need component inputs at a minimum.

Paul

[moonlightdrive21]

Thanks.

I have a Pioneer Plasma and my DVD connects via component wires, so I assume it is best for me to keep progressive scan on all the time.

Thanks!
Dave

[ChrisWiggles]

Dave: now the question gets more complicated. Your plasma will be progressive by nature, so it will scale all inputs to its native resolution, which is progressive. Even without a progressive scan DVD player, you are seeing progressive scan, but instead of the line doubling occuring in the DVD player, it is happening in the plasma. The question comes down to which deinterlacer, that of the player, or that of the plasma, is better. You will have to try both ways and see for yourself which seems superior, though likely the difference will be subtle or negligible.