How-To: Scale video for better HDTV viewing

Today we'll show you how to make a DIY video scaler to get the most out of your HDTV.  Videophiles have been using dedicated video scalers to improve the picture quality on high end displays for years. We'll use free software and an inexpensive tuner card in our HTPC to scale and de-interlace regular television to look great on your HDTV. Click on to find out how in today's How-To!

HDTVs are built to display HD material, but SD television signals were designed for [older] CRT television sets.  While most HDTVs have on-board signal processing for viewing normal television, it's often a compromise of quality and cost. 

Dscaler is free software that turns a normal PC into a very high end video scaler. NTSC and PAL video are both delivered in interlaced format -- in a nutshell, half of each video frame is drawn at a time, NTSC drawing the screen 60 times each second, but delivering 30 frames per second. We'll use Dscaler to grab the incoming television signal, de-interlace it and scale it for our display. (In our case, a projector with a 103 inch wide screen.)   While this How-To covers using windows software, die-hard linux fans should check out tvtime at  http://tvtime.sourceforge.net 
 Update: ffdshow http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net. can make use of the dscaler dlls, but still runs on windows. [Thanks Larry]

For this project you will need:

• HTPC suitable computer running Windows 2000 or XP
• bt848 or bt878 based tv capture card
• Dscaler software from
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net

Before hunting down the hardware for this project, it's a good idea to take a look at your existing setup and determine your needs.

We'll be getting our video signal from either the TiVo or the laserdisc player. (Don't laugh too hard, certain movies can only be found in their original form on LD.) Both have S-video outputs, so we wanted a capture card with s-video input. Our ATI TV-Wonder PCI card has a single s-video input, so we use our surround receiver to switch between the TiVo and Laserdisc. Since the receiver handles all the sound switching, we don't use any of the sound features of the capture card.

Don't mistake the capture cards that work with Dscaler for the more expensive hardware encoding type. The type of card you need is usually available for under $50. There's a large number of manufacturers that make cards with right chip set. The basic Hauppauge WinTV or ATI TV-Wonder cards both work great. If you already have a card, you might want to check the supported cards list.

Dscaler doesn't need much CPU, but it does want a decent video card. The HTPC for the projector is a 2GHz Pentium 4 with a lowly GeForce4 mx AGP video card, and 1GB of ram running Windows XP.
 
Install your capture card and the latest drivers. Download Dscaler 4 (not 5). The installer is standard fare. When Dscaler is started for the first time, the General Hardware Setup screen will appear.

Select the appropriate options for your setup. If you're using fairly recent hardware, these probably won't make a big difference in performance.

In normal use, Dscaler will be running fullscreen. When it is, the usual File menus won't be visable. All of these menu items may be accessed by right clicking anywhere on the Dscaler window, fullscreen or not. Right click and select View, then Full Screen. Now Dscaler will run fullscreen every time it's started up.

To get set up Dscaler needs to know which capture card it's supposed to be using. Right click or use the file menu to select sources, and choose your card.

You may need to adjust the settings for the card you're using. Right click and choose "Bt Card" then "Setup Card / Tuner". If you're going to use the card to tune in cable or over the air signals, you may need to select the tuner chip that's on your card to get it working properly. For our setup, the default "No Tuner/Unknown" option worked fine.

Now the input for the video needs to be selected. Right click and choose Bt Card, then your input choice.

The aspect ratio of your video source needs to be set. Normal television is 1.33 or 4:3 format. Right click, choose AspectRatio, then 4:3 FullScreen.

Finally, the the aspect ratio of your display needs to be set. If you have a recent HDTV, it's probably 16:9 or 1.78. Those with projectors are dependent on their screen. Our screen is a 2.35:1 "Scope" size. If your video appears too wide or narrow, you may have your display aspect ratio set incorrectly.

Now it's time to enjoy the new higher quality video. The results on our setup were impressive.  Be sure to try out the various de-interlace algorithms under the Deinterlace menu. Our favorite is Video (Greedy, High Motion).

How well does it work?
This pair of screen shots is from the deinterlace website.  They are taken from a VHS copy of Titanic by by Mark Rejhon.

Left is without Dscaler, right shows the impressive results of using Dscaler.

If you're interested in a dedicated hardware solution, DVDO hardware seems to have a good reputation.  Check them out at http://www.dvdo.com/

[Michael Willard @ Feb 14th 2006 7:18PM]

Nice article. I've been using DScaler for years to watch Live TV from my AverTV tuner. The picture quality is better than anything Beyond TV can accomplish using my tuner (which lacks the hardware MPEG encoder Beyond TV pretty much requires in order to use higher MPEG recording settings) by leaps and bounds. I also use DScaler to plug console systems into my computer, a job that it also excels at, and it does so without causing any delay in the video. I am getting a widescreen monitor in the next few days and it is nice to know that DScaler will help me take full advantage of it. The website isn't lying, DScaler takes SD images and makes them look amazing on any screen. I will never buy a tuner card without first making sure I can use it in DScaler. I only wish it had the capability to record--if DScaler could time shift and handle scheduled recordings it would make other PVR software completely useless.

[Jon @ Feb 14th 2006 7:55PM]

You say "HDTVs are built to display HD material, but SD television signals were designed for CRT television sets."

C'mon guys. You're going to lose your street cred if you get the basics wrong. HD television was also designed for CRT televisions. It's not the display technology (CRT) that's the issue here, it's the transmission/broadcast standards.

I enjoy the best HD picture available on my CRT-based RPTV.

[Jason @ Feb 14th 2006 8:00PM]

That's cool, but what would I do if I wanted to scale an 720p signal to a 1080p display? What about scaling DVI signals?

[BklynKid @ Feb 14th 2006 8:05PM]

What kind of hardware solutions are there for doing this?

I have a cable set top box hooked up to my DLP via component cables. Quality for non-HD channels is less than stellar, anyway to improve that without moving my PC into my TV room?

[Nick @ Feb 14th 2006 8:11PM]

>> proving once again that Windows is the far superior solution for home theater computer use

[Nick @ Feb 14th 2006 8:14PM]

Oh bah. The comment system buggered 95% of my post. Can't be bothered to retype it.

[Barnaby @ Feb 14th 2006 8:58PM]

For the person who asked about whether you can buy a stand-alone component that will perform high quality scaling / de-interlacing, there are high end stand-alone scalers / de-interlacers available, with the good ones typically based on a Faroudja chip, but they cost quite a bit. You are probably better of buying an inexpensive computer to leave in your living room.

[Larry Davis @ Feb 14th 2006 9:22PM]

Why would "die-hard linux fans should check out ffdshow"?

ffdshow is a directshow filter (hence dshow). That means it's for Windows.

You lost me that early in your article.



[Will] Thanks for the catch. I added the correct link to tvtime. (both have some derivative functionality.)

[samejima @ Feb 14th 2006 10:19PM]

While there was a lot of fluttering if you tried to play arround with the settings while the picture was on, the definition on the picture was definetely tweaked. I use an ati usb2 tv card and was able to use dscaler with it perfectly. Sin City and Kill bill never looked better. Thanks for the post guys!!

[Josh Smith @ Feb 14th 2006 10:33PM]

Yet agian I am screwed for purchasing an ATI all in wonder. My advice to you, Don't ever buy an ATI All in Wonder card, I haven't found a program not by ATI I can use with my card. Come to think of it, I haven't found an ATI program that works well with the ATI All in Wonder. Anyone else know of somethign that does this with an ATI All in Wonder?

[Cypheros @ Feb 14th 2006 10:34PM]

Hey, for you guys who think windows is the best for home theatre, do a google search for MythTV.

[EJ @ Feb 14th 2006 10:55PM]

Yeah the Best scaler is the Faroujda Chip, I've found it to work extremely well. Of course, mine isnt in a scaler box, ITS IN MY SUPER AWESOME GATEWAY FPD2185W, THE BEST MONITOR EVER.

[Walter @ Feb 14th 2006 11:55PM]

Why does the article say it works great with an All-In-Wonder card, but the supported list says it doesn't?


[Will] The ATI TV-Wonder card is a completely different piece of hardware from the All-In-Wonder card.

[Russ @ Feb 15th 2006 3:34AM]

#2... windows is the best home theatre set up.. bullshit.. and you know it.. but whatever.. i'm happy with my powerbook running my projector with downloaded hd content and no need for a peeeeecee... at all..

[Kamalot @ Feb 15th 2006 9:31AM]

I just set this up for my old Sega Saturn. Wow!

[WallyB @ Feb 15th 2006 9:55AM]

So you're saying that I should run S-Video (480i) out of my sources to my PC and have that converted to VGA to go to my 720p native projector? Why would I do that rather than using the component (720p or 1080i) or HDMI (720p or 1080i) output of my source directly to my display?

I'll give you the fact that using a PC as a means to d/l, store & stream content to a HD display is a viable solution. However, it's not always the best solution for everyone.

Oh by the way, the scaler in my projector is as good as or possibly better than the Farodja processor in my upconverting DVD player. No thanks, fellas.

[Joshua Hockenberry @ Feb 15th 2006 10:58AM]

Granted I run a home theater company but The scaler in our $9000 Dlp Projector works quite well. Although the hardware versions are great to get some of the lower quality HDtvs looking better in SD.

[eric @ Feb 15th 2006 11:04AM]

"proving once again that Windows is the far superior solution for home theater computer use."

Okay, prove it. Open up Windows Media Center, go record something off HBO.

Care to revise?

[dave suddaby @ Feb 15th 2006 11:27AM]

Hey, Razor,

Those of who run OSX on our machines have the money to buy a REAL piece of scaler hardware that doesn't require a ghetto PC in our HT.

[Jeff @ Feb 15th 2006 11:56AM]

Recording HBO with MCE? Just use a cable box, firewire cable, and this http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=26&MessageID=104152
app. It records both the analog and the straight HD digital feed from the cable box. And it handles channel changes over firewire, so you don't even need an IR blaster.

[fever @ Feb 16th 2006 10:43PM]

People laugh at my Laserdisc collection until they see what's in my Laserdisc collection... Gotta love ~philes.

f

[bouv @ Feb 19th 2006 2:04PM]

WallyB:

This method is for scaling for the lower res 480i video feeds, NOT the higher res HD signals. If you have HD cable and use componant cables, this method really won't work for you unless you also have an s-video out from the cable box which runs to the HTPC for the lower res signals. Then that signal goes back into your TV on another input line.

[ramond @ Feb 19th 2006 6:56PM]

Why is this called a scaler when all it appears to do is de-interlace?

[Alan Baker @ Feb 20th 2006 12:27AM]

People are failing to recognise that this isnt for those who spend thousands of dollars on expensive projectors and what not. To me it is a solution for those who have an older computer that they can use with their modest hdtv. Lets not turn this into yet another mac vs. pc forum. The article wasn't written for macs.

[donna folle @ Feb 23rd 2006 2:14AM]

I am interested in doing this project since SD content looks awful on my new HDTV (I use it mainly for movies, but some TV would be nice). I would also like an ATSC tuner though. Does anyone know if there is a card supported by Dscaler that also receives ATSC signals? If not, I imagine I will have to purchase a Dscaler compatible NTSC tuner + the separate ATSC tuner, yes? Sorry, I am new to this game. Also, where can I find out if my area even receives ATSC signals? I can't find any answers online. Many thanks.

[HDTV @ Feb 27th 2006 7:38PM]

thanks to article. but my tv card is not support (FlyVideo 98)

a turkish article about hdtv
HDTV (High Definition Television)

[jeff @ Sep 4th 2008 9:36AM]

great article

[Grover Saunders @ Oct 19th 2006 2:46PM]

So you're saying that I should run S-Video (480i) out of my sources to my PC and have that converted to VGA to go to my 720p native projector? Why would I do that rather than using the component (720p or 1080i) or HDMI (720p or 1080i) output of my source directly to my display?

No one is suggesting you do this with a device that can actually output HD signals. What in the world made you think that? That would be retarded beyond all reason. This is for the majority of devices that can't and look like poo on a HD display.

[Marius @ Nov 30th 2006 3:49PM]

please help!

I got an RCA d52w20 HDTV that has DVI & component inputs, a HD receiver with DVI output from Dish Netwwork and a computer with Haupage winTv, Intel Core 2 duo CPU and Intel integrated graphics G965 chipset.

I greatly appreciated that somebody finally wrote an article about how to inexpensively convert SD signal to look better on the HDTV.

however, here is my dilemma... I bought the gold package from Dish Network featuring 180 channels: 23 channels are HD and the rest come in SD.

my approach was to hook up the HD Dish receiver directly to the HDTV using the DVI connectors that both have. that would give me the best picture for HD channels ( 1080i) but what do I do about the 150 SD channels?

you suggested that I should put the computer between the HD receiver and the HDTV and use DSCALER to improve the quality of the SD channels... if i do that, what is going to happen to my 23 HD channels that come in HD from the receiver to the computer?

is it possible that hook up the HD dish receiver directly to the TV using the DVI connector and also hook up the HD receiver to the computer using RGB or SVIDEO cables? in my mind, if i can pull this through, I will keep my HD quality for the 23 HD channels and get better quality for the 150 SD channels... the only downside I see is the need to change input source for the hdtv... need to select dvi input for HD and s-video input when watching SD....

do you think there is a better way? how should I optimize this configuration ? your advice will be greatly appreciated.

best regards,
Marius