Video Processors (aka Scalers)--What are they and why do I need one
A brief overview

Video Processors are the glue that binds together a video system. Modern displays are not able to display our old and new television standards without some form of processing being involved. Most of our video systems at home will have a large and disparate range of sources with varying output resolutions and refresh rates. None of these sources are likely to actually output a resolution or refresh rate that is optimum for our display! Good video processors are able to be configured to optimise the capture and processing of all these signals and to then output them at the most appropriate resolution and refresh rate for the source material and the display. Here are some examples:

Sources:

Displays:

If you compare the source output resolutions with the displays actual resolutions you can see why we need video processors.

Standard definition signals in composite, s-video, component or SCART (RGBcvS) should be able to be processed alongside HDMI, DVI, RGBHV, or High Definition component. These analogue signals should be sampled at a very high rate in order to get good, accurate information to the front end of the system. The Digital inputs meanwhile should be capable of accepting the full range of signals available from current sources from 480i up to 1080i.

Advanced greyscale, gamma and colour decoding combined with careful adjustment of input sizing should allow for each source to be optimised for the most accurate and detailed playback. Over-scanning of the incoming signals can be minimised and active picture area being sent to the display should be adjustable to allow the full picture resolution to be displayed on screen. Digital video levels on input and output should be selectable for PC or VIDEO dependant on source as required in order to gain maximum contrast with minimal banding artifacts.

Multiple inputs should allow direct connection of each source to the video processor, removing the need for switching of video elsewhere which could degrade the signal quality and which would mean many components would have to share the same input (compromising one or all of their picture quality).

Advanced powerful detection algorithms should work out whether the video material is from original progressive content (film or PC graphics) or from interlaced video cameras and appropriate processing then should take place. Original progressive images should be re-constituted to their full resolution frames then sent on to be up or downscaled to the required resolution of the display. Accurate frame rate conversion should then be able to output the progressive frames at the most appropriate rate eliminating judder and other temporal artifacts. Clever filtering should be employed to remove harsh digital artifacts like mosquito noise, where appropriate. Chroma filtering should be assignable on a per source basis for digital sources with mpeg decoders that suffer from the famous, chroma bug.

Fast processing and as little buffering of the video signal as possible should be applied in order to minimise potential lip-sync errors that may require the use of expensive audio delays. This processing should be able to be updated to add further feature sets or to aid product compatibility.

If possible multiple memories should be available to allow quick and simple adjustments for more than one display or perhaps for day and night-time viewing. The unit, once set up, should be extremely simple to use.

Advanced RGB gamma and overall LUMA adjustments may be available on a per input and memory basis. This would allow ISF calibrators to make very accurate adjustments for greyscale where the capability wasn't present in the display or where non linear tracking after calibration required further tweaking.

As we have a mixture of analogue and digital displays still it'd be wise for the video processor to have analogue outputs that could be configured for RGB or YPrPb output, preferably on high quality 75ohm BNC connectors where high resolution displays are going to be used. For digital displays DVI-D or HDMI outputs should be available. The output resolution and timing parameters of the video processor should be adjustable in order to create the perfect timings required to minimise artifacts on screen. In built test patterns should be available to help in set up and confirmation of ideal video processor/display configuration.

With the advent of High Definition broadcasts more and more  high definition inputs should be available. These inputs should not just pass through an HD signal. There are many displays that are not compatible with either the resolutions or the refresh rates of HD broadcasts. Good video processing should be able to capture these HD signals and frame rate convert them and scale to allow compatibility with older displays.

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