Switcher/Scaler needed?

[Pastor Steve-O]

Hey there - I appreciate your patience with a "newbie" (read pastor with low level of technological knowledge trying to fill the role of lead techie in his small church).

Can you help me understand the "need"/advantage of adding a scaler/switcher to our system as opposed to plugging DVD player into projector or showing DVD's directly from the computer? I'm not opposed to adding the extra $1000 to our system cost if it will make that much of a difference. But being a small church, don't really want to throw money away.

Thanks,
Steve

[kerwin kanago]

Quality, convenience, professional looking results.

- The scalers built into projectors are often not as good as what you get in external scalers.
- If the projector isn't "very close" to the dvd player, you have to feed the "video" signal through something other than your VGA cable and can lose quality (as well as need another cable).
- You also have to have a way to tell the projector to switch inputs. Most people don't have great remote controls for the projectors and use the IR ones that never have the receiver pointed at the booth (not the most reliable).
- From the computer, you have the drawback of seeing the "windows media player" or whatever instead of "just the video" at least till you get it running, on the right screen, in full screen mode (unless you have just the right combo of Hw/Sw). Distracting.

- GOOD scalers switch instantly and maintain synch, vs losing image for 5 seconds and/or seeeing rolling/sideways scrolling images for a few seconds. Many let you "cross fade smoothly" between sources.

... that said, you can still "get the job done' either of the ways you mentioned.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Originally Posted by Kerwin Kanago

- From the computer, you have the drawback of seeing the "windows media player" or whatever instead of "just the video" at least till you get it running, on the right screen, in full screen mode (unless you have just the right combo of Hw/Sw). Distracting.

Unless, of course, you are using worship software with that function or, perhaps, screenmonkey.

Others, however, have concerns about the reliability of using the computer to show a DVD.

[kerwin kanago]

True true.
... and you're letting your software be the scaler... which may be good, but *may* give more blury looking results than a GOOD scaler.

[Pastor Steve-O]

True - it would be much easier not to have to run a cable from the DVD player to the projector (I'm hoping we're beyond having to worry about VHS).

I'm not even sure how much we would use DVD's. Guess we can play with it and find out.

[silentpraise]

What is a Scaler and how do i find out why our boxlight keeps goin fuzzy then it clars up then back fuzzy.

[NdEd]

Originally Posted by silentpraise

What is a Scaler and how do i find out why our boxlight keeps goin fuzzy then it clars up then back fuzzy.

A scaler is a hardware device that converts a video signal from one format to another. Within the world of media ministry, we are typically talking about a device that converts a video signal (like a camera or DVD player) to a VGA signal, but there are many variations. The reason for using a scaler is to provide the best possible consistant signal quality to the projection system. Another benefit of a scaler is being able to switch between different sources on your projection system, without having to put up with the distraction of messages like "signal lost" "video" "computer", etc... The scaler helps you maintain the mood of the worship service.