Lumagen, Inc. Introduces Two Products In Its Vision Family Of Programmable Video Processing Systems

10-Feb-03

Lumagen, Inc. announced the introduction of two new video processing systems. The Vision and Vision Pro fill a need in the rapidly growing home theatre market for flexible, high-quality, low-cost video processors. They provide video switching, per-pixel motion-adaptive deinterlacing, and fully programmable video scaling. With an MSRP of only $1,295, and $2,495, the Vision and Vision Pro provide the quality and features of video processors costing far more.The Vision family provides significant visual enhancement for home theatres which are marred by the poor deinterlacing and scaling quality provided by many HDTVs and projectors, which, while providing good picture quality for high-definition sources, fall short for standard-definition (SDTV) sources. The Vision video processor eliminates this problem and makes SDTV sources look great on HDTVs and projectors.The Vision and Vision Pro share the same high-quality TV decoding, deinterlacing, scaling, and video output. The distinctions between the two are the number of inputs, case styling, video connectors used, and the control options.The Vision provides four inputs (composite, S-video, component, and pass-through), using RCA, S-video, and VGA connectors. This input configuration is designed for home theatres that use a receiver's video switching capabilities. User control is via a 40-button infrared remote control. In contrast, the Vision Pro has eight user programmable inputs in a rack-mountable steel case, with a black anodized, brushed-aluminum front panel, that utilizes professional-grade BNC jacks for all video connections. All inputs can be programmed as composite or S-video. Four of the inputs can be programmed as component, and two of these can be programmed as pass-through. The availability of eight inputs eliminates the need for a separate video switch in systems with up to eight video sources. Users can control the Vision Pro using an infrared remote, or an RS-232 serial port. The entire Vision family supports progressive output resolutions of up to 1080p, in scan line increments, and interlaced output at 1080i. The output vertical refresh rate can be adjusted from 48 to 75 Hz, and the output aspect ratio can be adjusted from 1.33 to 2.35. The deinterlacer converts interlaced video input to progressive video using four input fields to determine the contents of each frame. For progressive material, the original frames are reassembled using 3:2 or 2:2 pull-down reconstruction. For video material, interlaced video artifacts are detected on a per-pixel basis. Using the result of this artifact detection, the source pixels are merged, or blended, into the best possible progressive image. Proprietary detail-enhancing algorithms are used to scale the progressive video to the optimal resolution. The video output is oversampled to enhance the image quality. Video oversampling provides the same benefit that audio oversampling does for CDs, that is, it produces the most accurate reproduction of the video signal possible. Lumagen, Inc. designs and manufactures products for the emerging home theatre market. For more information, visit www.lumagen.com.

Read More:
http://www.lumagen.com