I’m reviewing a high definition digital TV receiver/PVR that, like most of them, doesn’t have the ability to output 576i over HDMI, nor to perform decent deinterlacing of it.
To confirm my suspicions I took some photos. Having taken them, I thought I might as well put them here.
Top is taken from the score box displayed during a cricket match, output over HDMI at 576p by HD PVR, but reprocessed by an iScan VP50Pro to turn it back into 576i and then deinterlace and scale it properly. Bottom is the same score, but without the benefit of the reprocessing. These kind of differences writ large over a full projection screen make a significant difference to the picture quality.