Hopefully the images below will support the case for the superior deinterlacing\scaling capabilities of dedicated off board video scalers and hence the desirability of a 'video source direct' option.
My HTPC System:
Intel Core i5-4670T(2.30GHz) HD4600 graphics
ASRock Z87E-ITX motherboard
8Gb RAM
Windows 8.1
XBMC 12.2 Frodo (now XBMC Gotham – recent monthly build)
For the XBMC set of images below, the set-up was:
HTPC – Lumagen XS – Pioneer 1080p display
XBMC was set to an output 1080p and various deinterlace options were tested with the ‘Auto’ setting giving the best results (and which are shown below).
For the ‘source direct’ option the same video file was streamed through an Oppo93 BR player (set to video source direct of course) and the set-up was:
Oppo-93 – Lumagen XS – Pioneer 1080p display
In both cases the Lumagen was set to output 1080p
The test file was a 576i ts file from the end section of this
thread.
Images were taken using a SLR and using identical settings. These were cropped in Photoshop but nothing else was done to them.
First a couple of images from the file played by the Oppo on source direct:
http://i.imgur.com/NeXjPFD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uqEquFN.jpg
The input\output stats being received and sent to the display by the Lamagen confirmed the correct input\output
Now, here are the corresponding HTPC (XBMC) images of the same scenes in the video.
http://i.imgur.com/HwqfkLP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JU5d48p.jpg
Throughout the video there were banding artefacts on the lower rim of the guys specs. I should mention that these artefacts are MUCH more noticeable when the image is moving. Overall, the video from the Oppo appeared smoother and more detailed than that from the HTPC.
Again, the input\output stats being received and sent to the display by the Lamagen confirmed the correct input\output
I know it is only one test but it does provide some evidence of the superior image rendering power of scalers such as the Lumagen and why many of us would like a source direct option.