Crystalio VPS-2300 User manual

VPS-2300 HDTV Video Scaler/Processor User Guide
Crystalio is the realisation of a dream long held by the engineers and product designers at Pixel Magic Systems
Ltd. To create a modular, expandable, network ready video processing solution using the best of breed
components, to deliver a truly breathtaking visual experience at an affordable price point.
“We dreamt of a product that would be powerful and configurable enough for the Videophile, but at the same time
accessible to the film enthusiast that cares about the picture, not the technology. Finally, it had to integrate with
the new breed of 21st century ‘connected homes’. We are happy that we achieved these goals”
Crystalio is here
Relax and enjoy the show

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Contents
Contents ................................................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
Compatible Equipment....................................................................................................................................... 6
Product Registration........................................................................................................................................... 7
Video Processing History ................................................................................................................................... 8
How did it all start?......................................................................................................................................... 8
Video Processing Technology Primer............................................................................................................... 11
Aspect Ratio Conversion .............................................................................................................................. 11
Putting it all together..................................................................................................................................... 12
Overview of Crystalio Controls and Connections.............................................................................................. 13
Front Panel Controls .................................................................................................................................... 13
Rear Panel ................................................................................................................................................... 17
Getting Started................................................................................................................................................. 20
Mains ........................................................................................................................................................... 20
Video Inputs ................................................................................................................................................. 20
Video Outputs .............................................................................................................................................. 21
Configuring your Video Source..................................................................................................................... 21
Configure Crystalio Input.............................................................................................................................. 21
Configure Crystalio Output ........................................................................................................................... 21
Switch On..................................................................................................................................................... 22
Configure Output Format / Resolution .......................................................................................................... 22
Configure Aspect Ratio................................................................................................................................. 22
Congratulations! ........................................................................................................................................... 22
Crystalio Configuration..................................................................................................................................... 23
Pixel Magic System – configuration of output display device ........................................................................ 23
1. Input Select .................................................................................................................................................. 25
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 25
Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 25
2. Aspect Ratio................................................................................................................................................. 25
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 26

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Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 26
Configuration (Standard) .............................................................................................................................. 26
Configuration (Custom) ................................................................................................................................ 27
3. Video Settings.............................................................................................................................................. 28
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 28
Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 28
Configuration................................................................................................................................................ 29
4. Advanced..................................................................................................................................................... 30
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 30
Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 30
5. System Config.............................................................................................................................................. 39
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 39
Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 39
6. A.R Profile.................................................................................................................................................... 57
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 57
Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 57
7. Video Profile................................................................................................................................................. 59
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 59
Available Modes........................................................................................................................................... 59
8. Pixel Magic System...................................................................................................................................... 62
Description ................................................................................................................................................... 62
Remote Control (Optional) ................................................................................................................................... 65
Main Menu ....................................................................................................................................................... 66
Crystalio 1 sub-menu ....................................................................................................................................... 67
Crystalio 2 sub-menu ....................................................................................................................................... 68
Crystalio 3 sub-menu ....................................................................................................................................... 69
Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................................... 70
No LEDs displayed (including power)........................................................................................................... 70
Power LED is On, but no other LEDs shown / LCD not showing a display.................................................... 70
No Picture is Displayed ................................................................................................................................ 70
Picture is displayed but is unstable............................................................................................................... 70
Picture appears stretched............................................................................................................................. 70
Product Support................................................................................................................................................... 71
Specifications....................................................................................................................................................... 72

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Safety Information................................................................................................................................................ 74
Support and Warranty Information ....................................................................................................................... 76

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Introduction
Thank you for purchasing Crystalio, the next generation of video processors!
Before we get started let us just check that you have all of the following contents:
• Crystalio VPS-2300 Video Processor
• Remote Control
• Mains power lead
• Pixel Magic DVD
• Crystalio User Guide (CD-ROM)
• Firmware upgrade cable
• USB Firmware upgrade thumb disk
• Rack mounting brackets
If any items are missing please contact your Crystalio retailer immediately

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Compatible Equipment
Any source device capable of outputting
• Composite Video
• S-Video
• RGsB (Sync on Green)
• RGBs (Separate Sync)
• Component (Y-Pb-Pr)
• VGA (HD15)
• Digital DVI
• SDI (Serial Digital Interface)
Any analogue or digital display capable of inputting
• Analogue RGBHV
• Analogue RGB with composite sync
• Analogue Component (Y-Pb-Pr)
• Analogue Component (Y-Cb-Cr)
• Digital DVI

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Product Registration
To ensure that you are covered by the 12 month warranty, you must ensure that you register your product.
Registration is completed online at www.crystalio.com/support and will just take a couple of minutes. You will
need your serial number so please make a note of it prior to installing your Crystalio.
Registration will entitle you to technical information, online product help, and of course software updates as
Crystalio is enhanced in the future.

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Video Processing History
Crystalio is designed to deliver the best viewing experience from your video sources and video display device.
This is achieved by using award winning technology from Faroudja, inventors of the DCDi® technology which is
used in a wide range of different domestic and professional AV components.
If you want to simply sit back and enjoy the show, then you do not need to read this section. If however you are
interested in the technology that goes in to making a great image then read on!
How did it all start?
Faroudja®’s technology began in the early 1970s when Yves Faroudja and a group of videophiles invented state-
of-the-art video processing technologies and began licensing them to other companies. In the 1990s, Faroudja
became involved in the specification of High-Definition TV (HDTV). This is a new television standard which is
being introduced at different rates worldwide, and vastly improves the quality of the image that is displayed. How
is this achieved? Well quite simply by increasing the amount of picture detail used to make the image.
To put this in to perspective, a standard definition (SDTV) image is made up of around ¼ million pixels, or points
of light. This sounds like an awful lot of information, more than would ever be required to display a good quality
TV image. However, when this standard was defined the maximum screen sizes that could be used in a domestic
environment were much smaller than those available today. Consider that a 50” screen has four times the area of
a 25” display, and with the increased use of projection systems meaning that 100” or even 200” screen sizes are
commonplace (16 times the visible area). Suddenly, ¼ million isn’t very much detail at all, and the result is any
problems in the image are now magnified to such an extent that the viewing pleasure is reduced.
The solution is to use more pixels to make up the image, and HD increases this by a factor of eight to 2 million.
This makes a huge difference to the quality of the image, which has been likened to ‘looking through a window’ –
it really is that good.
However, while the hardware industry has now started to produce affordable HD capable displays, the availability
of source devices and programming to use with HD devices has been limited. The amount of HD programming
material is miniscule compared to the availability of SD material, which means that if you simply connect your SD
video source to your high quality display you will often be very disappointed with the results.

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From SD to HD
It was obvious to the engineers at Faroudja that for the pioneering broadcasters offering HD programming, that
there would need to be a solution to that fact there were virtually no HD programs available. The solution was to
build a device capable of ‘up-conversion’, increasing the detail of SD material in to HD. This of course was a
highly complex task to achieve, using specialised software the device had to ‘guess’ how to take ¼ million pixels
and produce a realistic looking 2 million pixel image, essentially creating nearly 90% of the image information
from the remaining 10%. Faroudja were successful, and in June 1998, Yves Faroudja was presented the Charles
F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
DCDi®
The equipment developed to achieve the SD to HD up-conversion for the broadcasters was of course way beyond
the budget of the domestic film enthusiast, but with the ever increasing power and sophistication of
microprocessors it was clear to Faroudja that this technology could eventually be made available to the domestic
market. DCDi® , or (Directional Correlational Deinterlacing) to give it its complete title, pioneered affordable, high
quality video processing for the first time in the domestic market.
DCDi® eliminates the jaggedness that conventional up-converters introduced to diagonal edges in video. DCDi®s
unique algorithm identifies all the moving edges in a scene and adjusts the angle of interpolation at each pixel so
that the interpolation always follows the edge instead of crossing it, eliminating stair-casing or jagged edge
artefacts. This technology was first used in the Digital Format Converter introduced in 1997 and with its
combination of decoding, de-interlacing and enhancement technologies, won an Emmy Award from National
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2001. In addition to being used in all Faroudja Home Theater and
High Definition Broadcast products, the DCDi algorithm is now incorporated into a wide range of video sources
and displays from a wide range of manufacturers, identifiable by the distinctive DCD® logo on their front panel.
Why do I need Crystalio?
You may be wondering why you need a separate video processor, if you can purchase this award winning
technology built in to a projector or a DVD player. The reason is performance and flexibility. Crystalio delivers
detailed control over every aspect of the video processing, allowing you (or your installer) to optimise the
performance of your overall system to a far greater extent than the systems built in to other equipment. Crystalio
also allows you to enjoy this performance from many different types of source device, from basic composite video
sources right through to pure digital SDI and DVI video (Serial Digital Video is a specialist video distribution
standard used to transmit video in the broadcast industry at maximum quality over long distance using
inexpensive co-axial cable, and while it is not available for domestic equipment it is possible to purchase specially

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modified domestic equipment that is SDI enabled. DVI (Digital Video Interface) on the other hand is a technology
used by the computer industry to connect digital displays (e.g. plasma panels, LCD monitors etc) to PC video
cards, and is only suitable for relatively short distances of a few feet)
This means that Crystalio is maximising the performance of all of your video sources, from your old SVHS
recordings, your collection of video games consoles, DVD player etc – you can rest assured that when you are
viewing these through Crystalio you are seeing them all at their best.