Optoma Themescene HD3000 - TechRadar UK

Upscaling standard definition video is all the rage at the moment as we attempt to squeeze more quality out of our DVDs and other sources while waiting for high definition discs to really take off. The feature is included on DVD players as cheap as £80, so what is Optoma up to here, launching a video scaler for £2,000?

Quite simply, Optoma is offering a scaler that will knock the processing of your common and garden DVD player into a cocked hat.

Special stuff

The Themescene HD3000 utilises Gennum's VXP processing (Gennum is one of the specialist scaling technology companies, along with Faroudja and Silicon Optix). Such companies license out their technology to manufacturers who therefore don't have to take the trouble to develop their own. You can rest assured that budget DVD upscalers do not carry processors from these companies.

The HD3000 is designed to sit between your source and your display. If that source happens to have its own built-in scaler you should obviously deactivate this and let the HD3000 put in the labour.

There is an impressive range of connections available, including HDMI, component video, VGA and RGB Scarts.

One thing you do not get is any sort of audio support. This might seem irrelevant, but it would make it easy to compensate for any lip-sync issues that might attend the upscaling process. Most quality amps offer this audio delay feature, so it is unlikely to be a problem for the target audience.

There are extensive menus for adjusting video quality, including gamma, colour-temperature, RGB/CMY colour-management, noise reduction, edge-enhancement and so on. It's best to experiment with these menus to find a picture that suits your individual taste.

On a range of standard definition inputs the Themescene HD3000 does a great job of smoothing movement, boosting detail and rendering colours much more lifelike.

However, high-end DVD players sometimes do almost as good a job, and the benefits of using the HD3000 instead become very subtle.

Remember also that this scaler can be used with 1080i sources - notably Sky's own HD service.

Upscaling this to 1080p pays a noticeable dividend, especially in the area of noise reduction.

Fringe benefits

HDMI inputs work best and should be used wherever possible, but analogue-delivered sources still benefit from the scaling, even if they are slightly inferior to begin with.

With such a comprehensive raft of video options onboard you could say that the Themescene HD3000 can offer a picture to please everyone - it just might take you a while to find it!

In this respect, this isn't the easiest piece of AV gear we've ever seen, but it is certainly a thoroughbred beast. If you take your time, this video scaler will certainly give you the very best from your standard definition DVD collection.