HOW TO GET AN HD ARC (March 2012)

Sometimes a source will have been up converted using the wrong aspect ratio – resulting in an HD image that is too squashed, stretched or cropped. Crystal Vision has come up with a solution to deal with these problem sources: now providing HD to HD aspect ratio conversion on its Up-Down-AT 3G, Up-Down-ATX 3G, Up-Down-ATS 3G and Up-Down-ATXS 3G up/down/cross converters.

Added following input from broadcasters in the UK, Germany and Poland, this HD to HD aspect ratio conversion will work when the HD input and output formats are identical and is useful for anyone with up converted SD signals who cannot guarantee that the correct aspect ratio was selected during the up conversion process.

It allows you to essentially use the board as an HD ARC to correct the problem material and provides a variety of aspect ratio conversions – Anamorphic, Pillarbox, 14:9 Pillarbox, Pillarbox Stretch and Full Screen – with each taking a 16:9 input and stretching or squashing a part of the image into a 16:9 output, with the operator using visual judgment to select the correct conversion.

With the picture quality that broadcasters standardise on, the up/down/cross converters can perform two different conversions at the same time and provide dual outputs – making it easy to create both HD and SD copies of the input material.

All nine versions of the Crystal Vision up/down/cross converters can additionally be used as an SD to SD aspect ratio converter if required – useful for those who need to change the aspect ratio of their Standard Definition sources and prefer to buy an up converter (rather than a dedicated ARC) as a long-term purchase.

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