Zinwell Brite-View

The little scaler that could

By Max Christoffersen

November 2003

Zinwell Brite-View video scaler. Price: $1199.

What's that famous line about the guy that liked the shaver so much he bought the company?

I have to say I know how he feels. You may not have heard of the company, yet. But you will. The name is Zinwell.

And Zinwell is making inroads into the highly competitive market of video processors/scalers. And it's doing so based on providing a quality scaler at a price that takes on some of the big boys in key performance areas - and wins. Zinwell isn't a new Taiwanese company, but they do have some new exciting products.

Just one of which is the Brite-View progressive scaler. It's a small (CD case and a half) sized box with some powerful video processing on board. So why do you need a video scaler in the first place? The short and simple answer is to make the picture look better. And you do so by upscaling a TV or DVD image, improving its resolution and eliminating some of the artefacts of transferring film to a TV video format.

Some of those problems are obvious to see - TV scan lines when blown up through a projector become a major big-screen irritation. A video scaler will deinterlace the image and make large screen viewing more enjoyable and film-like. The second key feature is the ability to scale a video image to the native rate of fixed panel displays, optimising the capabilities of digital projection.

Being a veteran of Quadscan (s), Runco (briefly) and another Zinwell clone (the TV-4000) video processor/scalers, I'd seen enough to know that a standard trade-off applies. You can have a smooth scan-line free image with CRT projection, but you can pay for it with a soft image that can appear to lack detail and depth of field. I used the Brite-View on the Sim2 HT300 Plus DLP projector and a Sony CRT projector to see the unit in action on two different display technologies.

Among the most spectacular scenes I viewed on the Brite-View was concert footage from U2's Live from Boston DVD. The opening live scenes show the band loading up with the crowd doing what a mosh-pit does. With the Brite-View, what was previously just one large intermingled mass of motion, is now displayed as a collection of individuals, complete, distinct and separate. The Brite-View is among the first budget video scalers that eliminates scan lines and provides significant depth of field as well.

While there is much to be genuinely excited about a scaler at this price point, this is nonetheless, an entry-level unit and there are some compromises to live with. Visually, some skin tones look artificial and 'plastic-like' with a false glossy texture. There is also some evidence of minor but noticeable lip synch delays and with no visual display on the unit, all settings have to be done blind. Minor quibbles to be sure - but that's why the big price scalers have their big price.

The image though can achieve 'dimensionality' well beyond its price point. The 'drop' scene from Starship Troopers (1.14.00) is normally comprised of the ships in the foreground. But it's the fine detail on the planet surface below that gives this scene such depth, and the Zinwell delivered this intact.

Built around the new and powerful 'Trident' chip, the Zinwell is first budget video scaler I have seen that is able to clean up the image and not throw away the details in its attempt to throw away the scan lines. Motion artefacts too are reduced to a minimum although some scenes did 'stagger' drawing attention to the scaler's processing speed.

The Brite-View provides a wide range of resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 @60Hz and 75Hz refresh), switchable output compatibility (with component or RGB), anamorphic squeeze, a user-friendly remote with direct access to functions and a useful on-screen display. You have to ask why can't the more costly scalers match the simple functionality of the rookie?

The Brite-View is one of the few scalers to be opimised for PAL viewing with their new PAL Plus software. The new resolution offers the most natural and pleasing PAL image I have seen from DVD/off-air broadcast and is worth the extra investment - it is very satisfying to see PAL replayed so smoothly and seductively. You really have to see it to appreciate it!

The Zinwell Brite-View really does take 'image-making' to a new level at its price point. Its immediate syncing when changing resolutions or swapping sources (or TV channels) and simple on-screen functionality makes it a user-friendly winner at any class/price level.

And I have to say that if I had the money I'd buy the company, the scaler and anything else Zinwell sell.

I wonder if they make a shaver?

Footnote: Just as this review was completed the new Brite-View offering DVI (Digital Interface Output) arrived. We were unable to test this function at the time of writing.