Scalers and upconverters take one video resolution and adjust it to another resolution. Scalers/upconverters can use several techniques to do this: de-interlacing, line duplication, line averaging, and motion interpolation. Some of these techniques produce a better image than others. The difference between a scaler and an upconverter is a scaler can adjust resolutions up or down, while an upconverted can only increase resolution.

When selecting a scaler/ upconverter, look for these features:

Scalers and upconverters typically are used to match a video signal to the resolution of a display, or to increase the perceived quality of a video image. When a standard television signal is displayed on a large, high-resolution projection system, the image becomes over-expanded and the individual scan lines are visible. Scalers/upconverters can eliminate these scan lines and create a clearer, smoother, brighter image.
Scalers are very useful for digital displays. Digital displays use an internal pixel map processor to do scaling. An external scaler is designed to do the same thing as the internal pixel map processor, but generally provides better decoding, more user control, and it can store picture settings information. This increases flexibility, making switching between sources and/or changing image attributes easier.


In the diagram, video signals from a laserdisc player, a DVD player, and a DSS receiver are running through a digital video scaler. These inputs are then scaled up for display by a DLP projector, on an HDTV plasma, and on a laptop computer.

Extron offers the following categories of scalers/upconverters, designed to meet the needs of different applications:

Universal Scalers

Capable of scaling RGB and video signals up or down to various output rates.

Video Scalers

Used to upconvert a signal to various output rates (products starting with "DVS").

RGB Scalers

Capable of matching an input signal to a variety of resolutions on display devices (products starting with "DDS").