Diva features

Scaler

Changing the output resolution

Every chain contains at least two devices that would happily scale the picture. The Diva lets you decide which one does it, for the TX0 output, and then tells you what it did.

A scaler resamples an image onto a different pixel grid. Upscaling has to invent the pixels that were never there, by interpolating between the ones that were. Downscaling has the opposite job: it must filter the picture before throwing samples away, because detail finer than the new grid turns into aliasing rather than disappearing quietly. Both are estimates, so the quality of the result is entirely a question of the algorithm.

That is why the real decision is not whether to scale but who scales. A source, a device in the middle and the display itself can all do it, and doing it in two places never improves anything: the second pass can only work from what the first one left. A good television or projector often has better processing than any pass-through device, which is an argument for letting it do the work.

The three scaler modes on the HDfury Diva

No Scaling

The signal passes through untouched. Choose it when the display is doing the better job, or while diagnosing a problem and you want the shortest signal path.

Auto Scaling

The default. Automatic presets for TX0, upscaling when it can, based on what the connected sink says it accepts.

Custom Scaling

You define the parameters yourself: resolution, colour space and deep colour settings for the TX0 upscale output port.

All three apply to TX0, which is the upscale output. TX1 is the 1080p SDR downscale output and is always automatic, converting 4K HDR down for equipment that cannot take it. The command is set scale with values auto, custom or none, and Scale Mode appears in the OLED menu as None, Auto or Custom, although the custom parameters themselves can only be defined in the web server.

Custom parameters and NO UPSCALING

Custom Scaling offers a colour space list starting at Follow Input, a deep colour list running from Follow Input through 8-bit/24-bit to 16-bit/48-bit, and two upscaling choices: 1080p60 to 4K60 or remain at 1080p60, and 1080p30 to 4K30 or remain at 1080p30. Nothing you alter takes effect until you click SEND. Leaving both Follow Input lists alone changes the resolution without touching anything else about the signal, which is the safe way to start.

In Auto Scaling the unit upscales TX0 whenever it can. Tick NO UPSCALING, or send set autonoupscale on, to stop that and hand the job to the sink instead. This is the setting that matters most in practice, because it is the one that decides whether your display is being given work it is better at than the box in front of it.

All glossary terms