The Perfect Vision
Algoith Mosquito & Dragonfly Additional Notes and Technical Ratings
Test Discs | Technical Ratings
Algoith Mosquito
Algoith Dragonfly
Test Discs
I played all test discs from the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player's HDMI output. On the HQV Benchmark DVD at 480i, the DVDO VP50 and Optoma HD-3000 delivered very similar test results. The DVDO did better at detail enhancement, but the Optoma handled the motion-adaptive noise reduction test more successfully. The Algolith Dragonfly had difficulty establishing a proper HDMI handshake from the player at this output setting—when it did produce a picture, it had noticeable vertical lines. I switched to a 480i component connection, and the Dragonfly responded with excellent motion-adaptive noise reduction, detail enhancement, and the best dot-crawl correction of all three processors.
Switching to the HQV Benchmark HD DVD at 1080i, the Optoma garnered the highest score, followed closely by the DVDO. The film resolution loss test demonstrated that the Optoma could resolve full film resolution without any strobing (flickering) or coloration, while the DVDO added some extraneous color artifacts. The Algolith displayed severe strobing on this test. On the jaggies test, both the Optoma and DVDO got high marks, while the Algolith achieved only a middling score.
The new Digital Video Essentials HD DVD test disc corroborated most of the HQV Benchmark results. Once more, the Optoma and DVDO ran neck and neck in most tests. On the SMPTE RP 133 test image, the DVDO handled the small high-frequency boxes in the corner successfully, while the Optoma strobed. The Algolith also strobed while displaying this test pattern.
On DVE's standard-definition tests using the HDMI output set to 480i, the DVDO displayed less dot crawl on moving type than the Optoma. Both did a superlative job capturing the subtle skin tones of the model on title 17, chapter 6, "Model with Chip Chart." As before, the Algolith had serious issues with the standard-definition signal, usually balking at displaying anything at all, and when it did produce a picture, it had noticeable vertical striations. Switching to a component connection at 480i eliminated this problem. In this case, the Dragonfly displayed excellent skin tone reproduction on the model with chip chart and no strobing whatsoever on the SMPTE RP 133 test image. The obvious conclusion is that if you use standard-definition sources with the Dragonfly, you should definitely employ a component connection rather than HDMI to achieve optimum performance.
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