I needed something to convert component to VGA so I bought a N6. To say the least I am disgusted with the horrible image quality of this product. Here is what it does:
1. In any (Xbox) game with 480P signals fed in, there is unacceptable ghosting. This is most noticeable on things such as crosshairs and letters. I notice little to no ghosting with 720P or 1080i signals. I was able to completely eliminate 480P ghosting by turning the saturation of the N6 all the way down to 0 (resulting in a greyscale image).
2. In 480i only (with component input), the contrast is extremely low. No amount of changing the settings produces an acceptable picture.
3. Using component input, the color red is processed horribly. It seems as if the N6 is sometimes applying a cartoon-like filter to the color red. Some images appear normal, while others are much worse. Sometimes a slight outline appears around a red object, while other times a sharp contrast between red and another color appears horribly pixelized. Once again, when the saturation is turned to 0, the problem is eliminated.
4. 720P is slightly blurry.
5. 1080i flickers.
6. With any input (composite, component) and under any application (game or DVD movie) there is motion blurriness. The image looks clear until you move in a game, or pan around in a DVD. Then everything moving is extremely blurry. This is most noticeable when turning from side to side in a 1st person shooter game.
7. The N6 deinterlaces horribly. In movies horizontal lines are very noticeable around edges of moving objects, characters.
I have tested the N6 extensively with multiple setups (see below). At first, I thought my N6 was defective, so I did a warranty exchange through Viewsonic. After going through 4 of these, all with the same problem, Viewsonic finally admitted the N6 doesn't process component to VGA without issues, and my expectations were too high. Yes, my expectations for image quality were high!......I am using component input to get a 480P picture. If I wanted bad quality I would stick with composite.
I realize the N6 is a cheap way to get component to VGA, and other units that produce a better picture are far more expensive, but at any price these image quality issues are completely unacceptable.
My test setup:
To rule out any other devices that may be causing problems, I tested the N6 using 3 different Xboxes, 2 different official Microsoft high definition component cables, and 2 different monitors. The 1st monitor was an Envision EN775e 17" CRT. The second was a CMV 520D 15" LCD (16ms response time). Both monitors were tested in their native resolution. The N6 problems listed above did not change when different setups were used. I also played with the N6 settings extensively to rule out that as well. The N6 was reset using the mute/arrows method. I then substituted a transcoder in for the N6 with the above setups. The resulting picture was perfect.
The same Xbox(s) were connected directly to both a 27" (480i) and big-screen (480P, 720P, 1080i) TVs with the same component cables, with no N6 in the setup. No problems resulted.
And now for the pictures: click the thumbnail for a larger view
Ignore the bluryness; the camera I borrowed didn't take good pictures, and bluryness isn't the issue in these pics.
All pics are taken from an Xbox with 480P except for the image specified as 480i.
Notice ghosting on the letters
Notice the ghosting inside the circled areas.
This is the original jpg.... what it should look like
This is as good as the contrast gets in 480i through component
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