There is an awful lot of hype surrounding the Japanese SC. I can confirm that the SC is overall not nearly as good a viewing experience as the DC. There are a few (and here I stress a few) scenes that might have more raw detail, but the noise that is encoded right into the disc makes watching it in motion not the best experience. Getting from "raw detail" to "improved viewing experience" is non-trivial.

This SC vs. DC stuff is a little bit like comparing... well, I don't know. All I know is, even with my relatively-decent Pioneer CLD-D925, there is no way I would base an LD-to-DVD project on the SC alone. Or even the SC first and foremost. It is, at best, something to be used very sparingly, in highly-specific cases. Sorta like using spackle to repair holes in drywall, maybe. You wouldn't want to make the whole wall out of spackle, would you?

This discussion does belong in the X0 Project thread, though, because in my opinion this "use the SC to fix the DC" is something best left to the X0 Project to pursue. I figure I know my way around capturing and AviSynth, etc. -- hey, I invented TooT, after all -- but even I'm not getting too excited by the SC as some sort of cure-all.

For the outrageous money required to get a copy of the SC, I totally wouldn't bother. I think it'd be better to send even half that off to the X0 Project, and trust that Zion et al know what they're doing. From what I've seen so far, that trust is not misplaced!