Video Processor Reviews

Setup & Tests
My HDMI sources include a TiVo Series3, an Oppo DV-983H DVD player, a Panasonic DMP-BD30 Blu-ray player, and a Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player. I also connected my Xbox 360 and older Oppo DV-970HD DVD player via component to test the analog inputs.

I connected each source device to the Edge and ran one HDMI cable to my Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro for the audio and a second cable to my JVC RS-HD1 projector for the video. After powering up the system, I was greeted by the Display Wizard, which allows you to name the display, select an output video format, and select an output for audio (Auto, Video HDMI output, Audio HDMI output, or Optical).

Next up is the Input Wizard for customizing the Edge to your system—naming the inputs, specifying the Input Priority for the components, and associating the audio inputs with video inputs. The Input Priority option establishes a hierarchy of importance among the sources, so the Edge will automatically switch inputs when it detects an active signal from a newly activated component, although I prefer to program a remote macro for this task.

To see how well the Edge upconverts 1080i to 1080p, I used chapter 8 of Mission Impossible: III on HD DVD. The pan across the staircase looked perfect, as you would expect from a first-rate video processor. Next up was the HQV Benchmark Blu-ray test disc played at 1080i, and the Edge passed all the tests without any issues.

Jaggies performance was equally good with 480i material from the HQV Benchmark DVD—both the single-bar and three-bar tests were smooth as they moved around. The race-car sequence instantly locked onto the 3:2 film cadence, and there was no moiré in the stands. Looking at the TLV-200 pattern from the Avia test DVD, the 6.75MHz circle in the lower-right showed no ill effects from scaling, and the highest frequencies weren't rolled off. I did notice some minor ringing around dark lines, which weren't there when the Edge wasn't engaged, although I didn't notice this ringing on real-world material.

To test the PReP function, I used the 480p component output from the Oppo 970HD, which isn't a very good progressive DVD player. Without the Edge processing, Wimbledon exhibited significant combing in the lines on the tennis courts and especially across the nets during the tournament sequences. The PReP mode fixed the poorly deinterlaced video, resulting in a jaggie-free output.

During my testing, I ran into two minor problems. First, it lost audio lock with my pre/pro on two occasions, resulting in static. This happened as I was skipping chapters through an HD DVD and Blu-ray disc with Dolby TrueHD soundtracks. Also, using the Auto video output, the Edge insisted on sending 1080i signals to my JVC projector, even though it's 1080p and can accept a 1080p/24 signal. Either my display wasn't sending the proper EDID information or the Edge was interpreting it improperly. Either way, this was easily fixable by manually choosing the proper output resolution and frequency.