AV Receiver Reviews

The Pioneer VSX-1019AH will not upconvert an HDMI input to a higher-resolution HDMI output but merely passes the input through without processing. Most of our usual Digital tests are therefore irrelevant, apart from Video Clipping and Resolution (which were taken here at 1080p).

The Pioneer will convert a component input to an HDMI output and simultaneously—if selected—upconvert a 480i or 480p component input to an HDMI output at 480p, 720p, 1080i, or 1080p (although as indicated in the table, not particularly well in some respects if the component input is 480i). But while it will cross-convert 1080i component in to 1080i HDMI out, it will not convert it to 1080p. Nor will it upconvert 720p to either 1080i or 1080p. These limitations are not clearly stated in the manual. Therefore our standard analog HD upconversion tests for 3:2, 2:2, and Motion Adaptive are also not applicable here. The receiver did, however, do an excellent job scaling a 480p analog input to a 1080p HDMI output. The Analog resolution tests were taken with 1080i component in and 1080i HDMI out.—TJN