AV Receiver Reviews

The Yamaha neoHD YMC-700 controller does not perform any deinterlacing or video scaling on the source, but rather passes it along in the same resolution as the input. However, it will cross-convert either a component or a composite input to an HDMI output. In fact, it only offers an HDMI output. It does a reasonably good job at this if the input is HDMI. But if the input is component, the Yamaha rolls off the topmost luma frequency burst (but not the chroma).

Perhaps more significantly, the Yamaha also clips both below black and above white with a component input. The above white pattern we use for this test on the Spears & Munsil disc was clipped so severely that no brightness bands were visible at all. This means that the Yamaha was clipping below 100 IRE (the lowest band on this test pattern is 231, and 100 IRE is at 235 for HDMI video). For best results, we recommend using an HDMI input with this controller whenever possible.—TJN