Anchor Bay's DVDO EDGE takes anything to 1080p for $799
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 29th 2008 6:14PM
posted Aug 29th 2008 6:14PM
posted Aug 29th 2008 6:14PM
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I wonder how this would compare to Reon HQV in the Onkyo 906 ?
You and everyone else, we're all highly anticipating this. If the upconversion is just as good as the iScan, but with much fewer features, we could all be in for a real treat. Most likely better than any Reon equipped piece, and maybe on par with a Realta...
On hardcore cadence tests Anchor Bay's VRS deinterlacing out performs Realta and most other solutions.
The only bad thing anyone has got to say about this EDGE device is that it is rumored to not be able to switch output from 50/60Hz depending on source; over on AVS I read that the output is locked to 60Hz refresh rate and has to be changed manually by going through lots of menus.
Locked to 60Hz is great if you live in USA, but is unbelievably poor if you live in 50Hz countries where there is a mixture of 50/60Hz content.
so your saying with this i can up scale my NES games to 1080P WOW im sold
Um... so will any 1080p TV. The thing that needs to convert to whatever resolution you're upscaling to is the thing that has direct access to the compressed source, such as the raw DVD data. If your DVD player renders it at 480p, then you've already lost the ability to mazimize the picture quality at 1080p by introducing the constraints of an intermediate step.
The only useful thing this does for anyone with an upscaler in thir TV (basically, anyone with an HDTV) is switch the inputs, but then again, most HDTVs have several inputs.
wait, so you're implying that all upscaling devices produce the same picture quality?
yes, going the digital --> analog --> digital route will reduce the picture quality, but that should not be the case with a DVI / HDMI source...
The PReP feature can extract 480i if your DVD player or set-top-box is outputting 480p
http://www.anchorbaytech.com/vrs_technology/prep.php
A real Blu-ray player costs 300-400 why is this crap 800?
See the results of this scaler first before knocking it. Burndive - you are correct, that's why people set their dvd player to 480i and let the scaler do the processing;)
This thing should have way better processing than most tv's/dvd players/receivers. It should be better than the Reon equipped stuff and perhaps on par with a Realta HQV scaler. It all depends on the implementation of their chip. So, instead of buying a $2k Denon blu-ray player to upscale your dvd's like never before, you buy a cheap dvd player, a cheap blu-ray player, and this thing will give the same results. Plus you get to throw in your PS3 or 360 along with tv/cable to get cleaned up:)
Actually this DVDO product has a feature called PReP that extracts the original 480i/576i from deinteraced sources (such as cheap DVD players and cable set-top-boxes) which it then puts through it's VRS deinterlacing and scaling to produce a fantastic picture.
But can it do custom timings and offer gamma control?
The color / tint / brightness / contrast controls are on a per input basis (I didn't see anything for Gamma) but the user's manual can be found here.
http://www.anchorbaytech.com/docs/pdf/EDGE_Product_Manual.pdf
It doesn't allow for Custom Timings and it doesn't support 1360x768, 1366x768, or 1365x768 which are the common Flat Panel Display resolutions. It is the only thing negative that I could find...if they could add support for those flat panel displays timings, it would be perfect.
Did some checking around the AVSforum post on this scaler. If your display puts you a "recommended resolution" in its EDID string, the scaler will set for that resolution regardless of what it is. So if your Plasma sends out 1366x768 as it's recommended resolution, the scaler will set for that. The reason given by DVDO as to why it can't be manually set is that there is no "standard" for that resolution that will work with any set. Worse case, I am just looking for this scaler to give me a good solid 1280x720 signal and I will let the TV scale it out to 1366x768...it shouldn't impact that picture quality that much.
Actually, I have been needing something like this at this price point for awhile so I will preordering one of these on Tuesday. Previously, even a DVDO VP series with enough inputs would cost me in the neighborhood of $2,000 dollars, that is as much as a 50" 1080p Plasma and really couldn't justify it. At $800, this is much more reasonable and it will solve a few of the needs that I have now. I need some additional HDMI ports. I have had lip-sync issues with my old receiver that this will probably fix (and with the HDMI Audio Only port, I am ready to go when this receiver finally does break). My Comcast Motorola STB sucks at upconverting SD to HD, the XD engine in my LG Plasma is slightly better, but I would like to see what this box can do with SD content.
My preorder is in with AVsciences.