Hey all,

General question. I have the 990/7700 and was wondering this. I have the Pioneer 51FD Blu-ray player, audio only goes thru the 990. As far as video, do you have to disable anything?

In other words, the BD player and or TV, and or 990 will do processing, correct? I know in my case I now am just using the audio, but at one time I ran thru the 990 with HDMI to DVI, I think the picture looked better then now just using a switcher, is it possible?

Can you use upconverting more then once, or...Can you come out of a BD player, then thru say the 990 or new 997, then into your TV with disabling something?

Thanks again.

The 990 doesn't do any video upconversion, so there wouldn't be anything to disable to use the DVI thru-put.

What are you wanting to disable? Audio or video?

If I'm using multichannel analog out for audio and using HDMI out for video only, I like to disable HDMI audio out from the player (which every HDMI-equipped player I've used has offered). Not because it produces any better audio quality at the multichannel analog output, but because it avoids the potential for a problem with the TV trying to play the audio when you're already handling that elsewhere.

Video processing is a fairly complex issue, at least in most cases. The 990's DVI switching is an exception: it is a pure pass-through, so there is no video processing involved. It should not make the picture better or worse.

The TV is a complicated case, as it has a native resolution to which all video inputs must be converted. If it's a full 1080p display and it offers a "full pixel" mode (no overscan), you can effectively disable any scaling by inputting a 1080p signal (although there may still be options that need to be turned off, such as "motion" processing that some 120Hz panels offer). If the TV is a "720p" display, in most cases it is actually a 768p display and any input signal (whether 720p or 1080p) must be adjusted. There are some standalone video processors that allow you to set up any number of different output resolutions, in which case you can often produce a signal that the 768p panel doesn't need to process. In my system currently, I have my 1080p panel set to "full pixel" mode and deliver 1080p from most of my sources so that it doesn't do anything.

Can you upconvert more than once? Yes. In fact, it's common in a modern system for there to be two or even three different devices all employing at least some video processing. Here's an example: a system with an HD cable box, a (hypothetical) Model 997, and a 768p front projector. In that system, you could have the cable box set to pillarbox and deinterlace standard-def channels (yielding a 480p 16:9 image), which the 977 might then convert to 720p before the projector converts the 720p to 768p. In your case, your Blu-ray player is doing deinterlacing and scaling with DVD's, and it's probably doing some similar processing to Blu-rays as well (depending on the player's output resolution and the disc being watched). Your TV is likely also doing some processing to get the input signal to the native resolution.

Thanks gonk,

If you have a Blue-ray player that upconverts to 1080P, sending a signal from the BD to a processor such as the 997, which also upconverts to 1080P, then sending it to a TV/Projector which also upconverts, what would happen.

Would the picture change if you went into the perspective device and disabled the upconversion?

How would you go about setting this up? I have never changed any settings in any of my systems.

Or am I not getting it, lol.

Thanks!!!

The term "upconversion" no longer applies so well, and it was always something of a misleading term to begin with. "Video processing" is a better name for the various things that are (potentially) happening: signals can be deinterlaced, interlaced, scaled up or down, processed for noise reduction, and a number of other tricks. Whether or not these manipulations can be disabled at different points in the signal path depends on each individual component in the system.

Let's say that you output 1080p from a Blu-ray (which doesn't require scaling of the source video, although it may require deinterlacing in some cases and will often require 3:2 pulldown if you are not doing 1080p/24 with a film transfer) and it goes into a processor that has video processing on-board. Let's say that processor is set to output 1080p. That processor's video section would not have to do anything to produce 1080p, so it wouldn't scale. There may be other settings engaged (noise reduction, etc.) that would be applied, but that depends on the specific video processor and how it's implemented. The processing could even be bypassed, in which case the digital signal simply passes through. The TV would then get a 1080p signal. If it's a 1920x1080 panel, it would only need to scale if it was trying to overscan - if a "pixel by pixel" mode was engaged, it wouldn't even do that, and the original video signal could go straight to the panel. On the other hand, if the TV is a 768p panel, it would have to scale the input signal down to the native resolution.

Each component has a different set of goals, capabilities, and limitations. A disc player needs to decode the original data into a video signal. After that, it can simply output that raw data in whatever form it takes (although not all devices offer this as an option), or it can process it to a specific output resolution. A surround receiver or processor with built-in video processing may have an option to bypass that processing for all inputs, or it may be able to selectively disable the processing for specific inputs. Each receiver or processor that offers true video processing will present a different set of control options. An HDTV will typically have to apply some processing to an incoming signal because of the very specific signal its panel needs. (CRT's can be an exception to this rule, but we'll skip over that for the sake of this discussion since the trusty CRT has largely faded from the marketplace.) There can be additional processing unrelated to scaling and deinterlacing, such as the "motion smoothing" 120Hz modes that try to interpolate intermediate frames so you get 120 discrete "frames" of video each second. The options available to manage that display's processing will depend on the specific display in question.

So an advantage is to let each component as is? I thought I have read somewhere that you could say let your TV do the video processing as opposed to your say 997. In other words, use the best processer in your system and let do the work.

Thanks gonk.

You want to make sure the best processor in the signal path is doing most of the work, but determining which is best is difficult - specs alone tell you surprisingly little - and you do need to put some thought into how you configure each device to achieve the desired results. For Blu-ray and HD broadcasts, it's less critical, as the signal starts out in HD and the manipulation is less significant, but it still requires at least a little thought. For other sources, the results you get can vary widely depending on what source does the bulk of the "heavy lifting" in converting those non-HD sources to your HD display's native resolution.

Thanks again gonk. What happens if you do not make any adjustments to say each of the 3 devices, BD, 997 and TV? Do they conflict with each other?

Are you causing more harm then good? Which equipment will do the processing if all 3 can actually do it?

Just a little confused.

Thanks again gonk for your time.

Well, you need to make at least some adjustments - you shouldn't leave everything to the defaults. Doing that would likely lead to an assortment of sub-optimal conditions, depending on the components being used and their individual defaults. An obvious example: I've seen more than one HD cable box configured by the installer so that it outputs 480p all the time (including when an HD channel is being viewed). This sort of harm is a bit rare, but it helps to identify why we need to take the time to set our gear up in a manner that allows the system as a whole to work well.
Each component knows only what the incoming signal is and what outgoing signal it is supposed to provide. As a result, it's entirely possible (perhaps even probably) that all three will do processing unless you actually take the time to configure each one for your specific needs and its particular strengths. Ideally, major processing should be able to happen at a single point, although that single point may vary from source to source. (Example: a Blu-ray player like the BDP-83 might provide deinterlacing and scaling for DVD's, with a processor like the 997 doing little or nothing and a TV doing only native resolution scaling, while a cable box might output standard definition channels at 480i so the 997 can deinterlace and scale them and a TV do the necessary native resolution scaling.)

Much more clear to me now. Thanks again gonk for taking time to explain it clearly to me.

Much appreciated!!!!