Video Processing in DVD Players, Receivers and Displays

It has come to our attention many times in the past that people are generally confused about video processing. They are confused about which components are responsible for doing what, and they are confused about which products should receive the most attention. If you are confused - you're not alone. If you don't think you're confused, you probably should be. Let's take this scenario:

Joe has a high-end DVD player connected to his high-end receiver. He also spent tons of money on a brand new standalone video processor that feeds to his top of the line front projector.

To test your knowledge of video processing, here's a question: When Joe presses 'Play' what happens? Which component is doing the deinterlacing? Which one is scaling the image to the projector's native resolution? Which one is providing noise reduction?

Don't know? That's OK - Joe doesn't either. You see, he was convinced he had to buy the very best of everything. And as a result - he's got some very nice pieces of gear… but much of the processing that goes into the cost of that gear is going unused - at least potentially.

This article is going to quickly (and we hope "simply") go through the process of explaining how and why you will utilize video processing in your AV components - and when you should be concerned about video processing and when you can get by with spending a little less. We'll do this through the use of examples and generalizations that can be applied to your own equipment. With the right amount of A-B testing we'll help you to see for yourself what each component should be doing and simplify the process of finding out how to get the best performance out of your own system.

Definitions:

• AV Processor - Any component or part of a component that changes the incoming or source video signal in any way shape or form. This can involve taking it off of a medium like a hard drive, DVD or HD-DVD or a dedicated unit that does fancy noise reduction and scaling. All displays are video processors of some sort as they all need to process the incoming signal to ready it for display on the screen.
  
• AV Receiver/Processor - A component which takes audio and video inputs and routes audio and video to the display and speakers (respectively). It may or may not include amplification or the ability to handle digital (HDMI) video. The newest and most feature-rich AV processors have been adding many more video processing features of late, leading to enhanced capabilities which have to be used carefully.
  
• Deinterlacing - This is the process of converting an interlaced signal (like that found on a DVD or in many cableTV signals) to progressive scan demanded by most HDTVs and EDTVs. The tricky part is that DVD sources are stored at 24 frames per second and video plays back primarily at ~30 frames per second. To do the conversion, video processors must correctly convert by using "pull down" technology to interleave (combine) fields (every other line of a frame of picture) and create an image that is smooth and error-free.
  
• ABT/DVDO - Anchor Bay Technologies DVDO video processing systems. DVDO processing is available within other AV hardware or as a standalone unit.
  
• Gennum/VXP - "Visual Excellence Processing" from Gennum. This technology is available within other AV hardware or as a standalone unit.
  
• Silicon Optix/HQV - Hollywood Quality Video processing. This is video processing provided by Silicon Optix. HQV processing is available within other AV hardware or as a standalone unit.
  
• Scaling - This is the process of taking an incoming video signal and changing the output resolution to match a particular set of dimensions. This can be to fit a display's native resolution, or to ready the signal for an anamorphic lens that projects onto a theatrical widescreen presentation.