Putting the “V” in Your AVR:
Conclusions Conclusions
It is easy to see that the video processing in today’s A/V receivers varies significantly from product to product. It is important to understand what you are compromising when you decide to use an AVR for your video processing instead of a source device or your display. It is nice to see that some of the midline receivers such as the Onkyo and Sony do offer very capable HD video processing and that most of the receivers offer high-quality passthrough performance of HDMI signals. This is very important with high-quality 1080p signals like those from a Blu-ray or HD DVD player and HD gaming systems like the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Depending on your budget, you may want to investigate the quality of the source component or display and look at receivers in your price range that will simply pass the video through and allow the display device to handle your video-processing duties if it is more capable. HT includes performance results for video processing in all of our display device reviews to help you make these choices.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you are paying top dollar for your new AVR, you’re always going to get top-of-the-line video processing from it. It is important to research what each company is using and how it will affect the overall quality of your video presentation. We hope we’ve given you a big head start.