Michael,
As I tried to explain in the 720 verses 1080 thread, video processing is an incredibly complicated process. I only touched on some of the things being asked of a video processor. Until recently, stand alone cutting edge video processors were not financially possible for the general public. It wasn’t long ago that they would cost in excess of 50K. A hand full of companies started selling stand along video processors that were more afordable about ten years ago (Lumigen, Gennum, Pixel Magic, Faroudja and DVDO are the most common). Most of these run upwards of 5K. To see a VP with as many functions as the Edge is advertising at this price is unheard of.
Videophiles use stand alone VP’s for various reasons, but the common reason is top notch scaling and deinterlacing. Each chip has is advantages, and each has its shortcomings. DVDO, which uses the ABT chip is known for being the best for upconversion of 480i – 1080i to 1080P, and also animation. When you use one of these devices, you select a source that will output unprocessed data stored on the disk that is output directly from the MPEG decoder via HDMI. The Oppo 970 and 980 and a few select other dvd players will do this nowadays, but in the past, none would. The ultimate is to modify a player with a good decoder (not all are equal) with SDI, however the benefits of SDI are very small if any and generally not worth the expense now that there are options for 480i output via HDMI. I have had on my rack at the same time an Oppo 970 and a SDI modified Oppo 981. I had duplicate copies of the same movie and I timed them just right so that I could swap back and forth with the same remote (both share IR codes, so I could push pause and play and they would both do this at the same time and stay in sync). There was a very subtle difference between the two, but not enough to make me feel all warm and fuzzy about spending $500 to modify the 981. However, when I compared the 981 going directly to my display via HDMI with the 981 doing the upconvesion to 1080P and the 970 going into the VP as 480i with the VP50Pro doing the upconversion, there was a very distinct difference with the 970 / VP50pro combination being the decisive winner.
With the Edge you will also get noise reduction and fine edge detail and enhancement, which will improve all broadcast and 480i dvd. It’s not the best available, but it does work farly well. I can not tell a difference with BR / HDdvd. If you want to use an anamorphic lens and need to vertically stretch an image, it will do that. It has Cue Correction, which is an inherent bug found in many dvd players. It will allow you to perform some basic video calibrations that are not found on many displays. The edge does not come with a color management system, but not many VP’s do. Usually, you have to go into the display’s service menu for that. Lumegen has CMS and the VP50 Pro is rumored to get this function in a highly anticipated firmware update. The Edge comes with Prep, which takes a progressive input from a source that will not allow you to output the interlaced data and will extrapolate the native interlaced stream and allow the Edge to apply its own algorithms for a progressive output. What this means, is there are a lot of dvd players that really suck at reverse telecine conversion and progressive scanning and the Prep feature can correct this. It works too. This also works with 720P broadcast, as we all know, any help for broadcast is highly desired.
One thing the Edge has that many die hard videophiles will want, is two HDMI outputs. This will enable them to send one output directly to their display, while the other HDMI output will send the audio stream to their audio processor. Just about every audio processor on the market does something to the video stream, even if you turn off the video processor. The Onkyo’s with Reon do this for an example. They change the color space from 4:2:2 to 4:4:4. The only way to make them not do this is to go so far as to turn off the display. So, by having two outputs, you bypass any undesirable effects that the audio processor may cause and get the purest output from a VP as possible. This does have a drawback though; you loose the OSD / GUI for the audio processor. You will have to run a cable from the audio processor to the display and switch inputs on the display to get the GUI / OSD again.
I can tell you that in my system, the VP50Pro makes a very big difference when it’s in the chain. (I sit 12’ away from a 41” X 96” 2.35 scope screen.) It makes dvd look darn near as good as HD/BR. It cleans up broadcast 480i some, which makes it bearable to watch. Without the VP in the loop, I can’t watch it. It does a fantastic job with 1080i broadcast. It also improves 1080P/24 off BR and HD/DVD disks. I can take the 24 fps input and output that format at either 48 or 60 fps, which make the image smoother. I can also apply some fine edge detail to any input, which again, helps some.
I can not in good conscience recommend a VP50Pro at $3500 msrp to anyone who isn’t shooting an image onto a large screen. It’s just not worth the money unless you need some of the functions the VP provides. But if this Edge gives you similar improvements in image quality that the Pro does, $800 is a bargain. They both share the same chip, so they should have similar performance.
DVDO usually has a 30 day, in home trial period. If you don’t like it, send it back. Depending on your system, it may not do any good whatsoever, so I would take advantage of the trial period and send it back if you don’t see a marked improvement.
