I'm "kinda" in the market for a new AVR, and following Peter's search has helped target my questions. I was looking at the NAD AVR's, having heard they make great amp sections. Obviously, one of the big points in the AVR market now is the video chip - Silicon Optix v. DCDi, most notably. But as Peter mentioned, many of us many not need to upscale the video. So I found the following interesting. The Flagship T785 does not have an up-scaling chip at all! This is their reasoning, and I must say it resonates with me, as it makes me think my money would go to parts I would use, rather than an upscaler I don't need for 1080p sources:
 Quote:
NAD has secured the latest version of V1.3 HDMI technology from Analog Devices. All input resolutions (480i, 576i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p) are supported at the output with cross conversion of analog formats between Composite, S-Video and Component video. Further, all existing analog inputs are also available for up-conversion to HDMI output. Output resolution always matches input resolution: perfectly.

With respect to adjunct video processing, NAD has decided to exclude "format conversion" in order to sustain the maximum video performance that exists from the source. This means that the NAD only changes formats, and passes the native resolution, without adding any of the "conversion artifacts" generated by this scheme of signal processing.

For best overall system performance, onboard video processing is not included. While onboard video processing is considered a popular feature by some of NAD's competitors, it is just as likely that you will end up with an inferior picture, because a digital processor is substituting the missing pixels with "virtual guesses" rather than actual data. Additionally, reprocessing already processed video can cause obvious picture distortion. Finally, many if not all fixed pixel displays already provide a scaling solution engineered specifically for the native resolution of their product.

Very interesting. This has me rethinking things and puts NAD on my short list of AVRs. Also impressive, is that they list their FTC power as 200w/ch into 7, but explain that by their methods it is only 120 watts, but that those watts are guaranteed to be there at all times. Amazing, FTC rating can be off by almost 40% compared to real power. What does that tell us about the many 100w/c FTC rated AVRs.

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