Vidicraft AVP-100 - has anyone used it?

[sync]

I'm trying to figure out what this unit does and if it works well.

[gshelley61]

It is a composite video processor (no s-video) that combines a proc amp and detailer into one unit, and includes a basic luminance meter. It adjusts color, hue, luma (contrast) and boosts sharpness. The only thing it lacks is black level (brightness) adjustment. Image quality is excellent on this unit.

[sync]

Thanks. I assume that a black level adjustment would be pretty useful. That's means I'd still need a proc amp, so an all in one unit would then be redundant. Why would they leave out black level?

[gshelley61]

During the 1980's (when the Vidicraft stuff was being built) there was only NTSC analog 7.5 IRE black level to deal with. Perhaps it was felt that the black level adjustment was not necessary on a consumer processor since everything was supposed to be at a fixed 7.5 IRE level anyway, and the luma could be used to adjust the contrast. Professional units from the same era certainly had "setup" (black level) adjustments... so it does keep the older Vidicraft proc amps from being completely effective. The lack of s-video inputs and outputs is a problem for our modern video gear, too. Even so, they are excellent units with outstanding image quality.