Video Amplifier - What's Your opinion?

[therock003]

Lately it has come to my attention that amplifiers exist with video capabilities.

I need to know what can they do on a hardware level that they can improve the video signal before driving it to the approriate Monitor or Projector or whatever.

Do i need to consider buying an amp that implements video amplification as well? Do they improve video quality remove noise distortion etc or is it all just for show?

What do you think?

[jagabo]

Unless you plan on spending more than $1000 or so you don't get anything but switching. The high end amp/receivers have built in upscalers that may work a little better than the one in your HDTV or DVD player.

[therock003]

What do you mean by switching?As hook in composite and get hdmi output?

Are you telling me that lower end models act as receivers mostly rather than amplifiers?

Anyway whichever the case,i'm looking to buy a high end amplifier mostly for audio.I'm even planning to spend 2000+USD if what i get is pleasing so i'd like to know more.

IS the upscaling result good?What other modifications can be achieved so that the quality may be improved?

[jagabo]

What do you mean by switching?As hook in composite and get hdmi output?

They are dumb switches as far as video is concerned. If you have 3 HDMI inputs they will simply switch whichever one you select to the output. Most will not convert incoming composite or s-video to HDMI. Or even s-video to composite, or vice versa. So s-video inputs only switch to the s-video output. Composite inputs switch to composite output.

Are you telling me that lower end models act as receivers mostly rather than amplifiers?

There's no equivalent to amplification for video. You don't mike the picture brighter by amplifying it.

Anyway whichever the case,i'm looking to buy a high end amplifier mostly for audio.I'm even planning to spend 2000+USD if what i get is pleasing so i'd like to know more.

IS the upscaling result good? What other modifications can be achieved so that the quality may be improved?

The better ones have faroudja upscalers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroudja That will probably do a little better than your HDTV's built in upscaler.

[Des]

Do you mean video only amplifier, or an AV Reciever amplifier that would also provide hometheater/surround sound capabilities?

I don't know much about the former, but of the later I would suggest looking at the Onkyo TX-SR** series. The Base model has switchable HDMI inputs but no upconverting or processing of the signal(or audio over HDMI). The features improve as the price and model number goes up.

My 2cents.

--dES

[JohnnyMalaria]

Are you refering to distribution amplifiers? These work by reproducing an incoming video signal (analog unless you have silly amounts of money) on multiple outputs so that each connected projector/monitor etc gets its own signal to use. Without it, the overall impedance of all the displays would seriously degrade the single signal being sent to all of them. The term is rather misleading since each output has the same amplitude etc as the input. It's just that you get multiple outputs.

Such a device does nothing to help with the quality of the video. If you need to stabilize it/clean up the synchronization then you need something to work on just the non-video parts of the signal and leave the video part alone. You'd do this before the distribution amplifier.

[jagabo]

Search for faroudja, reon, and receiver. That will give you an idea what to expect.

[tomlee59]

Lately it has come to my attention that amplifiers exist with video capabilities.

I need to know what can they do on a hardware level that they can improve the video signal before driving it to the approriate Monitor or Projector or whatever.

Do i need to consider buying an amp that implements video amplification as well? Do they improve video quality remove noise distortion etc or is it all just for show?

What do you think?

If you are talking about a video amplifier, you don't need one unless you are driving many inputs with one source, or have to drive a long, lossy cable. An amplifier does what it says: Makes things bigger. You only need that to compensate for some other thing that is making the signal smaller. If there is no such source of attenuation, then there is no need for amplification.

[therock003]

They are dumb switches as far as video is concerned. If you have 3 HDMI inputs they will simply switch whichever one you select to the output. Most will not convert incoming composite or s-video to HDMI. Or even s-video to composite, or vice versa. So s-video inputs only switch to the s-video output. Composite inputs switch to composite output.

What's the point then of such a receiver?If you only out what you can in then why hook the svideo to the receiver and then output another svideo cable to the monitor instead of hooking the s-video directly?Just for that little extra upscaling capability the higher end models offer?The point would be to mix swtches so you can get from s starting cable setup to a different one if the monitor doesnt offer the selected input already.

There's no equivalent to amplification for video. You don't mike the picture brighter by amplifying it.

Well yes i understand.I dont mean amplifier in terms of amplifying the video feed the same way the amplification occurs on an audio signal.I refer to certain DSP capabilities. I mean, i wonder if video signal can be improved internally and on a hardware level by being applied certain filters, chroma and sharpening layers and such so that it can be improved in a way rather than just be upscaled better than the upscaling implemented on a monitor.

[jagabo]

There's no equivalent to amplification for video. You don't mike the picture brighter by amplifying it.

Well yes i understand.I dont mean amplifier in terms of amplifying the video feed the same way the amplification occurs on an audio signal.I refer to certain DSP capabilities. I mean, i wonder if video signal can be improved internally and on a hardware level by being applied certain filters, chroma and sharpening layers and such so that it can be improved in a way rather than just be upscaled better than the upscaling implemented on a monitor.

Yes, they have some other image processing filters. Search for the terms I indicated earlier. Of course, most of the better HDTVs have similar image processing filters.

[edDV]

Lately it has come to my attention that amplifiers exist with video capabilities.

I need to know what can they do on a hardware level that they can improve the video signal before driving it to the approriate Monitor or Projector or whatever.

Do i need to consider buying an amp that implements video amplification as well? Do they improve video quality remove noise distortion etc or is it all just for show?

What do you think?

If you are talking about a video amplifier, you don't need one unless you are driving many inputs with one source, or have to drive a long, lossy cable. An amplifier does what it says: Makes things bigger. You only need that to compensate for some other thing that is making the signal smaller. If there is no such source of attenuation, then there is no need for amplification.

Original Poster,

Like anything else, this differs for analog and digital feeds.

Analog needs equalization and maybe component delay in such situations. You need to compensate for the cable run.

Analog to digital out needs that plus decode to YUV, bandpass prefiltering, A/D, image filtering and then rescale. The same needs as an an HDTV taking an analog input.

Digital input may need filtering and rescale.

What were you trying to accomplish?

Audio is a separate issue.

[therock003]

Ok guys i understand what all of you are saying.I dont need a device to prevent attenuation from loss signals or distribute it to several outputs without degradation.I'm only hoping for DSP effects and mixing outputs.

Basically i was researching pre-amps and poweramps for audio but i stumbled upon ones that offered video features so i started wondering if video improvements can be made on the video signals on a harware level.

Multiplying the signal is not what I need or amping it up.

A)Mostly i need hardware DSP for video,video improvements done on the machine (not on user level,by post processing or using ffdshow.IT would be nice for a change, having a machine deciding what's best to improve video quality!)
B)It would be nice if there was some kind of hybrid switch.For example hook up rca composite and get signal out of HDMI and vice versa (for monitors with limited inputs)

[jagabo]

A)Mostly i need hardware DSP for video,video improvements done on the machine (not on user level,by post processing or using ffdshow.IT would be nice for a change, having a machine deciding what's best to improve video quality!)
B)It would be nice if there was some kind of hybrid switch.For example hook up rca composite and get signal out of HDMI and vice versa (for monitors with limited inputs)

If you're willing to spend $2000 you will find those features. But you could just as well buy a new HDTV that would do it too.

Here's an example (~$2000):
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-NR906&class=Receiver&p=i

Here's another ($6000 though):
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_13_3/anthem-statement-d2-8-2006-page1.html

[therock003]

The onkyo you refer to as an example is it good as a pre and power amp for audio as well or is it primarily focused to be an AVR? Cause a an avr it received the highest reviewe on a magazine i read. It was recommended as the best as an AVR on the price range of 1000-2000 EUR. And i'm seriously considering buying it, if it is as good on handling audio as well.

So what do you say?

[jagabo]

I'm not recommending that particular Onkyo AV Receiver. I just gave it as an example of a receiver with video processing abilities. I have no experience with it. All I know about it is what I read on the page I linked to. It sounds like a very nice AV Receiver but I recommend you do your own research.

Of course it does audio in addition to video. Half of the term AV is audio. If you look at the front panel you can see switches for CD, phono, tuner, tape, etc.

[therock003]

Well of course it handles audio as well but i was wondering if it can be considered as a good choice for pre-amp power amp or if I should look further for this feature?

Do you or anyone else here have any particular experience with amps in general? Cause I sure as heck dont and i would hate to give my precious money and see them go to waste. I have been researching this subject for the last 3 weeks and the information on this topic is a lot to take in mind and that's why i require some help from the experts.

[jagabo]

A reciever is a pre-amp, power-amp, and radio tuner all in one unit. You can probably assume a $2000 receiver from a reputable company is decent piece of AV equipment.

Whether you will be able to tell the difference between that and a $200 receiver (aside from the s-video/composite to HDMI conversion that the cheaper receiver won't have) with your speakers and HDTV -- I don't know.

[therock003]

Do you guys think it's an overkill? I mean I always wondered if electronic equipment worth so much money are worth it or if its all glamour and hype.

But on the other hand you have a piece of machinery dedicated to processing and handling signal, so how can a monitors circuit compete with that? At least that's how i see it.