Receivers

The Yamaha employs Anchor Bay’s VRS video processing. The digital results above, performed over HDMI, were superb. The AVR’s results cross-converting component to HDMI were very nearly identical to the digital tests with a few exceptions. The Yamaha was not quite as clean here on the Motion Adaptive test and one of the 2:2 SD tests, but not enough to downgrade its score. It also rolled off the highest luma (black and white) and chroma (color) frequencies enough to give it a failing grade for resolution. But this did not appear to compromise its subjective performance on DVDs, where a direct comparison between the analog and digital input connections showed no visible difference on a high-resolution 52-inch LCD display (the Sharp AQUOS LC-52XS1U-S, reviewed in this issue). If you’re looking for better video processing for broadcast 1080i HD and/or 1080i HD concert discs, the RX-V3900 is worth a close look.—TJN