confused about upscaling receivers vs PS3 blu-ray

[Matthew]

I plan to buy the Pioneer VSX919AH or Pioneer VSX1019AH Or
Yamaha V465 with the PS3. I'm confused about the 1080P video.
If I connect the HDMI from the PS3 to the receiver, the HDMI
from the receiver to the HDTV will I get true 1080p? The
specs on the 465 and 919 says it doesn't upscale to1080p. Does the
PS3 take care of that? Also I read not to get a receiver that has
HDMI pass through which 465 has. I should add that I have an iPhone and like the compatibility of the Pioneer. Yamaha says it's iPod compatible and it may allow video depending on the specs. I think the 565 will allow video but not the 465 from an iPod source.

[MrBoylan]

I plan to buy the Pioneer VSX919AH or Pioneer VSX1019AH Or
Yamaha V465 with the PS3. I'm confused about the 1080P video.
If I connect the HDMI from the PS3 to the receiver, the HDMI
from the receiver to the HDTV will I get true 1080p? The
specs on the 465 and 919 says it doesn't upscale to1080p. Does the
PS3 take care of that? Also I read not to get a receiver that has
HDMI pass through which 465 has. I should add that I have an iPhone and like the compatibility of the Pioneer. Yamaha says it's iPod compatible and it may allow video depending on the specs. I think the 565 will allow video but not the 465 from an iPod source.

Hi,

The PS3, or really any Blu-ray player, does upscale standard def material to 1080p over HDMI but different players do it with varying degrees of success. The PS3 is about average or a little above as an upscaling DVD player. The OPPO, Panasonic and Pioneer Blu-ray players are generally a little better at upscaling performance, but the PS3 is pretty good. For the most part, inexpensive receivers are not going to be any better at upconversion than an average Blu-ray player, though some higher end receivers can do an excellent job.

Getting a receiver which includes transcoding (conversion of analog inputs to digital) and upconversion (scaling and potentially de-interlacing standard def signals to high def resolution) is a useful but not strictly necessary feature. What it buys you is the ability to hook everything up to your receiver (all audio and video sources, old and new, analog and digital ) and only need to connect a single HDMI cable from receiver to TV. If your receiver only has HDMI passthrough, and you connect analog devices like a VCR, or a WII, or an iPod, then you will also need to connect a component, or composite video cable between receiver and TV in order to get a picture.

Also, iPod tends to be tricky. Even some receivers or HTiB systems that have HDMI upconversion require you to hook up a composite cable from receiver to TV if you want to watch iPod videos on your TV.

For Yamaha, if you want upconversion to 1080p, then you'll need the RX-V665or above. You'll also need the optional YDS11-SL iPod dock if you want to connect your iPod.

For Pioneer, the VSX-919 and VSX-1019 do upconvert SD signals to 1080p but our writer found that the VSX-919 occasionally had some HDMI issues with his PS3 (no signal displayed) that required a power cycle to correct. Not sure if others have experienced this issue and I'm also not sure whether the 1019 would have the same issue as we did not review that one. The Pioneer receivers have iPod support built in via a USB port and cable (also charges your iPod while it's connected).

So the answer is HDMI upconversion in a receiver is useful, but not essential if your only connected sources are going to be high definition sources like a PS3 and/or HD set-top box.

Here are links to the receivers on Amazon. Buy one and support BPBS!

• Amazon.com: Yamaha RX-V665BL 630 Watt 7-Channel Home Theater Receiver: Electronics
• Amazon.com: Pioneer VSX-919AH-K 120 Watts A/V Receiver with Full Color GUI/OSD, Advanced MCACC and Analog to HDMI Up-Conversion (Black): Electronics
• Amazon.com: Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7-Channel A/V Receiver (Black): Electronics

Hope that helps.

-CB