Audio Video News

Would a DVDO by another name smell as sweet? DVDO, the company that years ago made waves in the industry by offering a $500 line doubler at a time when line doublers cost $10k and up, is now DVDO Powered by Anchor Bay Technologies (ABT). The parent companies associated with the DVDO brand name seem to come and go, but the constants that remain are remarkable performance and features at reasonable prices. The DVDO iScan VP30 looks to continue that trend.

Although the VP30 is more expensive at $1999 than past DVDO video processors, this standalone unit also appears to be the brand's most advanced model yet. In addition to offering four HDMI inputs and an HDMI output, the unit has two component inputs, an RGBHV input, and two composite and s-video inputs. Perhaps more impressive is that VP30 will transcode among any and all of these formats, allowing connections to be "anything in, anything out." A broad variety of output resolutions are supported, including presets for resolutions typical of plasmas and other popular display types, all the way up to the Granddaddy of them all- 1080p!

As one would expect, the VP30 offers a full range of image adjustments for optimizing each source input, including sizing and timing, and full aspect ratio control. ABT's Precision Video Scaling II employs 10-bit processing and includes a Precision A/V Lipsync feature to eliminate annoying the annoying delays between audio and video signals that plague many digital broadcasts and displays.

The VP30's HDMI inputs carry and transmit audio signals as well as video. Going further, two coaxial and two Toslink optical digital audio inputs are included, along with a set of outputs for each respective carrier. This allows the VP30 to act as a full-function A/V hub, impressively extending the connectivity capabilities off any system, while simplifying source switching in many key respects. While $2k seems pricy by DVDO's typical standards, and outboard processors are a much harder sell nowadays, those of us who remember when video processors cost tens of thousands of dollars are picking our jaws up off the floor.

The VP30 is targeted to ship later this month at $1999. See www.dvdo.com for more info.