AV Receiver Reviews

The SR5003 features video processing from I-Chips Technology, which is new to me. No processing was applied to HDMI signals regardless of the settings I used. But the Through mode defeats any potential processing and retains full detail with HDMI signals. The A/D conversion showed significant roll-off in both chroma and luma resolution and a lot of noise. The SR5003 doesn’t clip head or toe room, but there was a strange ramping effect with whites that hurt overall uniformity. The SR5003 only deinterlaced analog signals and wouldn’t properly deintlerlace film- or video-based HD sources. SD content fared better with solid 3:2 and motion-adaptive deinterlacing, but scaling of SD revealed significant roll-off with both chroma and luma. Motion tests showed noise and loss of resolution. Combined with the poor A/D conversion, the result is a soft image and noticeable scaling artifacts. The SR5003 did a decent job in Through mode with HDMI, but its video processing capabilities are disappointing.—KD