Ask S&V

Q I use an Oppo UDP-203 Ultra HD Blu-ray player and an Apple TV as sources, with the signals fed through a Marantz SR7011 AV receiver to an Epson Home Cinema 5050UB projector. From what I understand, the player, projector and receiver can all upconvert standard- and high-def signals to 4K. Which one should I let do the upconversion? —Michael Antoniello, via email

A Use the Oppo player to perform the upconversion. When we tested the UDP-203 in 2017, we found its deinterlacing and upscaling capabilities to be flawless. The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB projector didn’t fare as well in the deinterlacing department in our recent review. And while the video capabilities of the Marantz SR7011, a model that features up-to-date HDMI 2.0b connectivity, wasn’t covered in our 2017 review, it’s unlikely to exceed the performance and flexibility of the Oppo player, which additionally features extensive picture adjustment and noise reduction settings.

How would you use the Oppo for video switching? Connect the HDMI output of your Apple TV to the player’s HDMI input. Next, run the Oppo’s main HDMI output directly to the projector, and its secondary audio-only output to the Marantz receiver.