AV Receiver Reviews

The Yamaha RX-A2000 is the first component we’ve tested with the new HQV Vida processer. It has the ability to perform full processing and cross/upconversion of analog component sources and lower-resolution HDMI sources to 1080p HDMI. With digital HDMI sources, you see what you’d expect from HQV and then some—bulletproof performance with both standard- and high-def sources either processed or passed through. Full resolution of 1080p HDMI signals is preserved, pristine. There’s rock-solid deinterlacing of 480i and 1080i sources, and in the case of the former excellent scaling to 1080p. Moving to analog component video reveals more of a mixed bag. While the deinterlacing is still superb, there’s clipping of both below black and above white (strangely not on the entire screen in the case of above white, which is an artifact I’d not encountered before), borderline resolution with 1080i component signals converted to 1080p HDMI, and poor scaling with loss of high-frequency detail on 480i/p component-to-1080p HDMI conversions. So, if you’re still using some legacy analog component video sources you care about, this AVR may not shine them up as well as some. But if the sources you care most about are HDMI, you don’t have to look back. This AVR provides superb HDMI performance that’s sure to please across a broad variety of incoming source material.—SCB