Assessments - 2, GPA: 4
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Facilidade de uso
So rather than waxing poetic on how nicely the GFR-700HD’s controls blend into its industrial-tech black and silver fi nish, I’ll start instead with the integral video scaler. It accepts video signals from legacy sources such as VCRs and DVD players, con- verts them into whatever resolution your vid- eo display prefers, then outputs the video to your display through an HDMI digital video jack.The downside to this scaler is that it only works on 480i standard-definition signals; video at resolutions of 480p or greater is ignored and output as-is. (A planned video board upgrade won’t have this limitation.) But 480i signals are the ones that need the most work. There are many options for controlling the picture, such as deciding upon the aspect ratio and fine-tuning vertical/horizontal positioning of the image. Scaler settings for each input are stored, so they will change automatically when you switch from your VCR to your DVD play- er. And while upscaling a VCR to the 1080p resolution of my Samsung LED rear-projection display might seem crazy, the image from the videocassette of My Fair Lady,upscaled through the GFR-700HD’s National Semiconductor video processing chip, looks smooth. I then switch to my Oppo DV-981HD DVD player (set to 480i and using compo- nent output), and try Enter the Dragon and the more recent Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Dragon looks steady and smooth despite its gritty film grain; Bruce Lee’s ruddy skin tones appear realistic to the eye. Pirates’ many panoramic vistas actually seem more detailed than they would on a standard-defi nition dis- play. (Of course, neither looks as good here as the Blu-ray versions of these movies do.) Us- ing the HQV Benchmark DVD—a much more demanding trial than normal program material would be — I find Adcom’s upconversion NEW REVIEWS BY MARSHAL ROSENTHAL • PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORDERO STUDIOS DUELLING DOMAINS Can Adcom’s GFR-700HD receiver handle video as well as it does audio? For an audio receiver to be worth its salt today, it must be able to handle the intri- cacies of video with the same precision as it does audio. So rather than waxing poetic on how nicely the GFR-700HD’s controls blend into its industrial-tech black and silver fi nish, I’ll start instead with the integral video scaler. It accepts video signals from legacy sources such as VCRs and DVD players, con- verts them into whatever resolution your vid- eo display prefers, then outputs the video to your display through an HDMI digital video jack.The downside to this scaler is that it only works on 480i standard-definition signals; video at resolutions of 480p or greater is ignored and output as-is. (A planned video board upgrade won’t have this limitation.) But 480i signals are the ones that need the most work. There are many options for controlling the picture, such as deciding upon the aspect ratio and fine-tuning vertical/horizontal positioning of the image. Scaler settings for each input are stored, so they will change automatically when you switch from your VCR to your DVD play- er. And while upscaling a VCR to the 1080p resolution of my Samsung LED rear-projection display might seem crazy, the image from the videocassette of My Fair Lady,upscaled through the GFR-700HD’s National Semiconductor video processing chip, looks smooth. I then switch to my Oppo DV-981HD DVD player (set to 480i and using compo- nent output), and try Enter the Dragon and the more recent Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Dragon looks steady and smooth despite its gritty film grain; Bruce Lee’s ruddy skin tones appear realistic to the eye. Pirates’ many panoramic vistas actually seem more detailed than they would on a standard-defi nition dis- play. (Of course, neither looks as good here as the Blu-ray versions of these movies do.) Us- ing the HQV Benchmark DVD—a much more demanding trial than normal program material would be — I find Adcom’s upconversion NEW REVIEWS NEW REVIEWS From the moment I turn it to add an extra amp—theThe GFR-700HD has a decent on, the GFR-700HD projects an aura of solidity and confi dence. It’s equipped with the usual 5.1- and 7.1channel variants of Dolby and DTS processing. Receivers with the latest processing from Dolby and DTS (True HD and Master HD, respectively) are still unavailable as of this writing; for these formats, the GFR-700HD provides a 7.1-channel analog input, and leaves the processing to your HD DVD or Blu-ray player. If you want to set up a 7.1channel system, you will have The GFR-700HD comes with a generic universal remote control, but it also offers an RS-232 jack that allows easy integration with Crestron and AMX touchscreen control systems. number of inputs, outputs, and control jacks for a receiver in its price range, but it has only fi ve amplifier channels where most others might have seven. scoring high marks indeed. Just for fun, I also connect a Nintendo Wii video game console and set it for 480i output—and to my surprise, the graphics actu...