Say goodbye to the old standard
How many standard definition DVDs do you have in your collection at home? Buying Blu-ray versions of all of those movies seems a bit costly. But don't worry, there's a way you can enjoy your old DVDs, and any other standard definition source you have in your home theater, in full high definition. The DVDO EDGE is a high quality video processor and intelligent A/V hub that converts standard definition, high definition, and PC signals from up to ten sources to any HDTV resolution up to 1080p. EDGE has complete aspect ratio control that allows you to watch the way that you want, with or without the "black bars." EDGE will also automatically sync up the audio with the video, eliminating the AV lipsync problem. So when you add EDGE into your home theater system, all your sources are converted to high definition to make the most of your new HDTV.
If you've got over 2 million pixels, why not use them all?
It wasn't so long ago that the standard television had a screen resolution of 640 vertical columns of pixels by 480 horizontal rows of pixels, for a total pixel count of 307,200 arranged in an almost square shape. But technology has made a giant leap forward, and now TVs are produced with a resolution of up to 1920 x 1080 with screens taking on a shape similar to what you see in movie theaters. The number of pixels in these screens has increased to 2,073,600! What that means for the viewer is that images on the screen will be shown in greater detail, creating a very realistic picture. Unfortunately, not all sources have caught up to the new standards in television production. So you're stuck watching low-resolution footage on a screen that's capable of much, much more. The EDGE will bring all your non-HD sources up to scratch by interpreting and upscaling the video into HD-quality. Plug your VHS player, your DVD player, and whatever other components you might have laying around, into the EDGE and watch an amazingly clear picture show up on your TV screen.
The art of upscaling
Creating HD images out of standard definition sources might seem like an impossible task, but with the right combination of technology, you'll be amazed at the transformation. The EDGE contains a full complement of Video Reference Series (VRS™) technologies, including mosquito noise reduction, fine detail and edge enhancement, Precision Deinterlacing, Precision Video Scaling II, Progressive ReProcessing, Progressive Cadence Detection, RightRate framerate conversion, AutoCUE-C, and Precision AV LipSync.
Mosquito noise reduction
Video compression is a commonly used technique to squeeze more video content onto a disc, or beam down more channels via satellite, or transmit more channels over a cable. By using video compression content providers can achieve better economies of scale and offer the consumer more video content — e.g. more channels, bonus materials, etc. The problem with nearly all video compression methods is that too much of it causes compression artifacts. These artifacts are often seen by the viewer as ugly ringing around text letters or noise — often called mosquito noise.
To counter this the EDGE uses a proprietary method of selectively removing mosquito noise. Unlike some methods of noise reduction that often makes the image worse by removing too much detail or causing blurring during motion, Mosquito Noise Reduction in the EDGE is designed to isolate the most objectionable of artifacts without removing detail or causing motion blur. To do this a proprietary method of both isolating and predicting areas in the image where this noise is likely to occur was devised. The end result is a highly effective noise reduction method that is impervious to motion, yet largely maintains the integrity of the detail in the image through a conservative approach in removing video compression artifacts.
Fine detail and edge enhancement
Sharpness controls are not new in the world of video — nearly every TV sold in the last 20 years features a sharpness control. However, sharpening controls merely accentuate medium detail at the expense of fine detail and often add "halos" around the edges and lines. While this trick was a reasonable approach for standard definition TV, when screen sizes were well under 30 inches, today's large screen TVs and HDTVs have made traditional sharpness controls highly undesirable since the damage they cause is now magnified on larger screens. In addition, traditional sharpening controls tend to exaggerate any noise in the image.
Fine detail and edge enhancement was designed with large screen HDTVs in mind. This technology isolates areas of the image where hard edges are prevalent and increases fine details without adding halos or ringing. So images have more pop, and fine detail such as blades of grass are drawn out making the images on your large screen HDTV even more enjoyable.
Precision Deinterlacing and Precision Video Scaling
The EDGE's 10-bit Precision Deinterlacing of standard and high definition features five-field motion-adaptive deinterlacing and edge-adaptive processing for video sources, along with advanced cadence detection for film and animation sources. All processing is performed at full 10-bit resolution to preserve all the detail and subtle nuances in the video source. Edge-adaptive processing uses an adaptive, continuous-angle detection algorithm to accurately identify and smooth image edges. Unique, any-cadence processing automatically locks to the wide variety of film and animation cadences found in current video sources, including non-standard cadences, and will track right through cadence changes. Precision Deinterlacing also features Game Mode with low-latency processing for maximum playability.
Meanwhile, 10-bit Precision Video Scaling technology is based on a proprietary video scaling engine that can independently scale an image horizontally and vertically to achieve an outstanding picture quality for today's high resolution video displays. The scaling engine is completely flexible, accepting standard definition (480p, 576p) and high definition (720p, 1080i and 1080p) inputs and outputting the most popular resolutions from VGA (640x480) to 1080p (1920x1080). The scaling engine is completely flexible, meaning other image manipulation features are also supported, including zoom and pan.
Keeping audio on track with video
You may have noticed that sometimes the people on the screen are moving their mouths, but the timing on the words you hear is off by a few beats. The EDGE has the ability to correct that problem. Precision AV LipSync technology is designed to automatically delay the audio signal to match the video processing delay. As a result, the AV Lipsync problem that is caused by video processing delay is eliminated. If required, the audio delay can also be further adjusted (up to 200 milliseconds) to correct any AV Lipsync problem that may be already be present in the AV source.
A connection for practically any source
With ten video inputs and 11 audio inputs, you can run practically any home theater component through the EDGE. Component, composite, and S-video connections are all accessible on the back of the box. The EDGE has one HDMI 1.3 output that outputs both audio and video. The second HDMI output only carries audio, with blank 720p video, which is intended to carry audio to a connected Audio/Video Receiver. If your source has a DVI output (and no HDMI output), a DVI-to-HDMI adapter or cable will be needed to connect this source to the EDGE. The same is true, if your display does not have an HDMI input, but does have a DVI input. DVI does not carry audio, so for DVI sources/displays an alternative method of connecting audio must be used. The EDGE can automatically determine and output the preferred format of the display by reading the EDID of the connected display. Some displays do not report the correct information in which case, the user can select one of the available output formats including VGA, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p and 1080p-24.
Audio is made better, too
The EDGE has three audio outputs: the HDMI audio/video output, the dedicated HDMI 1.3 audio only output and the optical digital output. If a source connected using HDMI is outputting high bit-rate audio, Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, and the EDGE is connected to an AV Receiver or Processor that supports these formats they will be passed through with the proper amount of delay to be in sync with the processed video. If the optical output is used with a source that supports high bit-rate audio, EDGE will communicate with the source to output an audio format that the optical connection is capable of carrying, stereo PCM or Dolby Digital/DTS. Audio that is input via the analog inputs can be output over HDMI or optical. The audio section of EDGE supports S/PDIF and PCM formatted audio with sample rates ranging from 24kHz to 192kHz. The EDGE will pass digital audio having any bit-depth resolution up to 24 bits, at all supported sample rates.
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