Questions re Onkyo TX-NR1000 Receiver

[thenrie]

While I was waiting for a backordered Onkyo TX SR875, I came across a TX NR1000 on ebay. I got so excited at the price that I missed something in the fine print of the specs. It upconverts inputs to 1080i and does not have HDMI v1.3. I have an Epson Power Lite Home 1080 projector (native 1080p). According to an article I just read from a link on another thread, my projector may automatically convert the 1080i signal from the receiver to 1080p. Anybody know if that is so with the Epson?

Secondly, while I was waiting, I bought an Onkyo HD DVD which is HDMI v1.3 compliant and upscales to 1080p. Once I hook this up to the TX NR1000, what happens to the 1080p signal? Will it convert to 1080i, or will it pass through as 1080p? Will a 1080p signal from other sources, such as cable TV, pass through the receiver?

Now, for the $64k question. Do I resell the TX NR1000, maybe take a loss, and go back to the TX SR875 or 905, which is HDMI v1.3 compliant and upscales to 1080p, or will I even notice the difference?

Are there decent upconverting scalers at a reasonable price that would take the receiver's 1080i signal and upscale it to 1080p, or is this something I should be concerned with?

[Sonnie]

I don't think the NR1000 will pass the 1080p signal, but I could be wrong, maybe someone else can confirm. If in fact it doesn't and you wanted to keep the receiver, you could always connect your Onkyo HD-DVD player straight to the projector... or if you have more than one source, which it sounds like you may have a cable box, you could then purchase the Monoprice HDMI switcher for $50 or so.

The least expensive scaler (actually a switcher and scaler) I've seen is from Gefen at $450. They also have a dedicated forum.

[thenrie]

Ok, I suspected it wouldn't pass the DVD's 1080p signal as 1080p, but will it pass the signal as 1080i, or just not be able to process the signal at all?

As for the switcher, I'll check into that. I will just have two components to switch: the receiver (since all the rest of the components are lower res than 1080i and will be connected to the receiver) and the HD DVD player.

I have been trying to get some answers regarding the visible quality difference between 1080i and 1080p without hooking the receiver up. If I decide to sell it and go back to the SR875, I can still sell the NR1000 on ebay as new-in-the-box. Looks like I'm just going to have to hook it up and take a look at the difference between the picture from the DVD and the picture from the receiver and see if the difference is worth the fuss.

What I hate is that I paid three times for the projector what I would have paid for a 720p projector, and now I may be stuck with 720p/1080i picture anyway. Oh well. Live and learn. Maybe in a year the upconverters will drop in price.

[salvasol]

Sonnie wrote:

... you could always connect your Onkyo HD-DVD player straight to the projector... or if you have more than one source, which it sounds like you may have a cable box, you could then purchase the Monoprice HDMI switcher for $50 or so...

I agree with Sonnie ...

I remember when I was planning my HT, I read on the internet that is better to connect the video directly to the display (in this case your projector) ... and the sound to the receiver.

It said, that when you send the picture to the receiver, a conversion has to be done from source to receiver, then from receiver to display ... and there is chance that you will loose some details.

Maybe someone with more experience can confirm this for you...