RX-V2600 Audioholics Review?

[alpina]

so when will yamaha be giving us an upgrade/revision to the 2600? looking at the yamaha model line up at the moment, the 2600 would be the only model to get if looking at their top end stuff.

and no i am not a person who forever waits for the new model and never buys. we have had our 2600 since last december and we love it. we are seriously looking at a dedicated 2ch preamp that we hope to integrate with a ht receiver.

underlying question here is whether we should stick to the 2600 or buy something else, either from yamaha (soon to be released model) or from another manafacturer?

yes, it would be easier to buy a top end ht processor with exellent 2ch capabilities such as bryston sp2 but ht technology is quickly changing unlike 2ch technology and we feel its often more cost efficient to stick to the yamaha, denon, pioneer's of the world for ht and the like of bryston, krell, music fidelity, etc for 2ch listening.

finally, a powered ht amp is a low priority for us as we preamp everything out into power amps.

cheers,

julie

 

[Audioholics]

Hi Clint, sorry to sound like your wife, but the "i will verify this week" is now a month ago.....

You must have missed this post.

 

[jmone]

Sorry Clint, missed the "And the RX-V2600 does not handle 1080p input" tagged to the end. Q? Do you get any HDMI output at all / error message etc or simply nothing if you feed it an 1080p HDMI signal?
Thanks
Nathan

 

[Jeje2]

Picture resolutions

Would now need some good info on how this unit handles different picture resolutions as have heard totally opposite comments in a thread on our local Finnish corresponding forum. (Yes I do have the RX-V2600, but don’t have the possibility to test different resolutions through component, nor 1080p feed. And as this discussion has now caught my full attention a clear definite ansver would be needed)

This is a debate in many messages. (Ex. AVS forum renlopez [ENG], Audioholics gene[ENG], DVDPlaza Polles[FI], DVDPlaza Yogi[FI])


So what results will one get if

1. Throughput: Component feed in
   1. 480i [576i] will give in component out?
   2. 480p [576p] will give in component out?
   3. 720p will give in component out?
   4. 1080i will give in component out?
   5. 1080p will give in component out?
2. Throughput: HDMI feed in
   1. 480i [576i] will give in HDMI out same, or?
   2. 480p [576p] will give in HDMI out same, or?
   3. 720p will give in HDMI out same, or?
   4. 1080i will give in HDMI out same, or?
   5. 1080p will give in HDMI out?
3. Upconverting from component feed in to HDMI feed out
   1. Component in 480i [576i] will give in HDMI out what user defined about upscaling, or?
   2. Component in 480p [576p] will give in HDMI out what user defined about upscaling, or?
   3. Component in 720p will give in HDMI out same, or?
   4. Component in 1080i will give in HDMI out same, or?
   5. Component in 1080p will give in HDMI out?

Grateful for any real help
(PS. will be posting this same message to AVS forums and AV forums)

 

[alpina]

guys,

we have passed on our 2600 to my younger brother who will be running 4ohm speakers off it (fronts anyway and 8ohm rears). as the 2600 only has setting for 6 and 8 ohm settings, how should he set it up?

thanks,

julie

 

[rafaeldb]

i'm about to buy a RX-V2600 but i have one question, will the yammy upscaling any souce? Composite, component, DVI, S-VHS?

 

[Audioholics]

i'm about to buy a RX-V2600 but i have one question, will the yammy upscaling any souce? Composite, component, DVI, S-VHS?

It will upconvert and upscale any 480i source.

 

[Phantomguy]

Will 2600 provide 2 simultaneous video OUT feeds to proj for PIP/POP

Hi Clint
Somehow I did not see this thread when reading your great review on the Yammy RX-V2600 and now apologise for sending you an email direct on my problem. I have recast my email into a post in this forum ...

Having read the posts here and gleening from them all sorts of video conversion/scaling/format issues I am starting to conclude that the shortfalls in my BenQ PE8700+ projector video conversion (and why I wanted better) were not all bad.

After months of looking last year I settled on this Receiver for my Home Theatre Room (work in progress .. long progress) and purchased one the week before Christmas. I delayed installing it until wiring the room with built-in speakers, building front stage cabinet work, elevating the floor for 3 rows of seating, etc etc. Am embarrassed to admit the Yammie is still in the box!!! And have now determined to get it installed and the room finished asap. I did read the manual on-line cover to cover before purchasing it, but have needed to troll through it again for last few nights to make sure I understand what I have to do to get the results I planned for ... like I now realise that I have connect each source device to analogue S-Video and L+R audio as well as to digital (for Zone 1) if I want to be able to select them from zone 2 or 3. Right?

To the point! Clint, I intended to use the PIP and POP function of my BenQ PE8700+(especially for MCPC/Internet feed) but nowhere can I find information as to whether or not I can simultaneously run TWO VIDEO OUT feeds ( 1x HDMI-> DVI and 1x 3xRCA-YPbPr component cable from the Yammie to the BenQ and then select DIFFERENT sources/devices to output at the HDMI OUT and the MONITOR OUT (3xRCA). In performing your analysis and review did you establish that this is possible?

Even if I have to sacrifice the Zone 2 Video and Audio temporarily while the 2 feeds are sending to the BenQ projector? This is where 2 x HDMI OUTS would be good on the Yammie. (Oh, I liked your comment on the need for the Presence Speakers to be simultaneous with the Rear Surrounds even if they needed external amping as I have just that need also .

So Clint, are you able to shed any light on this dual OUT cabling for PIP/POP?

Now living in Australia I find Yamaha support is pretty thin - reserved mostly for authorised dealers - who don't know much about this unit and never get back to me.

Phantomguy. (Sorry guys/gals for long post)

P.S. And you or Gene mentioned "Impedence Compensation Circuitry" (or similar words). Any infor (or links) or these for where I have to parallel 2 x 6ohm speakers for Centres and for Surrounds (long room/3 seating rows)?

 

[Phantomguy]

It will upconvert and upscale any 480i source.

Clint, Just to get this clear. Upcovert? Presumably you mean "deinterlace"? (480i -> 480p) Right? And from input on any analog port on the Yammy. OK?

And here in Australia its PAL rather than NTSC so presumably you mean 480i/576i -> 480p/576p.

And ignoring reverse 3:2 pulldown function of intelaced video frames for now, by "upscaling" presumably you are suggesting that then the deinterlaced 480p/576p can be scaled up to 720p or 1080i. (or does the 480i/576i bypass deinterlacing if you have selected 1080i? Might this result in a better picture if we can avoid using the Yammy's deinterlace function and let the display device do what it wants with 1080i? Can you enlighten us all on this?
Phantomguy

 

[tenacious ender]

Can i even use this video upconversion if my tv has a dvi input?

with a hdmi to dvi adapter work?

 

[jmone]

Hey Clint – given the 2600 is squarely aimed at video as well as audio many of us are REALLY interested in the exactly what this unit can/can not handle (eg Jeje2) with some commentary based on practical testing from the experts (ie you guys). Can you put “some meat on the bones” as your readers are still hungry for answers?
Thanks
Nathan

 

[Audioholics]

Clint, Just to get this clear. Upcovert? Presumably you mean "deinterlace"? (480i -> 480p) Right? And from input on any analog port on the Yammy. OK?

No, I meant what I said, though I understand the terminology certainly varies. It will upconvert (take composite or s-video in and send it to component/HDMI) and upscale (convert 480i/p to 720p/1080i).

Deinterlacing occurs whenever a video processor takes native 24fps source content (like on a film DVD) and does 2:3 pulldown to get it up to 30fps (720p) or 60 fields per second (1080i), etc... it does that, too, when it needs to.

What was the question?

 

[jmone]

Deinterlacing occurs whenever a video processor takes native 24fps source content (like on a film DVD) and does 2:3 pulldown to get it up to 30fps (720p) or 60 fields per second (1080i), etc... it does that, too, when it needs to. What was the question?

Mmmm doesn't the V2600 do the opposite (reverse pulldown)- eg use the Oplus Chip to reconstruct a 24fps output from a NTSC (29.97) or PAL (25) input signals?

1. 2:3 pulldown: One of the Telecine processes used to change FRAME RATES. Eg, 2:3 pulldown can be used by NTSC DVD Players to output a NTSC signal (29.97) when playing a DVD that has been recorded with 24fps material (eg a transfer from Film). The problem is that this process of “adding” the almost 6 extra frames per second can degrade picture quality (known as “Telecine Judder”). Clint is only half right about deinterlacing as 2:3 pulldown has to first split the 24fps into 2 fields, add additional fields then combines these fields back into the new frames.

2. Deinterlacing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinterlace): "the process of converting interlaced video (a sequence of fields) into a non-interlaced form (a sequence of frames). This process is also called line doubling or I to P conversion”

3. The V2600 apparently uses the Opus (guessing MS1) that provided both deinterlacing (as above) and 3:2 (NTSC) and 2:2 (PAL) reverse pulldown of TV-adapted film material.

4. Reverse telecine (IVTC a.k.a. inverse telecine) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:2_pulldown): “Some DVD players, line doublers, and personal video recorders are designed to detect and remove 2-3 pulldown from interlaced video sources, thereby reconstructing the original 24 frame/s film frames. This technique is known as "reverse" or "inverse" telecine. Benefits of reverse telecine include high-quality non-interlaced display on compatible display devices and the elimination of redundant data for compression purposes.”

5. The V2600 apparently uses video encoder/decoders from Analog Devices Inc. (I've no idea which ones), that I "presume" (though that is dangerous) these are responsible for the conversion (scaling) between the different resolutions. I also have no reference but would assume the Analog Devices Inc encoder/decoders work on the output from the Oplus chip to create the diffent video streams over the various interfaces.

As Phantomguy pointed out he is in a PAL country so the 2:3 Pulldown maybe of less importance than other Telecine functions such as 2:2 pulldown which converts 24 frame/s to 25 frame/s, and V2600’s 2:2 reverse pulldown to recreate beautiful, time and pitch accurate 24p image on his modern progressive display from a 24p converted PAL signal (unlike the 2:3 pulldown for NTSC, the simple 2:2 PAL Pull down just speeds the playback film up by 4% to covert 24 to 25 frames per second).

Nathan

 

[alpina]

is the 2600 still the benchmark home theatre receiver? now that the others have had 6 months to catch up, i wonder if much has changed?

julie

 

[Jeje2]

is the 2600 still the benchmark home theatre receiver? now that the others have had 6 months to catch up, i wonder if much has changed?

Well I have only heard about new models from Pioneer (this link actually).
Looking at the specks of the new VSX - AX2AS - S one sees HDMI switching and 1080p Ready / Video scaler.

Of course there are other models available, but AFAIK with same functionality not in the same prize class currently.

 

[Audioholics]

Mmmm doesn't the V2600 do the opposite (reverse pulldown)- eg use the Oplus Chip to reconstruct a 24fps output from a NTSC (29.97) or PAL (25) input signals?[snip]

I wasn't speaking about anything PAL since we don't use or test that here. The Yamaha does not put out 24fps from 59.94 video source content. There are not a lot of 24, 48 or 72fps displays out there and those all do the 3:3, etc, conversion themselves. As for 3:2 and 2:3 - we use those terms interchangably, though 2:3 is preferred by ISF and ourselves.

Thanks for posting the wiki definitions, though, for anyone who was interested... In this context we're not talking about telecine, but the principle is the same.

 

[Phantomguy]

Zone 2/3 OR Surrounds Options Confusion?

Hi all
I am sorry to have started (unintentionally) a techno batlle over the video conversion capabilities and terminology of this AVR.

Now to Zones Issues: In reading the manual p 86 "Notes" I come across something strange....

"If either Zone 2 Amplifier or Zone 3 Amplifier is set to INT:Sur or INTRNS, the speaker system of the main Room is limited to 3.1 or 2.1 channel playback no matter when Zone 2 or Zone 3 is turned off because the SURROUND/ZONE 2(3) speaker terminals are used for the zone connection"

Surely that cant' be right? One additional zone activated should cause ONE set to deactivate NOT BOTH Rears and (side) surounds? Right? And why not get them/it back when zones are turned off????

Before I purchased this AVR Yamaha Pdt Manager here told me that if you use the AVR's amps for Zone 3 then you lose Presence/Rear Surrounds, and/or if you use the AVR's amps for Zone 2 then you lose Surrounds, but when either Zone is deactivated (amp front switches or remote) you again get 5.1 and 6.1 respectively in Main room?

Anyone know the definitive answer on this one?