Entech Video Director AV 4.1
 When you stop and think about it, a
home-theater system is remarkably complex. And as we add more and more pieces to it, it
just gets exponentially more so. In the bad old days, BC (Before Cable), all you needed to
connect to your television was an antenna. You only got two, maybe three stations, but
that seemed like enough in the golden age of television.
Nowadays, our video-input options have proliferated at an
alarming rate -- one that has vastly outstripped our systems' accommodations for them. I
am speaking, of course, about the lack of high-resolution video inputs on A/V receivers
and TVs.
Most new televisions, at least the better models, now come
with three or more video inputs, and you can switch from one source to another with the
TV's remote, but even when the TV has three inputs, it's usually a combination of S-video
and composite connections. What if you have three S-video connections to make?
One solution is to buy a new A/V receiver. Most of the
better models these days not only boast video-switching capabilities, but they are packed
with S-video and component connections. Some even have built-in converters so that if you
have a composite source and an S-video monitor, you can switch from your S-video DVD
player to your composite VCR without having to run several interconnects to the monitor.
But even if you have a built-in switcher on your receiver,
that's no guarantee it's good. Let's face it, $400 A/V receivers have to offer so many
features that they have to cut corners somewhere. And one obvious place is the video
switcher, which is typically good enough for the approximately 3MHz bandwidth of
conventional cable or VHS, but not sufficient for DVD or DSS, which require about twice
that bandwidth. I have reviewed quite a few receivers that degraded the video signals fed
through them -- most of the time the loss in clarity and brightness is not substantial,
but why handicap your high-rez video components when the whole point of purchasing them
was to improve on VHS quality? (To check if your receiver is affecting your image,
try routing your highest-resolution source through it and then compare that to a direct
connection.)
Entech's Video Director AV 4.1 is the simple answer to your
connection dilemma. It accepts four S-video and four composite-video inputs and
four sets of stereo audio inputs and routes them to its S-video, composite video, and
stereo outputs -- offering you an astonishing array of connections possibilities.
Only connect . . .
Entech, a division of Monster Cable, was established to
offer high-quality solutions to the seemingly insignificant vexations that beset the
contemporary A/V system and rob it of its high-performance potential. Other products
include inexpensive but high-quality DACs, a passive coax-to-S-video converter, a
Component Video System, and an S-video System Integrator (a switcher, composite-to-S-video
converter, and a signal recovery device in a single chassis).
The Video Director AV 4.1 is a small (2.5"H x 6"W
x 8"D) active-switching device, powered by a wall-wart. It is housed in an extruded
aluminum chassis with an arched top-plate, which makes it resemble a miniature Quonset
hut. Its faceplate has a central IR receptor flanked on either side by two LEDs, which
reveal which input is active. There are two tiny switches flanking the LEDs and IR
receptor like parentheses: one selects the active input, the other switches between
signal-sensing and user-selected modes.
Despite its small size, the Video Director's rear panel is
packed with input and output options without seeming crowded. It has four S-video inputs,
four composite-video inputs, four stereo pairs of audio inputs, a single composite output,
a stereo audio output, and a pair of S-video outputs, in addition to its DC input from the
wall-wart. The AV 4.1 does not perform composite to S-video conversion, so if you run both
S-video and composite signals in, you must also connect both S-video and composite outputs
to your monitor.
Inside the unit, the Video Director incorporates high-speed
audio and video buffering, in addition to the switching functions.
Hanging like an oasis in his air of lost connections . .
.
The Video Director does not come with a remote control,
despite its IR sensor. Instead, you can select a seldom-used button on your system remote
and program the unit to respond to it. All you're controlling is a simple switch, so you
must cycle through all four inputs to reach, say, input 2, if you are starting from input
3. If you think this is inconvenient, well nobody's stopping you from actually getting up
and walking over to the unit to accomplish the same thing by hand.
You can also set the AV 4.1 to automatically sense incoming
signals. This means, of course, that you must turn off your unused sources. It also means
that when you turn off the entire system, the AV 4.1 will cycle through all of its input
options endlessly and the unit will blink 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, futilely searching for a
meaning to life. (Hmmmm. Note to self: You're spending waaay too much time at home
alone. Get out more!)
The AV 4.1 is sufficiently flexible that you can probably
find any number of ways to connect it to your system -- it pretty much depends on what you
want to do.
Conceivably, you could route four S-video sources to one
monitor and four component video sources to another or even use it "merely" as a
high-quality audio-switching unit. Or, if you're a video fanatic, like my buddy Perry, who
has four VCRs, an LD player, a DVD player, and a Game Boy, you could plug in eight video
sources and switch among them by running the S-video outputs into input 1 on your TV and
the composite output of the AV 4.1 to input 2. Or you could even use the unit to switch
four coaxial digital inputs to a DAC, as I did recently when trying to connect multiple CD
changers to a single Bel Canto DAC1. It was a desperation move, one I wasn't even sure was
worth the effort, but it not only worked better than I expected, it worked well.
As to its intended function, it's a clear winner. I ran my
highest-quality source component, the Arcam DiVA DV88 DVD player, directly into the PLUS
HE3100 Piano projector, through my Denon AVR-3300 A/V receiver, and through the Video
Director AV 4.1 and compared the picture quality of these various connection schemes using
an assortment of test patterns and favorite DVDs.
I included the Denon 3300 precisely because it is a
high-quality A/V receiver that has received critical kudos for its video-switching
capabilities, which facilitate five S-video inputs. At $1000 MSRP, it ought to be good --
and it is, especially sonically. It's loaded with high-value features, including multiple
DACs. Directly comparing the input from the DV88 to the signal passing through the Denon's
video-switcher, there was a slight loss of contrast and brightness. Clarity was minimally
affected, if at all. This is better performance than many A/V receivers can claim. On a
whim, I inserted an S-video-to-S-video barrel connector between the two video cables (the
Denon's input and output) and the loss in brightness and contrast with the connector was
about the equivalent to the loss through the Denon -- in other words, the Denon's
circuitry had about as little effect on the video signal as passing the signal through the
extra two connectors did! This is very good performance indeed.
I repeated the direct/pass-through test with the AV 4.1. It
was nearly impossible to observe any difference on videos -- which is what most of us
watch, after all. Using test patterns, it was awfully darned difficult to see much
difference, although I thought I might see a little -- ever so little! -- rounding off of
sharp edges in sawtooth patterns and other high-contrast tests. A broadcast studio might
turn down a product that deviated ever so slightly from perfection, but broadcast-quality
switchers cost more than many TVs. For a home-theater product, the AV 4.1 is all but
undetectable in a system.
Hipsters burning for the ancient burning connection . .
.
The Entech Video Director AV 4.1 offers you a tremendous
amount of control over complex A/V systems and that control comes at practically no cost
regarding image quality. But you do have to pay $349 for it -- and some people will
consider that too high a price. There are passive switch boxes out there, most of
them quite inexpensive, but you trade dollars for clarity with cheap video switching.
If you're not obsessed with video resolution, the AV 4.1 is
pretty pricey, and you may wish to simply endure the ritual of connecting and
disconnecting inputs every time you switch sources -- which is not ideal, since S-video's
DIN connectors are kind of fragile. Alternatively, you could make high-quality video
switching a priority the next time you purchase a TV or A/V receiver (remembering that
good-quality video switching is far from standard equipment even in expensive units, of
course).
But if I were, say, someone with a high-quality stereo
system who was uninterested in surround sound and the other trappings of home theater, but
still desirous of getting the most out of my video monitor -- I'd find $349 if not
reasonable, certainly bearable if it allowed me to switch among my video options without
having to totally convert to a home-theater mindset. I could keep what I liked best about
my two-channel system, while experiencing really good TV and movie sound.
Similarly, if I had a high-quality A/V system and needed
additional video-switching capabilities that didn't affect my video quality, I wouldn't
hesitate to buy the Entech AV 4.1. Professional quality video switching isn't cheap and,
in comparison, the Entech is.
And, without question, if I had a complicated multi-room
system that required additional control and routing of audio and video signals, I'd jump
on the Entech AV4.1 like a duck on a junebug. My system might be complex, but the solution
-- thanks to the Entech Video Director AV 4.1 -- could be as simple as 1, 2, 3, 4.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
Entech Video Director AV 4.1
Price: $349 USD
Warranty: One year parts and labor
Monster Cable Products,
Inc.
455 Valley Drive, Brisbane, CA
94005
Phone: (415) 840-2000
Fax: (415) 468-0311
Website: www.monstercable.com
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