CE Labs component video dist. amp

[soundhound]

Anyone ever hear of or try this little device? I found one on the web for $99 usd. Am going to drive my monitor and component inputs on dvd recorder. The company claims 1 to 1 drive capability with up to 4 loads. I probably should have asked b-4 ordering. They do have a 30 day no questions aked return policy.

[David Meek]

Bob, I'm not familiar with it but I am very interested in what you discover.... Keep us up on what you find, okay?

[Brandon B]

A simple google turns them up for $99 new.

Looks like an inexpensive reasonable quality distribution amp. Should work fine for component NTSC. I would not expect to get top notch HD quality performance out of it though, their bandwidth is stated as >50MHz which is a little vague, and it is using RCA connections.

I'd buy it new, though, so if you have an issue you can return it.

[soundhound]

Well, I recieved my amp yesterday @ work, brought it home and installed last night, and it works well. It's construction is suprisingly good, heavy, steel chasis. The only test I was able to give it was 1 input and 1 output (basically a line level amp) @ 1080i and 720p and it took nothing away from, and added nothing to my picture on my monitor. It possibly is not going to meet the needs of my application, but for the c-note I will keep it as I am sure I will find a use for it down the road. Now to a few questions for the video gods of the forum. 1st, is there a good article on the web on the differences of video signals, resolutions, formats, etc? My philips dvdr 985a recorder doesn't see signal thru component video inputs unless I select the "menu" as the source at my RSP-1068. Isn't this "downscaled" to interlaced versus progressive? If I use the s-video out of my stb directly into the s-video in on my recorder it is fine, only thing here is I feel like I am losing picture quality by going s-video instead of component. I could run all sources into the 1068 via s-video, then it could switch sources to feed the dvdr input, but again it would be s-video versus component. The reason I bought the amplifier was to watch everything we do now via component interconnects, the highest resolution possible, and send the output to the dvd recorder as well as the hd monitor, but the dvdr says "no signal" which is no fault of the amplifier, it must be selected resolution or preogressive versus interlaced? Sorry so lengthy and probably confusing but am hoping someone (with good video knowledge) can sift through it from the top down and point me in the right direction. Thank's Bob

[soundhound]

David, if you have the need for one, I wouldn't hesitate to snap it up. They come ups out of Arizona, about 4 days. I think for the $ its pretty slick. They do try to put it to you on the shipping charges as the page defaults to "overnight" shipping for $46, but I dropped down to standard for $11. Total was 109 and change.

[Brandon B]

Your recorder may not recognize anything other than NTSC 480i on its inputs (in fact I would bet heavily on it) so you can't record upscaled or even de-interlaced (480p) material. It likely is not set up to do so, probably by design (licensing restrictions with the DVD forum).

BB

[soundhound]

Heya Brandon, (or anyone else), I am coming to gather it is an analog versus digital scenario? Is it purely resolution driven or interlaced versus progressive? I see my dvdr has a firewire input from camcaorder, etc... so am assuming it has digital in capability. I can understand where they do this as an anti pirate measure. I see my RSP-1068 has upscaling, along with s-video switching, so would it be feasable to run all sources in with s-video and out to monitor only with component to be able to view the higher res? This way I should be able to send any input source out to my dvdr for copy? Thanks for the help, Bob