My stereo died... tv is old... now what? (1 Viewer)

[smorehou]

First off, I have a kid on the way in a month so I can't exactly justify buying new toys. In other words... any argument I make has to get past the wife We have a 2003 DLP TV that works perfectly fine. Its 720p but we're OK with the picture. For audio, we had (until it just died) an even older (c.1995) Yamaha shelf-type stereo... you remember, the kind with 5-disc CD and a double tape (yes TAPE) deck? Anyway, it had RCA inputs for our DVD and cable box... so we were good to go. We have a DVD, cable DVR, and Asus O!Play media player all capable of 1080p and all have HDMI. The DVD and DVR also have component, which we use to connect to the TV. The O!Play only has HDMI and composite... so unfortunately we connect that by composite (and yes, it kinda sucks). Any audio system I buy is going to use HDMI of course. What I'd *LIKE* to do is hook all the inputs up to the new system via HDMI and then output that to the TV via composite... but that's not going to work, is it? So I guess these are my options:

1. Buy a new TV and stereo setup. $$$$ (Ie. probably not going to happen)
2. Use the TV speakers (yuck)
3. Buy a stereo and use HDMI for the audio and then component/composite directly to the TV for video? Does that work?

Another thing... the TV doesn't have HDMI but it does have DVI. Is that an option? Is there a way to take HDMI from everyting into the receiver and then DVI out to the TV? What would YOU do in MY shoes? Thanks for the advice. - Steven

 

[Jeff Gatie]

You can purchase a DVI to HDMI cable. DVI is essentially HDMI with no audio. However, sometimes these cables can be difficult because copy protection in the components gets messed up by the conversion. But it's certainly less expensive than a new TV, so I'd buy a cable via a good internet vendor like Blue Jeans or Bettercables and give it a shot.

 

[smorehou]

Thanks Jeff. When you say "sometimes these cables can be difficult", are you saying it may work sometimes but not others... or it may be fuzzy sometimes... or it is simply a matter of try it, and if it works we're good to go but it may not work at all?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Thanks Jeff. When you say "sometimes these cables can be difficult", are you saying it may work sometimes but not others... or it may be fuzzy sometimes... or it is simply a matter of try it, and if it works we're good to go but it may not work at all?

Try it, if it works, great. If it doesn't, then you have a DHCP handshake problem that will not recognize the DVI cable and nothing will fix it, unless the component manufacturer(s) offer(s) a firmware update (which is doubtful, but you can check).

 

[smorehou]

Pefect... thank you for the help. I'll get on it.