Composite video and S-Video at the same time??????? (1 Viewer)

[RyanSoares]

i have my digital cable box composite and L/R audio out going into my TV's video 1.... the digital boxes' s vid out and digital coax out is going into my receiver then s-vid monitor out goes into my tv(dvd s-vid is also coming from receiver) i only have 1 s-vid in on my tv and it's in video 1 too.... when i plug the s vid connector in nothin shows up on the tv in video 1.... so basically i can't have both s vid and composite in at the same time in video 1......... i wish it would work cause then the receiver can do all the video switching instead of have too change the tv's input too.......... i have to still use the composite cable cause my mother and sister will not understand how to power up the receiver everytime they want to watch tv....... any idea why my tv won't alow this? it's a Sony 4 years old 32inch..... i mean theres no signal coming from the s vid as long as the receiver is not on and at the right setting... right?

 

[DaveGTP]

A lot of CRT TVs do this, Ryan (my Zenith also has a shared S-video/composite input). Basically plugging something into the S-video input 1 disables the composite input 1 as well. I had some troubles with a multiple old-school videogames on a switch, DVD player, VCR, etc like this. VCR and a couple of games were composite, DVD player and PS2/DC/GC were s-video.

Why would you want to run cable straight into the TV but switch everything else through the receiver? Even cable benefits from better speakers. The only way you are going to be able to leave it all hooked up is to use the receiver's switching - teach the family to turn on the receiver - set up a macro for them with your receiver's remote (if it does macros) or a universal remote that does macros.

Keep in mind that many receivers will not cross-convert S-video to composite, or vice versa (not sure which receiver you have). I spent some extra money on the newer model Onkyo SR601 because it does the conversion.

If your receiver doesn't cross-convert like most, you're going to have to use consistent cables (all composite or all s-video). Composite to s-video converters are cheap if you end up needing it for your cable box to make all the inputs s-video (of course the converter doesn't offer any improvement in resolution).

 

[Vin]

Why not let them view the TV through the RF coaxial output of your cable box? All they'd need to do is make sure the TV is on channel 3 (or 4, depending on which channel is unused in your area).

Vin

 

[John S]

It is common, and why people think they get more inputs than they actually do.

few TV's will actually allow different sources on the same Video input. I mean how is it supposed to know? generally you switch the TV from TV to Video1/AV1, Video2/AV2, ect..ect...

Your TV only has Video1/AV1?????
That is rough....

You can get an Svideo VCR and it can upconvert, or some on here have suggested an inexpensive Radio Shack product to do Composite to Svideo conversion.

 

[RyanSoares]

my TV has 3 video inputs but if i have the S vid out from my receiver going into vid 1 on the tv and the composite vid from the cable box going into vid 3..... then when i want to watch a dvd or watch a digital channel and here it through my receiver i have to change the receivers's input to whateva i wanna watch and change the tv's input back to vid 1.... so it defeats the purpose of letting the receiver do all my switching.... i still have to two steps instead of one......... if ii was only me living here then i would just use the s vid connector and turn on the receiver everytime i wanna watch tv...... but my mom and my sister don't care about amazing sound and such... they just wanna turn on the tv and and watch.. thats why i still have to use the cables boxes' composite connector. i guess the best way is macros'