Connecting a Wii to my plasma should be simple...NOT! (1 Viewer)

[Montalvo]

I have a six-year-old Panasonic plasma TV (model TH-50PHD5UY) and want to connect a newly purchased Nintendo Wii to it. And I want it to work both as a TV and as a Wii without having to switch cables, since the TV nestles snugly into a recess in the wall making it hard to get to the connections on the back.

The TV's video signal (TiVo) comes in via the composite (Video In) plug and another satellite box and a VCR also come in via this plug. I have a Crestron home automation system that does the switching. The DVD player comes in through the component plug (Pr/Cr/R, Pb/Cb/B and Y/G).

When I saw that I had an S-video port, I bought a Wii cable that had both an S-video, composite (yellow) cable and white and red audio cables. I connected the white and red cables to a separate set of speakers and the S-video to the plasma's S-video port (not connecting the composite cable) and the Wii worked great. But when I then turned on the plasma to watch TV...nothing! I switched the plasma's "input" setting from "Video" to "Component" to "PC" but that had no effect. Even unplugging the Wii cable from the Wii box didn't allow me to get a TV signal. Only when I unplugged the S-video from the plasma did I regain a TV video signal.

Finally I bought an S-video switch, figuring I could connect to the Wii and then throw the switch to a port with no connection to disconnect it. But apparently the plasma recognizes that an S-video cable is plugged in and defaults to that even if it's not connected to a device. No go!

Now I'm thinking it might be best to connect the plasma's composite plug to a switch, allowing me to flip the switch when I use the Wii and then switch it back when watching TiVo/DirecTV/VCR. Does that make sense? I'm running out of both patience and money, buying switches and cables.

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

 

[chuckg]

The S-video input probably has a switch that detects that a cable has been plugged in - even if the cable goes nowhere it switches the input from composite to S-vid.

A composite (RCA yellow plug, usually) switch is probably the easiest way to go.

 

[Montalvo]

Thanks, Chuck. That's what I concluded, too. It'd be nice if it could switch automatically but it appears that just can't work. I'm off to buy a composite switch and will let you know how things turn out.

 

[Montalvo]

OK, now I'm REALLY PO'ed!!! It didn't work! I hooked the Wii and the Crestron's composite cable up to an A/B switch with inputs for audio and composite (white/red for audio, yellow for composite). The switch works great on the Crestron's signal but not on the Wii's. Plugging the Wii composite directly into the plasma works like a charm but it just doesn't work through the switch. Whassup wid dat??? I even had two Wii cables, one with S-video and composite and the other with only the composite. Neither worked through the switch but both worked when plugged into the plasma. And it can't be a cable problem because the cables all seem to be able to get either the Wii or Crestron to work under at least some configuration.

So what's going on here? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! (The grandkids arrived last night and are getting restless!)

 

[Montalvo]

Fixed! I don't exactly understand why but simply flipping the A/B switch when the plasma and both the Crestron and the Wii are one will only allow the first one turned on to send a signal to the plasma. Doesn't make sense to me but at least it gave me a way to make the system operational. If I only turn on the plasma and Wii (with the A/B switch in the correct position), the Wii works. If I turn off the plasma and Wii before turning on the Crestron (which automatically turns on the plasma), then I can get my TiVo, etc. video signals from the Crestron.

It means I have to keep the plasma's remote handy for whenever I want to use the Wii, since using the Crestron remote will block the Wii's signal. But that's a small price to pay, especially given the aggravation to date.

Not sure this will help anyone else since no one likely has the squirrelly system that I have but there's your answer, just in case.