Rich H
Second Unit
- Joined
- May 22, 2001
- Messages
- 283
First a bit of a plug:
In previous posts I had told of how I paid for a Pioneer VSX
49TX, but lost the receiver/money when the Vendor went bankrupt. Luckily someone came to my rescue: Josh L. of DocDVD.com read of my plight and offered a new 49TX at a price I could afford (a REALLY good price - definitely a one-time deal). Josh was fantastic to deal with - ultra quick response with emails and transaction. I ordered the 49TX Saturday, received it Tuesday. The transaction couldn't have been better, so it's nice to have my faith restored in on-line transactions like this.
I haven't been able to really put the 49TX through it's proper paces, as my HT set-up is not complete (no surround sound, for instance). I've fiddled a bit, and I'm very impressed with the ability to sculpt the sound to my liking with this receiver, which is why I bought it. More on the sound when I have more experience and time.
I was curious to see if the 49TX would suite my needs as a video switcher - I wanted transparent switching and/or conversion of component signals from my DVD/HDTV sources, and S-Video from my digital cable box. My observations so far:
Sending my component sources through the 49TX looks excellent. I agree with a few people who felt the 49TX seems to alter the picture slightly. For one thing, it seems to have taken on a greater "color depth" as others have noted. Colors look richer, more differentiated, more intense and "solid." I thought images on my plasma looked 3-D before, but putting the 49TX in the loop makes the picture even more three-dimensional. The richness of the color and 3-D effect is intoxicating (making me pull out all my DVDs to see them again).
On the down side, I do note a very slight softening of the picture, which Obie George (sp?) had mentioned in his posts. It's subtle, and no normal human would likely complain, but to a videophile would notice it if he looked carefully (plasmas seem to really bring out differences like this). I'm not sure I like to loose even an iota of the amazing resolution my plasma is capable of, so I'm considering buying a high quality video switcher. At the same time, now that I've seen how rich the 49TX can make th image, it's tough to leave that behind too.
S-Video upconvert to component is interesting. I've hooked up the S-Video out of my NTSC digital cable box to the S-Video in of the 49TX. I'm running the cable signal out both the S-Video and Component output of the 49TX so I can switch between upconverted and straight-through S-Video signals.
The upconverted-to-component S-Video signal is sharper than the straight S-Video signal from the 49TX. It's also, strangely, a slightly smaller image. Switching to the component S-video is like slightly zooming out on the picture (particularly obvious on letterboxed NTSC material, as the black bars grow larger on the component out).
Unfortunately, for some reason, the cable signal appears noisier, with more interference snow, when played through the upconversion. The S-Video output from the 49TX, or even running S-video straight from my cable box is a significantly smoother picture, with less snow.
That's it for now - it's a wonderful piece of machinery. But out of curiosity, does anyone have some theories or info on:
1. Why the 49TX would change the color depth of the component image?
2. Why would the upconverted S-Video signal look sharper/smaller/noisier?
Thanks all.
Rich H.
In previous posts I had told of how I paid for a Pioneer VSX
49TX, but lost the receiver/money when the Vendor went bankrupt. Luckily someone came to my rescue: Josh L. of DocDVD.com read of my plight and offered a new 49TX at a price I could afford (a REALLY good price - definitely a one-time deal). Josh was fantastic to deal with - ultra quick response with emails and transaction. I ordered the 49TX Saturday, received it Tuesday. The transaction couldn't have been better, so it's nice to have my faith restored in on-line transactions like this.
I haven't been able to really put the 49TX through it's proper paces, as my HT set-up is not complete (no surround sound, for instance). I've fiddled a bit, and I'm very impressed with the ability to sculpt the sound to my liking with this receiver, which is why I bought it. More on the sound when I have more experience and time.
I was curious to see if the 49TX would suite my needs as a video switcher - I wanted transparent switching and/or conversion of component signals from my DVD/HDTV sources, and S-Video from my digital cable box. My observations so far:
Sending my component sources through the 49TX looks excellent. I agree with a few people who felt the 49TX seems to alter the picture slightly. For one thing, it seems to have taken on a greater "color depth" as others have noted. Colors look richer, more differentiated, more intense and "solid." I thought images on my plasma looked 3-D before, but putting the 49TX in the loop makes the picture even more three-dimensional. The richness of the color and 3-D effect is intoxicating (making me pull out all my DVDs to see them again).
On the down side, I do note a very slight softening of the picture, which Obie George (sp?) had mentioned in his posts. It's subtle, and no normal human would likely complain, but to a videophile would notice it if he looked carefully (plasmas seem to really bring out differences like this). I'm not sure I like to loose even an iota of the amazing resolution my plasma is capable of, so I'm considering buying a high quality video switcher. At the same time, now that I've seen how rich the 49TX can make th image, it's tough to leave that behind too.
S-Video upconvert to component is interesting. I've hooked up the S-Video out of my NTSC digital cable box to the S-Video in of the 49TX. I'm running the cable signal out both the S-Video and Component output of the 49TX so I can switch between upconverted and straight-through S-Video signals.
The upconverted-to-component S-Video signal is sharper than the straight S-Video signal from the 49TX. It's also, strangely, a slightly smaller image. Switching to the component S-video is like slightly zooming out on the picture (particularly obvious on letterboxed NTSC material, as the black bars grow larger on the component out).
Unfortunately, for some reason, the cable signal appears noisier, with more interference snow, when played through the upconversion. The S-Video output from the 49TX, or even running S-video straight from my cable box is a significantly smoother picture, with less snow.
That's it for now - it's a wonderful piece of machinery. But out of curiosity, does anyone have some theories or info on:
1. Why the 49TX would change the color depth of the component image?
2. Why would the upconverted S-Video signal look sharper/smaller/noisier?
Thanks all.
Rich H.
I am sure most of your questions can be answered over at the flagship receiver forum!
