How can I watch TV without using my receiver ?? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Cook]

Is it possible? I have a Sony Wega TV that is hooked up to my surround sound receiver via an s-video cable to the "montior" jack.

My Direct TV receiver is hooked straight to the receiver with an s-video cable also.

Is it possible to hook up my DTV receiver so I can watch with the regular TV speakers sometime?

 

[BrentPollard]

From the way I understand your post you have your Direct TV going to you receiver via S-video then from the receiver to the Wega. If this correct, this is strictly for picture. The S-video cables have nothing do do with sound. You would have to run audio cables from the DTV box to audio in on the back of the Wega, with another set going to the receiver for times you want bigger sound. Note: I have no first hand experience with DTV boxes. How many audio outs do they have? Does it have a coax out and a set of RCA outs? If so run the coax to your receiver and the RCA's to the Wega,If it only has one set of RCA audio out's you could use a "Y" adapter to split the audio to the receiver and the Wega.

 

[Michael Cook]

yes, that is how I have it hooked up. I only have 1 set of outs on the DTV reciever.

Problem is my wife wants to watch the tv like it used to be. She doesn't want to mess with the surround receiver, and even though I set everything up (with our remote) to where she has to press 1 button to turn everything on, she still manages to do that wrong.

So, if I bought 2 y adapters for the audios on the DTV receiver, ran them to the tv and surround sound receiver, that would give me sound. I would also need to run the video to the tv and surround sound too, right? If I didn't split the video also, the surround sound receiver would still need to b turned on to watch tv?

 

[Lee Carbray]

Is it really going to be any simpler for your wife? You will have to show her how to turn on and off the TV speakers in the set up menu. You know, for the times that you were watching TV through the receiver and forgot to switch every thing back. From the sounds of her ability this is not going to be easy for her. Of course you may remember to turn the TV speakers back on after every time you watch something. It took my wife a while to figure it out but she did come around. Hey she can now even program the VCR and switch over to watch her recording without me there.

 

[Grant B]

You will have to show her how to turn on and off the TV speakers in the set up menu.

Not if you do it right.
My Wega has 6 inputs and I use 5.
I take all the digital outputs and go straight into my preamp.
The analogs from my LD, DVD, HD Sat Box I go straight into the TV.
Why fool with turning the speakers off?

 

[Michael Cook]

Tell me about it, how much easier can it get than pressing 1 button to turn everything on !?!? Problem is she hits the button and turns the remote away from everything before it turns on. Women! :rolleyes

 

[Grant B]

maybe get a cheap learning remote and only put a few functions on it for her

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Mike,

Brent was on the right track.

Just connect the Direct TV receiver to the TV using the coaxial (antenna) connections. Then all you have to do is show her how to change the TV from “Aux” or “Video” to channel 3 (or 4).

Or, if the Direct TV receiver has a second set of A/V outputs, connect them to a different “Video” input on the television, and show her how to change from say, “Video 1” to “Video 2.”

If she’s really challenged with all this, then the easiest thing you can do is program your macro to default everything for her when you power down the system.

For instance, if your macro is something like this for power-up...

1. TV on
2. Direct TV receiver on
3. Surround Receiver on

...you could add another command and make it like this:

1. TV input “Video 2” (or, TV tuner Ch. 3)
2. TV on
3. Direct TV receiver on
4. Surround Receiver on

On power-up, the first command is obviously ignored, since the TV is not on. However, on power-down, the TV’s input would be switched to where your wife wants it before it is turned off. Then all she has to do is turn on the TV and Direct TV receiver, and she’s in business (hopefully she can do that? ).

Of course, if you go this route, you will have to add yet another command to the macro, to switch the input back to where you want it when the full system is on:

1. TV input “Video 2” (or, TV tuner Ch. 3)
2. TV on
3. Direct TV receiver on
4. Surround Receiver on
5. TV input “Video 1”

Make sense?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt