Please Help - updating HT and confused on setup (1 Viewer)

[Mark Riley]

MISSION - Simplest yet best looking and sounding setup with all the given parts.

CURRENT PARTS
TV - Old Hitachi with no Composites, only RF

VCR - Zenith something or other(only used as an RF Modulator

Receiver - Sony STR-DE598 http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01...STRDE598-2.jpg is a good rear pic so you can follow the inputs

DVD Player - Pioneer 578A used for watching DVDs and listening to SACD and DVD-A's

Record Player/Tape deck - Fisher something or other

CURRENT SETUP
TV to VCR - RF
VCR to Receiver - Composite(to Video 1)
Receiver to DVD - Optical(to SACD IN and 5.1 analog to Multi Ch In for SACDs) (are both necessary or is only 5.1 analog fine for both watching movies and listening to music?)
Receiver to Record/Tape Player - Red and White cables(Aux port to MD/Tape)

VERY SOON PARTS

HDTV - 30" Widescreen Zenith HD Ready
RF In 1 (NTSC)
Dolby® Digital Out 1 Optical
Hi-Res Component Video In (Y, PB, PR) 2 Rear (480i/480p/1080i)
S-Video In 1 Side
A/V In 1 Side, 2 Rear
A/V Out 1 Rear (NTSC Only)

Cox Digital Cable HD Box
DVD - same Pioneer
Receiver - same Sony
Record Player - same Fisher
PS2 - for gaming

I really want the best setup for this with 5.1 sound from everything including the PS2 since I have games that support it. I want to use the best Cable Setup possible with Component and Optical/Digital Coax for whatever needs it. The receiver has no HDMI or DVI or anything like that, the best it supplies is Component and the Optical/Digital Coax ports viewable in the picture.

 

[John S]

Pretty nice AVR there....

HD COX Video Component Output directly to the display via one of the component inputs, sound digital from the cable box to the SA-CD / CD input.

DVD- Component video to the DVD Component Video input on the AVR, and digital sound connection to the DVD input coaxial.

Turntable / Tape deck thingy - to the MD/TAPE in's and outs if it has a full function tape deck built into it.

PS/2 Digital sound to the Video 2 input on your AVR, and component video to the Video 2 component input on your AVR. A little dissapointment may come to you on PS/2, because you will not be able to use PS/2 720p if it exists on some games as your display can't take that as an input. I know several gamers that purchased new/different display because of this.


And of course, video component output from the AVR to the remaining component video input on the display.


This assumes you will no longer use the display as a source or any sound duties.

 

[joseph westcott]

I agree for the most part with his nice run down for you.

I may have suggested running the component out of the cable box directly to the new display. Just avoids any possible signal noise or pass thru artifacts and saves on cable costs, as well.

 

[Mark Riley]

Awesome, that really helps me out. How is your solution different to the previous post Joseph? Both ways, it seems that the HD Box out to TV would be Component right? I'd like to save on cable costs when I can since I don't have any Component Cables yet and I'm gonna run out of money.

One more question. If I want to listen to SACD's on the DVD player, do I still need the 3 sets of RCA cables to the Multi Ch In on the Receiver? Digital Coax cable won't help me there right?

 

[John S]

Yes, if you want SACD the 6 analog inputs are the only way, I'd be inclined to just have you use that input. But you lose 6.1 at that point for DVD's.

 

[Mark Riley]

I don't mind the lack of 6.1 if I have 5.1 still possible with the analog inputs. I have my couch against the back wall anyways.

 

[John S]

Then I would use the the 6 channel input as long as the DVD player offers some bass management, or the AVR still offers it via the 6 channel input, some do not though.

otherwise, you would hook both up, and use the 6 channel analog input for SACD and DVD-A only.

 

[joseph westcott]

The only difference in my solution is that you will not run any video through the AV receiver, only sound. All video signals would be run directly to the display device.

Does that clear up your question?

 

[Mark Riley]

If I don't have component running from the Receiver to the TV, how will the DVD Player be useful with component? I doubt mine upscales but I want a nice sharp picture and don't know if Component is a must with regards to that.

 

[John S]

Component 480i blows away svideo. You give your display a much better source to start with. But you can send your display a progressive signal as well over component video.


If you have an HDTV, using svideo for DVD makes zero sense in my book.

 

[Mark Riley]

Ok, I actually didn't even use S Video before, it was actually just regular old Composite. The DVD Player is Progressive Scan too so that's even better than plain old Component over 480i?

The one hookup missing is the Cable Wire. I assume that just goes into the Cable Box right?

 

[John S]

Yes, into the cable box. If you want just basic regular cable split it to a stereo hi-fi VCR of even an svhs vcr for both Over the air and cable analog NTSC stuff.


I hope that did not confuse you. I try my best to not use the display for anything but a monitor anymore. Seems to allow the simplest it can be to watch and hear the source you wish to use.

 

[Mark Riley]

One more problem. Ps2 won't work. I tried plugging the component cables into the receiver and it seemed to work but the screen overlaps itself. It looks so weird. I assume it must be because my tv only does 480 and 1080i, no 720p which is what ps2 can do. I figured they could both do 480 though.

Then I tried plugging it into the side Video 3 port on the tv. I got good picture but no sound at all. I want the best quality NFL 2K5 game I've ever played. Even if it isn't 720 or 1080, I figure 480 with components cables would be great, plus the 5.1 sound when I hook an optical cable.

 

[Cees Alons]

That isn't true. The data (bytes) on the DVD are basically decoded as SVideo. It depends on the decoder (either in your DVD-player or in your monitor device) which one gives the better result. One of those must be really very bad to be "blown away" by the other.

In fact, SVideo is component.


Cees

 

[JeremyErwin]

huh? That's absolutely false. The MPEG-2 data contains separate samples for both Cr and Cb.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Indeed, dunno where you got that Cees, Component video is YCbCr/YPbPr, S-video is Y/C. Component also supports high-definition signal formats, while Y/C is limited to 480i only.

DVD is encoded full YCbCr, MPEG2 compressed, not at all Y/C.

 

[Cees Alons]

What I meant to state was the much smaller difference between SVideo (carrying a separate Y' - luminance - and a Chroma signal - comprised of Cr and Cb) and component (RGB) than between SVideo and composite (= everything together).
And DVD has Y + Cr + Cb (indeed, Jeremy and Chris, although the Cr and Cb are subsampled, as in SVideo too), meaning the RGB must be reconstructed first anyway and is dependent of the quality of the decoding circuit.

Because the luminance and chroma are separated in SVideo, it's more of a component than a composite. For all these reasons I objected to the "blows away" characterization.

Although I agree I should have been more precise, apparently, not trying to simplify matters the way I did.
Sorry for the confusion.


Cees

 

[JeremyErwin]

It's not quite as in laserdisc. where the use of a Y/C cable simply selects which comb filter is to be used. The DVD player has access to the separate Cr and Cb data-- so if nothing is broken, the signal should be somewhat better.. Perhaps it's not worth ripping out years worth of legacy equipment, but Mark isn't dealing with an old TV.

Yeah, having the receiver switch the signals for you is kind of convenient, but remote macros can substitute for this.

 

[John S]

In my personal experiences, blow away component video is accurate. I don't think it blows away when viewing at NTSC, but the de-interlacing and scaling is far improved enough when feeding a display 480i over component video -vs- svideo that for me it certainly qualifies as blowing it away.