S-Video help! (1 Viewer)

[David Allen]

I just bought a new Sharp 36" flat tube TV. (I know, Sharp isn't the best, but it was a good price). I connected my DirectTV and DVD player to my receiver via S-Video, then connected the monitor out from the receiver to my TV via S-Video. There are no composite cables attached anywhere. None of the setup menus on any of my devices allow for setting the input to S-Video. I do get signal on the TV- so I guess it's automatically detecting the S-Video connection. However, I don't feel that the picture quality is any better with S-Video. In fact, broadcast TV looks fairly poor at times (Satellite artifacts?). BTW, I'm using all new S-Video cables (but they aren't the expensive Monster brand).

Is it possible that I haven't connected something properly? Is it possible that an $800 TV's S-Video quality isn't as good as a $1000+ brand? I'm ready to take this beast back, but would love any advice I can get to avoid shlepping it around town and bringing another one home.

 

[Jim FC]

S-video will not add much detail to the picture -- a fuzzy image with a composite connection will be a fuzzy image with an S-video connection. What S-video does is to keep what's called "dot crawl" out of the picture. Dot Crawl is a wavy, checkerboard pattern that occurs when one bright color (usually red) buts up to another color. The connection itself is not to blame - your problem may be that the cables aren't any good (go ahead and splurge on a good cable) or that the TV itself just isn't all that hot, but S-video is certainly the way to go on a big TV like yours.

 

[Bill Slack]

Have you calibrated the set with something like VE or Avia?

And yes, DTV looks fairly poor sometimes and you'll see artifacting. That has nothing to do with your cables or the TV itself.

How do DVDs look?

Short of any extra features like progressive scan, DRC or 16:9 compression, I don't think a more expensive TV would look any better (at least after properly setup.)

 

[DerekF]

Have you tried connecting the TV directly to the DVD, and bypassing the receiver? Try going from DVD direct to the TV using SVideo. If that looks okay, then go DVD-->receiver-->TV. If all that looks fine, then you know it's not the cable, receiver or TV...And your issue is with poor DirecTV reception...