Sony STR-DE935 video switching? (1 Viewer)

[RodC]

Happy holidays all! I was asked to assist my neighbor (even more of a newbie than I am) with his HT rig. It had been setup by the folks he had purchased it from. We (I) found that his DVD player was totally setup wrong and for the past year and a half, was not experiencing true multichannel output from any of his DVDs. Needless to say, once corrected, the improvment was dramatic. Afterwards, he asked what else can be improved. I found that all of the components were connected with the cheap/thin RCA type cables. Here comes the two part question.
His DVD, VCR and SAT box all plug into his receiver, a Sony STR-DE935. The DVD is about the only one that I think can be easily improved upon by upgrading his DVD to S-Video cables. Having made the connections, DVD--->Receiver--->TV, the only thing that displays is the DVD. Any of the other components VCR, SAT, do not. It seems that the TV prioritizes the S-video connection and when connected to the tv immediately disables(?) the composite connections. The docs on this receiver are pretty slim. No mention of how the video switching is handled, and I don't know if my expectations are accurate. Should the receiver upconvert from the composite to the s-video, so that all of the devices with comosite connections be fed to the TV over s-video? When plugging the DVD direct to the TV over S-Vid on a different input on the TV, everything works, except now he has to switch inputs on the TV. Not that big of a deal, but I think he feels that he shouldn't have to do this, even after I explain the benefit of going straight to the TV, skipping the AVR for handling the video to avoid any potential signal loss.
But. . . now when he watches a DVD, it switches in and out of black and white. Bad cable? I haven't had a chance to get back over to try a new cable, but I suspect it to be the culprit. Anything else in that might be worthy of checking?
To sum up:
-Does anyone know how the Sony STR-DE935 handles video switching, and
-Intermittant black and white over new s-video connection, bad cable?
Thanks for enduring my long-winded ask.
Cheers!
Rod

 

[John Garcia]

It seems that the TV prioritizes the S-video connection and when connected to the tv immediately disables(?) the composite connections

This is not too uncommon. "Switching", in this case meaning only switching from one source to another, not upconversion. Some receivers will upconvert, others will not. It would appear this one does not.

You have it correct, he should go straight to the TV with as many connections as possible. The compromise could be to have the DVD via S-vid direct to the TV and switch the ohther composite connections with the receiver.

Try the DVD player via coax to see if it does the same thing, as well as swap out the cable.