To switch or not to switch (1 Viewer)

[Lloyd Greensite]

I currently use my Yamaha DSP-A2 amp as my "centre of the universe": my TV, VCR, Satellite box, DVD and Dreamcast all go directly into here for all audio/visual connections and then the monitor out goes back to the RGB-Scart on the TV.

Now, I am about to purchase a plasma screen - the Fujitsu 4233 - and would like anyone's opinion about whether I should keep this going or should just use the amp for processing the sound and connect directly to the plasma for vision.

By the way, my equipment does not have any component connections, only S-Video, composite and scart.

Thanks very much

 

[Marc Rochkind]

No question, the desirability of component video overrides the convenience of sending the video through the receiver, so take it straight to the TV. You'll still need to connect the receiver to the TV with S-video and composite to handle those sources that do go through the receiver and to see the receiver's on-screen menus.

I'm assuming at least your DVD player has component video output. If you have no component video sources, then what I said above doesn't apply, and you can just go through the receiver for S-video and composite. Any increased quality from bypassing the receiver on those would be negligible.

 

[Lloyd Greensite]

Thanks very much Marc for your opinion

Unfortunately, you were wrong in your original assumptions: component video connections have only been around in the UK for about a year and as my equipment is about 4 years old I'm sorry to say that not a single part of it has any of these connections.

So, given that I gather that what you are saying is I may as well continue to use the amp as my switching source.

By the way, ultimately I'd like to buy a DVD player with a DVI output - do they exist?

 

[Marc Rochkind]

No DVD players with DVI output, or digital output in any form (other than DVD drives installed in computers). Someday, maybe, once copy-protection issues are worked out.

 

[Ten_Smith]

I read a thread similar to this a while back. The take-home point was that depending on the exact equiptment being used, routing the video signal through receiver may of may not degrade the signal (in rare cases it may even improve it, at least one person made this claim). Therefore the only way to know for certain is to try it both ways--through receiver and direct--with the quiptment you have and see if there is a noticeable difference.

From a theoretical perspective, every connection and bit of extra circuitry has the potential to degrade the source signal.

I also got the sense that likeliness of seeing a picture improvement by linking up directly to the display device increased as the quality of the source and connection increased. (e.g., more likely to see an improvement with DVD player hooked directly using S-video than with Tape hooked directly with composite).

 

[Allan Jayne]

Check the DVD player and the plasma TV to see whether the SCART output/input has a choice (manual selection) of RGB and Y/Pb/Pr. In order to use this (a little better than S-video) both the TV and the DVD player have to match or be set to match in this regard as well as match the scan rate for NTSC, PAL, 1080i, etc.
You can also buy a box (transcoder) to convert RGB to Y/Pb/Pr or vice versa.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm