Video Asylum

Posted by johnvb (A) on September 19, 2004 at 06:56:24

In Reply to: older avr hooked into hdtv... possible? posted by oldhippiefart on September 18, 2004 at 22:08:17:

"Can I hook my optical cable to the receiver and hook my dvd component cables directly to the tv."

That's exactly what you want to do to get the best video display performance. The newer HDTV displays have multiple A/V inputs, enough to run several sources directly into the unit. Just make sure the supplied TV remote switches between inputs easily. Cost more in cables but is worth it. The HT receiver usually acts only as a video switcher, so you would need it to route the video signal to other things such as recorders or modulators.

My Pioneer RPTV has 6 external (2-DVI, 3 component, 3 s-video and 3 composite) plus 2 antenna inputs. Each has it's own dedicated button on the remote. My Rotel receiver has no video inputs being used at all. One neat thing about the Pioneer is you can have different sources going to the same input, with the lower quality video signal overridden by the higher one when that signal is applied.