Video Asylum

Posted by Eric_Cartman (A) on April 04, 2006 at 11:09:03

The problems all began when I upgraded my 10 year old 27" Sony with a Sharp 37" LCD HDTV! Yeah! Now I can use the fancy connections on all my video gear, and I have been busy acquiring the proper cables for this....

Problem- have a lot of components and not sure of the optimal connections. Here is what we have (these are the key available connections)-

- TV with 2 Component video inputs, 2 S-Video, and 1 HDMI input.
- CATV HDTV Box with 1 Component output, 1 HDMI output, 1 composite output, 1 Coax output
-DVD#1 Recorder (cheap Lite-On) with 1 Composite input, 1 Component video output, 1 Composite video Output
-DVD#2 player with 1 HDMI output, 1 Component output
HT Receiver (Yamaha) with 2 component video inputs, 1 component output, lots of S-Video and composite ins. No HDMI switching

So you see that I have 2 HDMI components (DVD and CATV) and 1 HDMI input. Which should I choose to hook up to the TV? Perhaps the DVD since I'd rather get better quality with movies, but perhaps not since I watch TV more often than movies... What would you do?

Also, you see that the receiver has 2 component video inputs and 1 output, would it be OK to connect the remaining 2 component video outputs from the source components through the receiver to the component inputs on the TV or will the receiver degrade the signal? I have looked quickly (tried out both ways) and cannot tell the difference but have not spent a ton of time on this.

All the different options require all different lengths of cable so it would be better to decide on the hook-up 1st and then get the appropriate cables.

Not really part of the question, but this is really complicated! My HT receiver does not present its on-screen menus through the component video outputs, so this requres an S-Video or Composite video connection from the receiver to the TV; the HDTV CATV box does not output anything on its coax output, so it requires a splitter to get the signal from the wall to the TV (so the wife can watch TV with 1 remote as there is no way she is going to trouble herself with all the other stuff), and the remotes for the receiver, TV, CATV all are preprogrammed with codes for other components, but each has limited functionality with the other components so you still need 4 remotes. I guess its time to reprogram the pronto!