Audio/Video cable confusion (1 Viewer)

[Ken_VW]

New to Home theater..but learning. I have spent a good bit of time in the beginners & FAQ section as suggested. I did learn a great deal. Great setup.
I still have a few elementary questions. I now have my system hooked up with all sources channeled thru my receiver using RCA cables.(red,white,yellow). I did not use S-Video because a paragraph in my receiver instructions cautioned that you should run all of the same type connections to/from your components.
My old VCR does not have s-video so I opted to not use S-video at all at first.
Did I misunderstand. Could I use (3)S-video cables from Satallite, DVD player, & TV to the receiver and leave the RCA's from the VCR?? and if I do, should the yellow video cables then be removed?? I would sure like to use s-video if there is a picture improvement, even if it means disconnecting the VCR (which I probably won't use anymore)

Audio.. I now understand from the beginner area that I need a digital cable (optical) from my DVD player to the receiver to receive DTS and DD. I want this. Do I then remove the red,white RCA cables from the same or just leave them there??

Ken

 

[Allan Jayne]

First, check to see if your TV has at least two video/AV choices on the remote and at least two yellow video jacks in back in addition to the S-video jack. (More precisely, connect the DVD player directly to the TV via S-video and the VCR directly to the TV using composite for a few minutes and see that you can choose either). If this first test fails, you must run everything via composite or everytyhing via S-video.
If the VCR is the only thing that does not have S-video, you can use S-video for everything and get a "composite to S-video converter" for just the VCR. Do be aware that any such converters costing less than USD 150. or which don't require a power cable will degrade the picture from TV shows tuned in by the VCR although you might not notice any difference playing tapes.
You canb use both composite and S-video through your A/V receiver provided you run both composite and S-video cables from the receiver to the TV.
For digital cable or satellite, try both composite and S-video. You may find that some channels look better using composite and some look better using S-video, in which case you will have to keep both composite and S-video cables coming out of the cable or satellite tuner box. For almost all A/V receivers both composite and S-video cables, and audio cables, coming from the cable or satellite box go into the same input bank behind the A/V receiver.
Not sure about the audio except that, for some A/V receivers it may be desirable to leave the DVD player red and white audio cables there to give 2 channel sound to family members who don't want to fidget with the controls as much.
Other video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

You can do either. They are no longer necessary for audio when you have the digital cable- but some people will reroute these red/white connections directly to the TV for times you'd like to not use the receiver for audio reproduction.
I personally choose to completely remove them, so I don't accidentally end up selecting this audio instead of the 5.1 signal. Without the cables in place- if you accidentally choose analog audio on your receiver- you'll get silence and know that you'll need to change the mode on the receiver.
-Vince

 

[Steve Mehs]

Before I got an SVHS VCR earlier this year, I used a $20 RCA->SVideo converter from RS, so I could use the video switching capibility for my VCR. All my other sources (DVDPlayer, Dish STB, TV) have Svideo.

 

[Ken_VW]

Thanks, to all.

Very helpful information. I think I will be picking up some S-Video cables this weekend and try out these solutions. I'm leaning on #2 at this point, but once I have the cables, I can then experiment some. I will also purchase an optical cable from the DVD player to the receiver to enable DD & DTS.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Bill_Weinreich]

Another point to ponder. S-video isn't always better than composite. When a signal is sent over a composite cable, the TV uses a device called a comb filter (or notch filter in older tv's) to decode it and seperate
it into the color and luminence (brightness)signals. Now the DVD and SAT that use s-video do this before it is sent out over the s-video cable. So..... when you hook up any source using an s-video connection, you are bypassing the TV's internal comb filter and using the one in the source device. Since there are different qualities of comb
filters, this may actually degrade the picture because the TV's comb filter may be superior than that of the source device(especially true on many newer HDTV's). That being the case, a composite connection MAY be better than s-video. The only real way is to try both ways (composite and s-vid) and see.

Bill