I recently bought a 50" Hitachi LCD projection TV. On my old TV, I had to hook up all my individual components (DVD player, VCR, Tivo, etc) to the receiver since there was only one input on my TV. However, now since I bought a new TV, I thought I would be able to hook up all my components to the TV and still play them through my receiver. However, there are a few problems. One, the DVD player needs to be hooked up via optical cable which causes the second problem. If I switch between television inputs, the sound for the dvd is still playing (since there is no digital input on the TV.) I could just use the receiver for DVDs, however, I want to use it for regular television as well(especially since regular television looks like crap since I don't have HD or satellite.) Has anyone figured out a way around this or is there something I am doing wrong?

You are running into a standard problem.

Audio switching for advanced stuff (like digital surround sound) must be done on the audio receiver/amplifier, and video switching for advanced stuff (like YPrPb component video or digital video) must be done on the TV.

So for most folks, you literally have to switch inputs twice. Once on the receiver/amp, and once on the TV set.

What a pain in the ass.

Work arounds, or situations where this does not apply:

1. Your audio receiver/amplifer also contains video switching and video up/downconversion for all of the video types that you use. In that case, you plug everything into the amp and run one set of video cables to the TV. However, only the most recent and most expensive receiver/amps will have YPrPb component video switching, and I don't know if any of them have digital video switching yet.

2. Your TV does audio switching for all of the audio types that you use (analog stereo and digital surround). I don't know whether it is common for TVs to do this or not. My TV will do audio switching for analog stereo, so I use that. I actually haven't upgraded to a digital surround system yet because I really like the convenience of only needing to switch the TV input and leaving the receiver/amp alone. I get 4-channel analog dolby surround through those switched analog inputs, and it keeps me pretty happy even without the 5.1 digital surround.

3. You have a programmable universal remote, and both your TV and your receiver/amp have what's called discrete codes for each input. Meaning that you can send a single infrared code to the TV set saying "Switch to input Q" and you can send a single infrared code to the receiver/amp saying "Switch to input Q", and map those to a specific button on the remote and have them both play when you press that button. As opposed to having to press "Input, Input, Input, Input" the correct number of times (which is what you would have to do without discrete codes). You're still switching inputs on both devices, but at least you're only doing it with one button.

4) Your receiver/amp and your TV were made by the same company and have an "interlink" system where you connect them with a communications cable of some kind. Such systems are designed to work intelligently and to switch to the appropriate inputs.

5) Your receive/amp has some sort of intelligence where it will switch to/from the digital audio input when it detects/loses the signal. So when you want to stop watching the digital surround on the DVD player, you simply turn the power off on the DVD player.

6) You purchase a third-party video/audio switching system. But that can run into money if you want high quality and a lot of options.

Thanks for the help...It would be a lot easier if they just put a digital input (coaxial or optical) in the TVs. Maybe they will start doing that soon...

However, only the most recent and most expensive receiver/amps will have YPrPb component video switching...

The cheapest home theater receiver on Crutchfield can do component video switching between two devices. Of course, that doesn't mean it's good.

I have a Sony STR-DB1070 and the component video switching works great! I know that page says MSRP is $900, but I didn't pay that new about a year ago. I remember closer to $600. I think the entire DB line is discontinued now though.

I haven't looked at receivers recently, I guess my statement about expense was based on information that's up to two years old.

What's not made clear in that product description at Crutchfield is whether its s-video inputs will be upconverted to Component for the Component Monitor Out. If not, the switching is useless because then you'd still have to switch inputs on the TV when you went from the DVD player to the Tivo.

You mean for sound, right? My dad's new TV has that. It even has an optical digital out, and when you tune to a digital TV channel via antenna, it will feed your receiver the digital audio to split how it likes.

The inputs and such are definitely annoying. Like Tony said, discrete inputs and a programmable remote are your savior. I've got a Pronto set up for settings like 'DVD' and 'Tivo', and the TV and receiver inputs all change accordingly.

This confuses me though: "If I switch between television inputs, the sound for the dvd is still playing (since there is no digital input on the TV.)" The problem is not that there's no digital into the TV, but that the receiver has not been either muted or switched to another channel. If you mean over the airwaves TV, which your receiver won't be getting directly, then the audio is going to go through the TV only, in which case you'd have to mute the receiver. Of course, I have no idea if I'm understanding you correctly. I'm probably way off

Just curious, but what do you mean you don't have HD? Do you mean your TV doesn't have a built in tuner, you don't have a tuner at all, or you don't have an antenna/cableHD? If you have an antenna, don't you have HD? I know it sucks not having many HD sources, but we have an old antenna on our roof (supposedly the older antennas get the HD signal better or something), and our TV has a tuner built in. The NCAA championship game was the first thing we watched in HD. Incredible. Since then I've even been watching ER with commercials just because it looks so good.

I have an "HDTV Monitor" meaning that there is no HDTV tuner built-in. Just a regular tuner. I can't afford to get one just yet.

What's not made clear in that product description at Crutchfield is whether its s-video inputs will be upconverted to Component for the Component Monitor Out.

My Sony doesn't do that. Yeah, it's a pain I guess.

Luckily my TV allows me to disable unused inputs. This causes them to not come up when scrolling through the inputs which is pretty good.

what Sony do you have? I notice a lot of video noise when on my TV, which I am not sure if it is normal or not. It has a 'noise reduction' filter, but then the picture is not as sharp....I'm not sure if it is the TV or the DVD player.

Depends on the type of noise, and which inputs you see it on. Can you describe the ruck^h^h^h^h noise, sir?

You could be seeing normal picture grain on the DVDs, which you didn't notice before you got the bigger/better television. You could be seeing video data compression artifacts. You could be seeing ordinary antenna reception static. It could be signal degradation from poor cables, or from a substandard video switcher circuit.

It could also be a plain old ground loop... Those happen with video equipment, too (and a lot more frequently than you might guess).

Keep in mind that the "noise reduction filter" you mention is not meant to solve problems like ground loops, it's only meant to smooth out a noisy picture in much the same way that you'd blur an image in photoshop.

I don't think it is the movie...i tried it with ones that are supposed to not have any flaws. I was also under the impression that there wouldn't be any visible lines when I hooked up my progressive scan dvd player to the tv...however, there is, they just aren't as noticeable....

What's not made clear in that product description at Crutchfield is whether its s-video inputs will be upconverted to Component for the Component Monitor Out. If not, the switching is useless because then you'd still have to switch inputs on the TV when you went from the DVD player to the Tivo.

My Onkyo receiver has precisely this problem. It can switch S-Video and Component, but it can't up or down-convert. My current solution is to route s-video and audio for everything through the receiver. I've only got one box with component out, my DVD player, which I have hooked directly to the TV. For normal usage, you don't really see the difference between s-video and component. If I want to watch a movie properly, then I'll switch the TV's input. It's a kludge, but it works pretty well.

When my HD-DirecTiVo eventually shows up (I didn't order soon enough to get one from the first batch), then I'll have two component-out devices, so I'll investigate the component-switching feature of my receiver in more detail. Of course, the HD-DirecTiVo has HDMI output, which multiplexes audio and DVI video on one cable. My TV doesn't have DVI or HDMI inputs, so this might be the impetus for me to upgrade to some kind of shiny new system.

Meanwhile, speaking of cool features in consumer receivers, a lot of interesting things are happening these days at the $1000+ level. The high-end Onkyo receivers can switch HDMI. The high-end Yamaha receivers have digital room correction. Also, many of these higher-end receivers support 6 or 7 discrete amplified channels. Since I only ever plan to have my five speakers, I'm curious whether I'll ever be able to do digital crossovers and use two of those amps per speaker for my front main drivers which support bi-amping.

I was also under the impression that there wouldn't be any visible lines when I hooked up my progressive scan dvd player to the tv...however, there is, they just aren't as noticeable

Again, depends on what you mean by "lines".

If you want to know all of the dirty little secrets about progressive scan DVD players, and especially how they can sometimes look worse than regular DVD players if they've got certain deinterlacing bugs, click here.

what Sony do you have?

STR-DB1070

it seems like I see the noise in all the inputs. However, it is to be expected from the TV ones, I assume. I have regular cable going through it. However, it troubles me when I see it going through the DVD player. Maybe I need to switch the DVD player to interlace and let the TV do the line doubling (when in 480p mode, the built in line doubler shuts off.) Could it be that it is an LCD Projection and not a CRT projection? I'm seriously considering bringing the TV back and buying a regular projection TV, but I think that might be worse. Plus, I got it for a really good price.

it is hard to describe, but it looks like just little bits of static around objects and words.

Are you getting the picture from a data compressed source? For instance, a DVD, a Tivo, a digital satellite, or a television station that's rebroadcasting data compressed material? If so, you might possibly be seeing ordinary MPEG artifacts. It depends on what you mean by static. I wouldn't know without seeing an example. I'm sure there's sites on the web that have magnified pictures of this sort of thing, anyone got a link?

Is this a common problem with big screen televisions?

It's common for people to suddenly notice MPEG artifacts that they hadn't seen before, yes. Because the picture is suddenly so much bigger. Lots of people got big screen TVs and suddenly realized that digital satellite TV was crap because they data-compress things too much. DVDs are better but still not perfect.

If you know what MPEG artifacts look like and you're sure that isn't what you're seeing, then no, it's not normal for a TV of any size to do that.

Edit: Something funky happened, either with the BBS messing up posts or with a post getting edited while I was replying. I no longer see the post I was replying to. In any case, my answers still stand.

yeah...i deleted that one...after I wrote it it seemed that most of the stuff I said was redundent 8sp?). I will try to take a picture of it to help explain what I am talking about. I wouldl ike to try out a HDTV tuner just to see what that looks like on it too. Just to make sure it is not the TV (I bought it from a Sears Outlet Store.) Are there any good DVD players out there with DVI outputs? I know Samsung makes one, but I heard it was crap.

I'm starting to notice that this "noise" pattern seems to be almost a checkered pattern. You can't see it all over the screen, all of the time, but when I do see it, it looks almost grid like. It might be on a few of the characters in the foreground, but not necessarily in the background.

Boy, it's sure sounding like MPEG artifacts, but still hard to tell. A picture would be nice...

Here's a series of questions that might clear it up instantly:

1. Does the checkered static "move" at all?

2. Does the checkered static appear on DVD movies as well?

3. If the answer to both questions 1 and 2 is "yes", then...

4. Press PAUSE on the DVD player when you see it. Does the static freeze and stop moving?

5. If yes, then you are seeing MPEG artifacts on the DVD, they've been there all along and the only reason you didn't notice them before is because the TV screen was smaller.

I tried to take some pictures of it,but the they don't turn out very well. in answer to your questions:

1. Yes, it does. It is more noticeable in the background objects, however.

2. It only appears on movies.

4.It does freeze.

I know this sounds exactly like Mpeg artifacting, but why does it show up when the DVDs I usually test
are not supposed to have mpeg artifacting It seems that when I have the Noise Reduction off, everything has sort of a 'bright edge' to it...However, when I look at it from an angle (off to the side) it looks better...I know that is vague sounding, but I can't think of a better way to describe it. Could it be that it is an LCD projection tv and not regular projection?

Which DVDs? All DVDs are compressed, it just depends on how much. You'll see less artifacts on a Superbit DVD, since it uses the least amount of compression it can to fill the disc, but it'll still be compressed.

here is the picture....I forgot to attach it before.

4.It does freeze.

Then it's encoded that way onto the DVD and has nothing to do with your TV set.

I know this sounds exactly like Mpeg artifacting, but why does it show up when the DVDs I usually test are not supposed to have mpeg artifacting

And tell me, which magical rainbow fairy unicorn DVDs are these?

Even the "Superbit" DVDs I've seen have visible MPEG artifacts. They're better than those crap-produced DVDs where they spend too little bitrate on the movie itself and instead cram extra features onto disc one, but the artifacts are still there.

It seems that when I have the Noise Reduction off, everything has sort of a 'bright edge' to it...

That is the effect of sharpening. Welcome to the other bad part about some DVDs... overprocessing. For some reason, the people who master these DVDs seem to like to crank up the sharpening filter way WAY too much. They must be previewing the things on tweleve inch screens. Ick.

here is the picture....I forgot to attach it before.

Attachment didn't work. Please note that file attachments must be less than 200k.

Let's try this again....But which is better....LCD Projection or regular rear projection?

What also makes me think that it is either the TV or the DVD player is the subtitles have the same effects as well. The subtitles (or closed captioning) looks like it is almost a double image.

Interesting picture. The only problem I see is that it's been broken up into a bunch of discrete blocks, hence all of the stair-step edges on the tree trunks.

Is that what you see as the problem? The stair-step edges? This is a common MPEG artifact, however...

The scene should look fine if it's a "still life" scene. One of the things about MPEG artifacts is that they're more severe if the scene is changing significantly. For instance, I often see it happen really badly on pictures of trees and forests (like that one), but only if the scene is moving/changing. If it's a still picture, the artifacts should settle down after a couple of frames and the picture should look fine. Was there a lot of motion in that scene?

Another possibility is that you're seeing an anamorphic widescreen DVD being played on a DVD player that hasn't been correctly set up for a 16:9 display (when you have a widescreen display you're supposed to tell the DVD player about it through a setup menu). Or vice versa: a non-anamorphic DVD being zoomed in to fill a widescreen 16:9 display. You see, when a DVD player plays an anamorphic widescreen movie on a 4:3 display, it actually has to subtract lines from the scene in order to make the picture rectangular instead of square. That will cause the stair-step-edge effect, too.

It also might be the scaler circuitry in the TV trying to enlarge the 480-line picture to fit its 768-line resolution, but I can't imagine anything but the cheapest/worst TV having such a bad scaler to cause those stair-step edges.

Which brings me to my next point...

But which is better....LCD Projection or regular rear projection?

By "Regular rear projection" I'm guessing that you mean CRT projection, so I'll answer this question as "LCD versus CRT". Also, DLP sets fall into the same category as LCD, they're just brighter, so you can consider them pretty much the same. Here's my take on it: LCD/DLP versus CRT is not a question of "which is better", they both have advantages and disadvantages:

1. A DLP/LCD set uses a fixed-pixel display, so it cannot change the number of scan lines to fit the resolution of the projected material. For instance, high definition television is frequently broadcast as 1080 lines interlaced. DLP/LCD televisions don't have that many lines, so they must downconvert the image to their panel resolution (usually 720 or 768 lines). Conversely, a 480-line DVD must be upconverted to the DLP/LCD panel resolution. In both cases, a CRT-based HDTV will change the scan frequency of the CRTs to be the same as the broadcast material, or at least to an "even multiple" of that frequency and then line-double it to fit. So the CRT units have the potential to show a more accurate picture with less interpolation and less mangling of the image.

2. DLP/LCD sets do not need to have their convergence adjusted. They need much less maintenance in that respect.

3. DLP/LCD panels do not "age" the way CRTs do. They do not get dimmer over time and they are not suceptible to phosphor burn (a very serious problem with CRT based projection TVs). They also do not need to be color-calibrated like CRTs do after their guns have aged.

4. DLP/LCD sets need the projector bulb replaced once in a while, which is a significant expense. A CRT-based projection TV will only need its CRTs replaced if they become phosphor-burned or if they age and get too dim for your tastes.

There's a lot of other smaller differences, those are the big ones that I know about.

which of the two do you have?

I've got a CRT projector now because I bought it before LCD/DLP HTDV projectors were available. If I bought one today, I'd probably get an LCD/DLP projector as long as it had a panel resolution of 1024 lines. The problem is that those are the more expensive ones. Most of the affordable ones are 768 lines.

do you know of any good DVD players that have a DVI output?

I just noticed that words (like the opening credits) have a lot of noise around them, and even when the background does not move.