When you guys are connecting your various components - do you take your video straight to your display device or do you allow your receiver to switch it?

I have a new DLP and DVD player. I'm also WAITING on the 1070... If you were hooking it up your preferred way - how would you do it? I guess it's fewer clicks to have the receiver switch everything - but will it degrade pq?

Thoughts?

I have the 1050 and a standard-def TV w/component video input. I run my Pioneer 563a component video direct to the tv as the 1050 only allows for S-video and composite connections.

My Laserdisc player and VCR run through the 1050 as a switcher, but since I rarely watch anything with these formats it is a non-issue, and I never noticed any loss of quality.

The 1070 is supposed to be able to pass hi-def video signals w/out degradation, so If I had more sources than available inputs on my monitor, I would be ok with going through the 1070 as a switcher.

With good video switching, routing the video signal through the receiver should not degrade picture quality any. A few years ago, good component switching was expensive, which was why people often recommended going directly from source to display (and why component switching was generally reserved for more expensive gear). If you only have one video source, I would probably still go directly from source to display (the old KISS principle has been around for a long time because it's pretty consistently correct). If you have more than one component video source, I'd go ahead and use the 1070's switching, much like I'm doing with the 950 and my component video sources (DVD player and DVD recorder - the HD cable box has DVI which is directly connected to the TV).

It depends on the connection type. For standard composite type plug and s-video the receiver should be fine. For component connection many times you want to go straight from the source to the TV. If you have a good receiver or pre/pro then you can include that unit in the loop.

OK. Thanks a lot for the opinions! This is what I have (or will have as soon as Outlaw sends me one!)...

-Outlaw 1070 Receiver
-Mitsubishi 52725 DLP TV (several sets of component inputs, 1 hdmi input)
-HD DirecTiVo (component and hdmi outs)
-Denon 2910 DVD Player (component, hdmi, and dvi outs)

I was thinking about having the DirecTiVo & the 2910 connect directly to the 1070 via hdmi > dvi cables. And, then one DVI > hdmi cable from the 1070 to the TV?

Thoughts?

I think that your approach sounds pretty promising. If I were in your shoes, I'd probably do what you are considering and go from the DirecTivo's HDMI output and the 2910's DVI output to the 1070's DVI switching, then from there to the Mitsu's HDMI input. One thing you might try while waiting on the 1070, however, is comparing the DirecTivo's component and HDMI outputs. Some people have found that the current generation of HD equipment using DVI often exhibit no better picture quality at the DVI output than they do at the component output (this mainly for upconverted standard definition material, and in some cases people have reported preferring the component output), and I don't know if similar results have been found with HDMI-equipped satellite receivers like the DirecTivo. If the HDMI output is clearly superior (as it may be - I did some research on HD cable boxes earlier this year, but none on satellite), then it just confirms that your initial plan to use the 1070's switching was best. If the DirecTivo output looks equally good from both component and HDMI outputs, you would have two alternatives: use the DirecTivo's component output and the 2910's HDMI output to make a direct video connection from each source to the TV (which would avoid any uncertainty about video switching), or using the 1070's DVI switching (which would offer the benefit of never having to change the TV's input, making the setup easier to operate).