I have gotten everything to work - the VCR, DVD/CD player, CTV etc but now there's a problem. I have hooked up all the audio signals into the 1050 but not the video signals. For example, the DVD player has an S-video connector that I've linked to the S-video connector on the TV. The video signals from the VCR are going to the TV via the CTV cable.

The problem is that while everything works, I need to switch the audio source using the Outlaw remote, and switch the video source using the other remotes. Pain in the butt!

I have purchased an MX-500 Home Theater remote that I want to use to control everything with least amount of effort.

How can I accomplish this? Also, is there any advantage to plugging in video sources into the 1050? Or, is this the only way I can switch both audio/video sources simultaneously?

PLEASE ADVISE!

You should be able to use the 1050 as your video switcher as long as you're not using HD.

Be aware I have found issues with the svideo switcher, so if you're going to use it be sure to try it prior to your 30 day deadline.

I connected all of my equipment the same way, audio via the 1050 and video directly to the TV.

I have a Pronto TSU-2000 that I have programmed to do all of the switching for me, makes life much simpler. You should be able to accomplish the same thing with the MX-500 as far as I understand.

Larry

Quite a few connection options, but also a few questions.
Are you using a cable box ?
If yes, What types of output connections does it have ?

Some connection options.
Does the 1050's remote operate most of your TV ?
The input select button for the TV could be on some strange button and you can simply use the 1050 remote to select the audio source and then change the remote's mode to select the TV's input source / If the remote works with the TV - volume - channel - etc. pretty good chance the TV's input select is on some other key
After you have programed a device into the remote some of the 1050's remote buttons at the bottom have other functions when you switch the mode of the remote, just have to try them all to see if you can find the correct one.

The most basic cable boxes only have the CoAx (screw on) connector. In this case connect the cable box to your VCR via the CoAx and leave the VCR on the correct channel 3/4.
Use the cable box to select channels.
You then run the VCR's A/V outputs ( AUDIO red-white / VIDEO-yellow ) from the VCR in to the 1050's VCR A/V inputs. ( red-white-yellow )
You connect the 1050's video out (yellow) to your TV's Video input. (yellow)
You still have to change video input on the TV for VCR and DVD.

If you have a cable box with the RCA type A/V outputs ( red-white-yellow ) you can run these into the A/V inputs ( red-white-yellow ) on the VCR.
You then connect the VCR's A/V outputs ( red-white-yellow ) to the 1050's VCR AV inputs. ( red-white-yellow )
Connect the 1050's video out (yellow) to the TV's video in (yellow).
You set the VCR to the A/V video input and change the channel on the cable box.
You still have to change video input on the TV for VCR and DVD.


No box -
Connect the CoAx cable to the VCR.
You then connect the VCR's A/V (R-W-Y) outputs to the 1050's VCR inputs.
You then run the 1050's video out (Y) to the video in (Y) on the TV.
you still have to change video input on the TV for VCR and DVD.


IMHO best solution for switching audio - video sources on a TV's with out using the component video inputs.
(Red-Green-Blue RCA plugs in a group)

Want to stop switching inputs on the TV ?
You might consider a S-VHS VCR which uses a S-video connection like your DVD. Even though many cable boxes will not have a S-video output type plug you should still be able to connect the cable box to the S-VHS VCR in the same way (CoAx or RCA-A/V R-W-Y cables)
Most S-VHS VCR's will have two A/V input sets one set with the yellow video and one set with S-Video.
If the cable box has S-video output plug use a S-video cable in place of the yellow video to connect the cable box to the VCR's A/V inputs
You then use the Red-White audio and S-video out from the S-VCR substituting the S-video for the yellow video cable to bring the S-VHS VCR-CableTV A/V signals in to the 1050's VCR S-video and audio inputs.

You would also have to bring the DVD's Audio R-W or optical cable and S-video into the 1050's DVD inputs.
Best audio option for the DVD is probably the optical cable in place of the R-W RCA's for the DD-DTS signals, When you select DVD on the 1050 you toggle through the digital input select on the 1050, once you have selectd-assaigned the correct digital input for the DVD input on the 1050 you can just leave it there, when you select DVD the S-video is passed through and the digital audio input is played
You would then use the S-Video out from the 1050 to connect to the TV. In this case you would just leave the TV set to the S-Video input. When you switch between the S-VHS VCR and the DVD you would always have S-video coming through the 1050.

I will be adding a S-VHS VCR at some time to help simplify my video switching setup.
These connections also work with DSS which is just like having a cable box in the setup(S-video)

Humm, Hope you can follow this.
Probably easier to just draw a simple diagram.
It's not to difficult if you just take your time.

[This message has been edited by Steve_C (edited January 16, 2003).]

Along these lines I have a follow-up question:

I used the digital optical output on my DVD player and hooked it up to the 1050 Optical 1 in. Then I connected S-video "monitor out" from the 1050 to my TV (video 1). I hear sound from my speakers when on "DVD" setting but get no picture on the TV. I cycle through the video inputs on the TV just to make sure but no picture. The 1050 manual is kind of skimpy on actual connections. Am I hooking things up correctly? The S-video connection from the 1050 to the TV should be through "monitor out," right?

Alan to make it easy to figure out, just remember the direction you want the signal to travel. Since you want the video to travel FROM the 1050 TO the TV, then you need to plug into the TV's Input somewhere. The Monitor Out to me would mean the TV's is outputting its signal to another monitor.

Pull out the TV's owners manual and you will see how to connect the 1050 to the TV properly.

Larry

I guess I should clarify. When I say "monitor out" I am only referring to the "monitor out" on the back of the 1050. The main question I guess I had is:

If I want to make an S-video connection from the 1050 to the TV (27" Sony XBR with S-video inputs), would the connection coming out of the 1050 be through the monitor out? I can't think of another route if I want a signal from the DVD which is attached to the 1050 via an optical cable. Yet I get no picture with that connection, just sound.

Did you also connect a S-video cable between the S-video out on the DVD player and the S-video DVD input on the 1050 ?
There is a group of S-video inputs on the 1050, The correct one should be labeled DVD. When you select DVD on the 1050 it connects this S-video input to the S-Video output. (Monitor out) The optical cable from the DVD only carries the audo signals.

Alan -- the optical digital output carries sound only, no video. You also need to connect the S-Video output of the DVD player to the DVD S-Video input on the 1050.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Steve_C,
Thanks for the comprehensive reply

I have a new MX-500 Home Theater remote that I'll be using to control everything. Audio/Video switching shouldn't be a problem as I'll be programming several macros into the remote. So that's all good!

As for the connections, I have a cable box with audio-video-out connectors, and I have a few questions about this:

1. What's the VCR got to do with connecting the Cable TV feed into the TV? Why do we plug the coax from the cable box to the VCR, and then from the VCR to the TV?
Right now, I've connected the coax coming into the house, into the CATV box, and then from the CATV box to the TV. I tried connecting the cable box's audio-out into the 1050 but the sound is somehow better when I connect the TV's audio-out into the 1050.

2. Is there any advantage at all to feeding the VIDEO feeds into the 1050? I wouldn't think so. Right now, all my audio inputs are coming into the 1050 and all video is going directly to the TV. For example, I have the DVD player's S-video cable connected directly from the DVD player to the TV, but I have the DVD player's audio wires connected to the 1050.

3. I have the VCR's audio also going into the 1050 but the audio is very weak. I tried calling Outlaw folks and they told me to look into fixed-versus-variable audio signals. My VCR has only ONE audio-out connection and there's no fixed-variable setting in the Options Menu. What else should I be looking into? Perhaps the audio cable is bad....

Thanks a ton!

Some cable boxes do not have A/V outputs (they only have RF coax in and out), making it impossible to directly connect them to a receiver. By connecting them to the VCR before going to the TV, you can use the VCR's audio outputs to connect to the 1050. If you have A/V outputs on the cable box (as is true in your case), it's just as easy to go directly from the cable box to the 1050.



There's one advantage: automatic video switching. If you route the cable box video, VCR video, and DVD video signals through the 1050, then when you select the respective inputs the 1050 will also select the correct video source and pass it to the "monitor out" video on the 1050 (which can then go to the TV). Pure convenience, and it can be very handy. Be aware, though, that the 1050 will not convert between S-Video and composite video -- if you are using the S-Video for the DVD player and composite for cable and VCR, you'll still have to switch between the composite and S-Video inputs on the TV some.



Strange... Are any other analog inputs similarly weak? Is it a stereo (Hi-Fi) VCR -- left and right audio outputs -- or a mono VCR with a single "audio" output? If it is not stereo, you may have a bad splitter or something else causing some problems. It wouldn't hurt to check the connections and maybe swap out your audio cable with one that you have used successfully with some other source.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

It's a stereo VCR - 4 yrs old SONY. I'll try swapping cables later in the day.

As for the CATV/VCR/TV, I'm still not clear about this:



Even if the cable box doesn't have A/V outputs, why can't you just plug the coax from the cable box into the TV and then plug the audio outputs from the TV into the 1050? Why involve the VCR at all?

Thanks for the info on VIDEO inputs into the 1050. I do agree that the auto switching is a convenience but I'll achieve that convenience with the MX-500 remote, using macros. So, I think I'm going to leave the video out of the 1050.

In general you'll get a better laid out system if you go pre/pro or receiver centric rather than TV centric.

So think of the 1050 as the hub of your HT system and everything else is either a signal source or an output device. If you use OTA and need the TV built in tuner it will complicate things a bit, but if your set top box has AV out there's no need to switch channels on the TV again, plus you may get better quality video by skipping the RF modulator stage on the STB.

I would run a coax to the VCR (but no further) from the cable box simply so it can record OTA if you want it without involving the STB tuner. Then connect The VCR In/Out to the 1050 along with all the source outputs, hook up speakers, use the 'TV' as a video monitor (from the 1050) and you should be set.

YMMV.

That's an option, and one that some people do use. But what if the TV doesn't have audio outputs? Some TV's lack audio outputs. Without knowing the specifics of all the components involved, relying on the VCR to have audio outputs is a safer bet than suggesting the TV. That's really the only reason that I suspect Steve_C suggested the VCR initially.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

[This message has been edited by gonk (edited January 17, 2003).]

Even more connection options
Basicaly using the RCA connections from the cable box into the VCR and then VCR A/V out in to the 1050 gives you the best transfer of A/V signals when you want to record - or - listen to your 1050, since you have made this connection you may as well deliver the best possible A/V signals available (RWY) from the VCR and cable-TV into the 1050.

Sounds like you are - routing a CoAx cable out from the cable box to the VCR and then connecting another CoAx cable directly to the TV and then using the TV's audio out jacks to connect the TV's audio back in to the 1050. The problem is that the CoAx cable coming out of the cable box degrades the stereo sound, the stereo signal is further degraded by running CoAx from the VCR to the TV. The CoAx connection delivers the lowest quality audio signal to the TV. By taking the audio out from the TV at this point gives you lowest quality sound that you can supply to the 1050 when using the TV, Cable box or VCR.

Per Charlie's suggestion, Using the 1050 as the audio source selector and video switcher and letting the TV simply serve as a video monitor. By using the RWY or RW-S-vid interconnections will give you the best overall audio and video performance from all sources.

Another nice thing is that you can still leave the CoAx connections between the CB-VCR-TV should you simply want to turn on the cable box and TV to watch the news - etc - or a video tape without running the stereo in order to have sound.
The A/V jacks and CoAx are both delivering signals out, It does not matter whether they are connected to another device or not.

Steve is completely correct IMO. The only thing to be aware of is that if you make that last coax connection from VCR->TV be aware that it is then possible to be accidentally viewing a degraded version of the CATV or VCR signal without realizing it. If you can get the news etc. via the AV out connections on the STB it could be less error prone. As always, YMMV.

Be sure to switch the TV speakers off, of course.

Thanks for the wealth of information, guys! This forum ROCKS! Having said that, I'm not up-to-speed on the various acronyms used. I did look up YMMV (your mileage may vary) but what's OTA, RWY, STB...?

I am currently hanging my rear surrounds on the wall and routing the wires to make them as invisible as possible. When I'm done with this, I'll seriously look into all your comments about best audio/video performance and make changes to my hookups accordingly. I also have an AVIA Home Theater DVD and the Radio Shack Sound Meter for calibration (yet to use any of this)

Thanks again, I'll respond some more after finishing some tasks at hand

Before I go....Charlie, I just wanted to say that I called Outlaw Tech and spoke to some dude who said I'm doing everything right - keeping all video inputs AWAY from the 1050. He said I should plug all audio sources into the 1050 and route all video directly to the TV. Hmmm....the only other HT system I've owned (for 4 days to be precise) was the Bose Lifestyle50, which was pretty much plug-and-play.

Also, Steve_C, right now I'm NOT routing any cable from the cable box to the VCR. It's wall-to-cablebox-to-TV. And TV-audio-out-to-1050. I'll be looking into these issues later though....

gonk, another reason why I left my VCR out of the cablebox scenario, is that the audio signal from my VCR is really weak (when playing VCR tapes), and so I thought of leaving the VCR out of the cable-TV setup. I'll swap the cable and see if it makes any difference.

STB - set top box
OTA - off the air or over the air (broadcast)
RWY - red white yellow? (I'm guessing)

See ya!

but what's OTA, RWY, STB...?

OTA: over the air broadcasts (from your antenna Vs Satellite or Cable)
RWY: Red, White, Yellow Composite cables (video and audio)
Composite: Lowest quality video all video carried on one RCA (yellow) with Left audio (white) Right audio (Red)
S-Video: (video only) carries video only divided into Luminance and Chrominance (?).
RW + S-V: Left/right audio + the use of an S-video cable.
Component: (video only) superior image over composite or S-video connections. Labeled Y,Cr,Cb, or Y,Pb,Pr Cable jackets will be red, green and blue. Required for HD video signals (1080-I resolution on 16.9 aspect ratios.
Although some like Standard definition signals better over S-Video. Depends on the signal and STB.

STB: Saw the ‘history’ of this term the other day, I believe traced originally to “Set Top Box” some people think its short for standalone table box.
Commonly used to refer to Satellite (and or cable) standalone decoder/receiver boxes at this time.

I always typing these things transposing them LBN LNB etc. there is a lot of shorthand used.

I wonder why all those little yellow jacks are on the back panel then? I guess I have to disagree with your Outlaw tech - maybe that makes me wrong, but that's how it goes.

I also have a 27" Sony XBR and 1050 combo. I have used the video switching on the 1050 only when I had more than three video input devices (DVD, VCR, SAT, PS2). Since I've ditched the VCR I let the tv switch the video, and the 1050 do the audio. My remote keeps everything in sync by using one-button macros. It is a Radio Shack Rs 15-1994, which is almost the same as the Outlaw remote. The same macros will also turn everything on if not already on. Another macro turns everything off.

I have 3 kids, all under 10, and they have no problems with any of it. My wife OTOH, can't make it work. Go figure.

" Before I go....Charlie, I just wanted to say that I called Outlaw Tech and spoke to some dude who said I'm doing everything right - keeping all video inputs AWAY from the 1050. He said I should plug all audio sources into the 1050 and route all video directly to the TV."

Just keeps it simpler.
Nothing wrong with that.


It sounds like you have equipment that will allow you to make connections in quite a few different ways that would give you better sound than the CoAx cable connections.
( S-video from the DVD to the TV ? )
Generaly TV's with a S-Video jack will also have at least one red-wht-yellow input set. ( somtimes several )
For the best audio signal and slightly better video making connections between components using the R-W-Y cables would be the best connection to use when available over the CoAx type cable that comes out of the wall for your cable TV. CoAx is what the cable company usually gives you to connect the cable box to the TV since all TV's still have a CoAx input "for now"

"another reason why I left my VCR out of the cablebox scenario, is that the audio signal from my VCR is really weak (when playing VCR tapes), and so I thought of leaving the VCR out of the cable-TV setup. I'll swap the cable and see if it makes any difference."

Sounds like a CoAx connection to me.

Even if you connect a video source component's Red-Wht audio directly to the 1050 you should be able to connect the same component's yellow video to the TV's yellow input and skip the CoAx.

I didn't have much time in the past few days so couldn't post an update but here's some now:

1. I noticed a slight but definite degredation in video quality when routing video sources through the 1050. The colors are more saturated when connecting the cable box coax(or R-W-Y) cable straight to the TV, and the S-video cable from the DVD straight to the TV. I really didn't have to spend $50 at Radio Shack to run this experiment but I'm glad it's done and over with.

2. So..just as the Outlaw tech had recommended, all audio sources go into the 1050, all video stays out of it.

3. I found the Radio Shack Digital sound meter better than the analog one. It doesn't eat batteries or anything, and the extra $10 is negligible, if you've sunk upwards of $3k into your HT gear. I'd much rather have the LCD display read out the DB reading, than have to eagle-eye the analog needle.

4. The AVIA Home Theater Setup CD was nice but maybe I was expecting more? Uncannily, all my speakers were set up right, that is, DB output from each was equal so I really didn't have to do anything except verify it.

5. I'm quite happy with the sound now, except that I need to turn up the 1050 to AT LEAST Volume Level 50 to hear the TV and 60 to enjoy a reasonable level of music reproduction. Is this just me, or across the board for everyone?

6. THREE of the speaker post connectors on the 1050 have already broken (the threads spin free). Either I should return the unit and wait for a week or two to have it repaired, or I just get banana plugs for all the speaker wires. I did the latter, today. Not happy about this though.

cheers, Deep

Deep

When I used the 1050, I routinely used a volume setting of around 50 to 60 or a little higher. That's relatively typical.

The binding posts sound a little odd. I don't recall hearing about this from other users (and I was at one point biwiring several speakers,with a lot of wire tucking into the 1050's binding posts). You might want to contact Outlaw about it; if there is a problem with your unit they might be able to ship out a replacement and keep you from having to be receiver-less for a week or two.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

My first 1050 arrived with three (all red as I remember) speaker terminals stripped. Outlaw sent me a replacement so I wasn't without a unit. The new one seems OK. But, because of the stripping on the first one and for convenience I’ve switched to all bananas.

Oh, BTW I’ve had my second 1050 for almost 8 months so the terminal-stripping problem has been around for awhile.

Other than that (and a tinny case, ever rap on the top sheet metal? a VPI brick works wonders) I have no complaints. It works and sounds great.

Wow, I thought it was my BA 9000 speaker system! I have to regularly turn the volume up to 45 just to be able to listen, then I regularly turn it to 50+ to play something just about normal. If I am watching a movie I turn the volume to 65+, sometimes I even keep my hand on the volume and adjust it throughout a DVD as quiet passages are too damn quiet. lol

I really thought this was my speakers being inefficient at 89db. Maybe not.

As for the binding posts, I have not had a problem with them, but was very surprised at how chintzy(cheap) they were. I was expecting metal pieces.

Larry