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.