I'm about to accept delivery of a Samsung HLR5078W. When I got the 990, I just assumed I'd be doing my video switching there, with one and only one DVI connection from the 990 to the TV, and DVD and cable into the 990. Some of the earlier comments on the forum made it seem like a no-brainer with the high quality of the switching.

Well, on the AVS thread for owners of the Samsung, it seems like the "best practice" is for the video to go directly from the DVD and cable box to the TV, with the audio routed through the 990. The claim is that degradation of the video signal through the receiver/pre-pro is avoided this way.

My questions are for people who have routed their cable and DVD video directly to their TVs: why did you do it that way, are you happy with the result, and what do you think would happen if you went through the 990 for your video? Any other comments on the matter are welcome, especially in the next day or two .

You can look at this from different directions.


Signal Path- If you can wire directly to the TV you actually eliminate the need for an extra cable/s. This reduces the wiring/switching points. The promblem with this is that the person using the TV must know to switch to the correct input when switching devices (DVD to Cable) or you must have a universal remote that does this for you. Theoretically you will get better quality Video by wiring directly to the TV. I actually believe the theory, but can people actually notice it is another question.

Ease of Use- Wiring all Audio and Video to the processor allows that to do all the necessary switching, so it should be easier to use, without the need for a Universal Remote. You set the TV to a specific input and use the processor for all else.

Personally- I wire everything directly to the TV and use my Universal Remote for ease of use (for my wife). If I had a time where I had more devices than inputs I wouldn't hesitate to put the wiring through the processor (I would still use the Universal Remote). I doubt that I would be able to tell the difference. Currently My TV has (1) HDMI and (2) Component Video inputs. I definitely think that in the next two years it will be necessary to do swithcing with one or both of them.

Regards,

Charlie

I've done a bit of both, particularly with DVI switching. A couple of years ago, there was some often significant merit to recommending a straight source-to-display signal path for video - it is not hard to mess up video switching, especially if that switching allows any sort of OSD overlay. These days, though, it is less true - manufacturers have learned how to avoid introducing detectable deterioration if they choose to take some care in design. I've actually compared the 990's DVI switching to a direct source-to-display DVI connection, and my tests left me unable to detect any difference between the two arrangements. (The same is true, incidently, for the 990's component video switching as well.)

Here's one somewhat loosely related observation, though... I have switched from my HD cable box's DVI output to the box's component output as a result of some of my video switching testing. This is because the 990 offers a third component input (letting the cable box join the DVD recorder and the universal progressive scan DVD player in using component output to the TV) and because I ended up confirming some comments that I'd seen on AVS. It seems that - as of a year or two ago, when my Pace DC-550 was still new - cable set top box makers are still struggling to get DVI output to achieve its full potential. The result is that the component output actually looks a little better on HD material and basically the same on SD material. Newer generation boxes may have improved this, but the DC-550 is still the best box available in my area (my dad ended up with one just a month or so ago, even though the DC-550 was discontinued last year for the HDMI-based DC-551). If you have a set of component cables handy, you might do a little comparison with your box to see which you prefer.

I've just received my LG LST-3410A HDTV tuner/hard disk recorder, but probably won't be hooking it up until next week. I'm going to run its DVI output directly to my Sharp DLP projector, because for now it will be my only HD source, combined with the fact that the 990's on screen messages are not available on DVI. If I switched through the 990, using the DVI signal path, I'd have to pull up the 990's menu in order to get its screen display by changing the device input selection for the tuner. What I will do at intitial setup is specify the input on the 990 for the tuner as component. Then all I have to do to get 990 screen messages, is switch source selection at the projector, which is a simple one step operation.

I use the DVI because I have 2 sources with DVI out. The lack of OSD on DVI really bugged me. So I went to the storeroom and got out an old unused TV, bought a $25 box which connected the 990 S-video out to the composite input of the TV and viola, I have a 13" color OSD. It's really cool because I can have the picture appear normally and I can see the menu. No switching required. It's overkill, but the TV was gathering dust anyway.

One other consideration is PIP. If you run sources directly to the display device and your display device supports it, you can still use PIP.

You could even use the OSD in PIP

My LCD panel has a few extra inputs so I simply connected the "monitor out" S-vid output to one of my extra inputs on the LCD. So if I'm watching a DVI source, I just quickly switch to the Svideo input on the panel and can see the OSD.

Cheers,

I really appreciate the help and advice. I'm starting with the Oppo running via DVI through the 990 to the TV and after a brief test, it looks better than it did with Component. My STB is still component through the 990 since (duh) I discovered I was missing the HDMI/DVI cable to connect the STB to the 990 (I was sure I had one . . .). I'll post results after I've had a little time to compare.