Last weekend I tried to take advantage of my TVs HD capabilities and bought a component video cable to connect my 990 to my TV and feed the 990 with all video sources to avoid switching inputs on my TV.
If I am not mistaken the 990 should upconvert all (non-HD) video signals to 480p.
Connecting the XBox360's HD signal (component video cable + optical audio) was nor problem and everything looked fine.
However, when switching to XBox (component video + optical audio, regardless of setting it to HD or 480i), PS2 (composite video cable), Gamecube (composite video cable) or CableTV (S-video cable)input the picture was messed up (blurred, horizontally stretched picture, shifted to the right) and the 990 displayed the on-screen message 'OUT OF RANGE'.
As I didn't find anything about this in the manual I thought I turn to the experts in this forum to find out what is wrong. I appreciate any help and advice.

The 990 will transcode s-video and composite video sources to 480i component (not 480p). It has also been transparent for me in switching 480p and 1080i component video sources.

Was the "OUT OF RANGE" message displayed by the 990 or by your TV? It strikes me as curious that the 480i sources (composite and s-video transcoded and 480i component) are giving you trouble - are there any restrictions on the particular input you are using at the TV?

Thanks for the fast response Gonk!
About your questions:
1) The fact that I attribute the error message to come form the 990 is just by the font, color and position of the message, but that might just be coincidental. Due to the advertised transcoding feature I expected the 480i sources to work properly with the described wireing. Do you think this is a hardware/software issue of the 990?
2) The TV I connected the 990 to by component video cable to is a 36'' widescreen CRT that supposedly can handle 480p and 1080i input but NOT 720p. As I mentioned earlier the XBox360 signal looks nicely detailed and crisp.
I hope this gives you further clues to determine what might be the problem. Thanks!

The transcoding should work quite transparently with the wiring you've described. The "out of range" message is not one I've seen the 990 produce, and it sounds more like something a computer monitor (or their cousin the HDTV, particularly a CRT) would say if the signal was weak or distorted. When you saw "out of range" was it on top of the messed up picture, and if so was it also messed up or was it clear? If it was clear, that would further make me suspect the TV was adding it due to problems with the signal.

I assume that all of the inputs are set to the correct video source (composite, s-video, or the correct component input) and that all the cables are firmly in place and not reversed. Another thought: all of those sources are producing 4:3 images (except perhaps the XBox) that are going to remain 4:3 (the 990 will not add pillarboxing). Since your HDTV is probably set to treat the incoming signal as 16:9, that would explain the horizontal stretching and may even explain some of the blurring. Can you tell the TV that the signal is 4:3?

If I may stick my nose in here, I think it is your TV input and not the 990. I have the same issue with my Samsung DLP. 2 or 3 of the component inputs are for signals in HD (480p, 720p and 1080i) and one is for 480p and below (480i) only. I believe the transcoding of the 990 simply routes the 480i signal of S video & composite to component out on the 990, and does NOT upconvert it to 480p.

The onscreen display only works through component video on one input on my TV...the one designed to handle 480i signals. Plugged into the other ones I get the message "Not Supported Mode" This is somewhat of a catch-22 because all the HD signals need to be in one of the other component inputs if I want resolution of 720p that my TV is native to. Hence, I must run the onscreen display through S video and change the input to view the OSD. Now, all that being said. If the 990 is indeed suppposed to upconvert to 480p (I don't think so)...then there is a problem somewhere in the 990.

The message 'OUF OF RANGE' appears on the bottom and is displayed in a distorted way with the rest of the picture.

In the 990 video input menue I set the signal source to the appropriate input although only DVD, composite1/2 and DVI inputs have specific numbers associated while all others (S-video, composite) do not have a specific number associated. When I connected a composite video signal for video1 I avoided to also connect a S-video/composite signal to the similarly labeled input on the 990.

I am not sure what you refer to as cables are 'reversed'?

The TV can be set to 4:3, panorama and 16:9 output. When connecting the S-video and composite signals (PS2, GC, Cable) directly to the TV there is no problem in displaying them in the 16:9 mode. However, if these are transcoded to composite this might be a different story?! What strikes me is that the XBox shows the same distortion as the above sources even though I connected it by component video cable (works fine as a direct feed to the TV) and tried to set it to 480i/p, 720p, 1080i (all in widescreen mode [XBox internal set menue]).

I can't tell from the picture if the TV is trying to stretch a 4:3 picture to 16:9. Maybe I need to explain the picture I see in more detail: The picture is horizontally stretched. At the same time picture has 'shaddow' that's what makes the picture blurry. Additionally the picture is moved out to the right so that the left border appears several inches to the right. To the left of the left border is a vertical black bar of maybe 4 inches. To the left of this black bar I see the part of the picture that would originally be displayed on the right end side of the picture. However I am missing picture information from the center/right part. Think of it like someone would take a blurry picture of the screen, stretched it and glues in to a cylindric body with a gap between the left and right ends of the picture. Now turn the cylindric body with picture until the gap (black bar)appears in the left third of the field of vision when looking straight at the cylinder. I hope yhis makes any sense ?! I appreciate your help!

Thanks for the input Capt. What I don't understand is that the 990 is messing up the HD component video coming from the XBox?

And correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't the 990's OSD work at least with S-video? I even seem to recall it should work with component video as overlay but not with DVI...

I am just trying to be lazy and have all signals routed through the 990 without having to switch inputs on the TV, the only function I seem to be unable to program to my learning remote. Goal is to only use one remote (the 990's). Maybe I have to give up on this dream...

I don't want to hijack the thread, but if you are willing, I have the time and we can fix two of your questions with this test.

Start by plugging an s-video from monitor out of the 990 directly into an S video in on the TV. Unplug any composite or S video feed associated with the input selection you are going to use for the X box . Select the S video input on your TV that the monitor out cable is feeding. Bring up the OSD on the 990 by pressing menu on the remote. It should display. Problem 2 solved. Now please confirm a couple of things:

1. You have configured the input in the 990 that the X box is plugged into to be COMP 1 (or 2 whatever you are using). OSD will say CONFIG INPUT, select that and toggle to video and select the proper component feed.

2. Plug in you X box component feed to the 990 input you selected and fire her up. Switch to component input on the TV and it should be visable with no distortion.

3. Repeat the input configuration with all other inputs you wish to use.

You should be good to go.

Thanks Capt, I will try your guidelines this weekend. I will let you know what came out of it. And don't worry about hijacking threads

By the way, my post was not entirely complete. I forgot to add that you need component from the monitor out on the 990 to the TV to remain connected. I am sure you realize this but it never hurts to point it out.

Also, if this works as set up, you will have OSD only on another input on your TV. Thats where I am at.

The 990's on-screen menu works with every input except DVI. The OSD "pop-up" (one or two lines of text reporting volume level or input) is overlayed on the source video only for composite and s-video. Component inputs do not get that OSD "pop-up," but they do get the setup menu (it is shown on a blue background, completely replacing the source video). Since the OSD is overlayed onto the composite or s-video sources before they are transcoded to component, the OSD still shows up for those inputs even if the output from the 990 is component.

The weekend is over and I fiddled with the set up. The only way I got to display the composite/S-video sources as well as the OSD was connecting a S-video cable from the 'monitor out' and audio feed from the 'video recording out 1' to the TV. However, this is still somewhat unsatisfying as the HD component HD signal from the XBox gets demoted to S-video. If there are no further suggestions on how to fix my problem my question is if I should contact the Outlaws directly?

Benson,

It sounds like it is working the way the unit is intended to. You shouldn't get the onscreen display through the component or DVI outputs. You can still access the setup menu overlay via component.

That does not sound right, Benson, although I may be misunderstanding your problem. If you connect a composite or s-video source to the 990 and set that input to use the format connected, then the component video output should get the input signal and that output will include access to both the 990's menu and to the "pop-up" OSD information. Likewise, if you connect a component video source to the 990 and set the input to use that source, you will get that video through the component output and that output will included access to the 990's menu.

Are you trying to get both video and audio connected to the TV? I ask because you mention an audio feed to the TV, and there are some wholly separate considerations there.

Gonk,

As I stated above, my setup menu does not appear over component from the 990. It appears the setup menu displays as a 480i signal over component feed which, in my case, is not compatible with HD only component inputs on my TV. I assume it is 480i because it won't display on 480p and up inputs. Am I wrong about this? I would really like not having to switch to another input to see the menu.

The setup menu and the transcoding from s-video and composite will be 480i, which would explain why all of those are giving you trouble. Do you have another component input on your TV that you can try?

EDIT: Sorry, Capt - I got a bit turned around this morning, got your question confused with Benson's question from yesterday. I found your previous post regarding your HDTV's input configuration. Sorry about that - I don't see a way around having to switch inputs on the TV to get the menu.

Bummer. Thats what I thought. Well, sounds like Benson is having a bigger issue than that anyway. I just thought I might be able to help him out by starting from ground zero and taking it step by step. If he has the setup menu now through s vid, at least he knows that works. Next step would be to confirm the input configuration as component for the X box, hook up the component feeds (both monitor out to TV and X box in on 990) and let her rip.

Seems like I have to accept the fact that the set up menue has to be operated through the S-video (480i) signal. As Capt says 'Bummer' as I need to switch inputs. However, I won't be watching the menue for hours at a time several days a week. Now for the XBox hook up details:

XBox to 990: Monster HD cable with RCA video signal (into COMP1) and optical fiber audio (into OPTICAL2).
990 to TV: HD-TV cable (audio and video [RCA]) from 990 HD out to HD-only component input (audio and video [RCA]).
XBox settings: widescreen (16:9), HD-signal [80p or 1080i])

Am I so mistaken to expect correct HD signal display on the TV? Let me know if you guys need more information. Thanks to everyone so far for their help!

These might be a dumb & basic questions but:

1. Does your X box display over the S video connection properly (but not HD)?

2. Have you configured the video input (Video1, Video2 etc) that your X box is using in the setup menu of the 990 to be COMP1 ? If you have not, I can walk you through this.

3. Are your 990 monitor out cables to the TV really component cables? RCA and component video cables are NOT the same thing, just the jacks. Make sure you have 3 lead component video cables and not just a three lead RCA cable where one is COMPOSITE video and the others are stereo RCA.

I am not quite sure why you are running an audio feed to the TV. Maybe you want the option of having X box sound from the TV speakers, but this is another issue and sound not affect the video.

I'm curious about the 990 to TV connection. The 990's component monitor output (the green-blue-red RCA jacks labeled "MON OUT" and located next to the RS-232 port) should be connected to the TV's component input. The component output and input are video only - they carry no audio. If you want audio to also go to the TV, you would probably want to either use one of the digital audio outputs (assuming your TV has a digital input) or use an audio output such as the AUX or TAPE record outputs (located beneath the OPR/SVC switch, which is directly below the MON OUT).

I'm also curious why you are sending audio to your TV - with the digital audio from the XBox, I'd think it would be preferable to let the 990 (and whatever amp and speakers are fed from it) handle the audio.

One more thing. I would break out your TV manual and determine EXACTLY what signals are accepted by which input jack. I have a hunch that the problem I outlined above may still have a role in the troubles you are having. Since I run X box off the S video, I can't speak of the settings needed for component. For instance: what signal is the setup menu signal from the X box without a game inserted? If it is 480i and going over component cables, then at least on MY TV there is only ONE input jack that will support it. Don't know because I don't use component (yet).

I do know that original X box games determine the native setting of it's output. That is, games produced in 720P will output that. If your TV is not 720P capable then I am not sure how the TV responds to that since you indicate your TV is not capable of 720P.