I've had my 990 for awhile now and with Gonks help I was able to set it up pretty much how I wanted it except for one thing. I have all my equipment running through the 990 (audio & video connections) using component and S-Video, my tv doesn't have HDMI. Coax is running into my TV Antenna 2 either from my VCR or HD Tuner (can't remember which) being fed from a OTA antenna,and of course I have component running from the 990 to my tv input 4 as my main connection.

I have connected a Direct Tivo,Zenith HD Tuner, Dvd, and a VCR.

Is there anyway to run the tv sound output of antenna 2 through the 990? I tried running the audio/video out of the tv to my unused video input 4 on the 990 but it doesn't seem to work and I can't figure out why.

The bonus of running the audio/video of Antenna 2 into say video input 4 is not only could I have sound through the 990 but maybe it could have also switched the video, if I'm making sense. Maybe this is not possible for the 990 to control or switch an antenna input.

So you are using the TV's on-board OTA HD tuner, right? If your TV has an onboard HD tuner, I'd look for an optical or coaxial output that would support the Dolby 5.1 tracks provided with a lot of HD content. There's a chance that the TV lacks an onboard DD decoder, although I would find that a bit surprising. Can you hear audio from your TV's speakers when you are using the antenna 2 input?

If you can give us a model number, it's possible that an online manual could give us some hints...

No my tv (Toshiba 57HX81) doesn't have a onboard OTA HD tuner that's why I need the Zenith HDV420 outboard OTA tuner.

The way my 990 is setup now is the Direct Tivo, Zenith HD Tuner, Dvd and VCR all have their audio/video connected to it and then the Monitor Out of the 990 has component running to my tv input 4.

So the 990 provides the audio/video of all the equipment plus doing the switching and I do get my OTA HD channels through the 990 using the Zenith outboard HD tuner.

Now if I just want to watch my local OTA channels without using the HD tuner then I switch the tv input to Antenna 2 and the sound is only coming from the tv. Now you maybe asking why would I want to watch the OTA channels without being HD but this is why.

I like to listen to the radio broadcasts of my local sports team (KU Jayhawks) while at the same time I'm watching the tv broadcast and I mute the tv sound. The sound is synched if I do it this way plus I switch back and forth to tv sound and radio. If I tried watching my games through the HD tuner the radio broadcast and tv is several seconds different.

I guess what I'm really asking is this, is there someway for the antenna 2 input (sound and video) to be ran through the 990 that way I can always leave the tv input to input 4 and the 990 can not only switch between my Direct Tivo, HD tuner, Dvd, VCR, but also Antenna 2 providing surround sound to all?

The 57HX81 has two audio outputs - one variable and one fixed. The variable output is affected by the TV's volume control. For what you are doing here, the fixed output may be a better choice. If you are using the variable output now, try moving the cables to the fixed output and see if that helps.

No I'm already using the fixed output, I guess if I can't do what I want to do it's nothing I can't live without.

Odd... In theory, I'd think that it would work, but I can't figure out what might be messing things up...

Okay Gonk I guess I am getting the Antenna 2 audio out of the 990 afterall as long as I have the tv input set to Antenna 2. In theory though when I have the (fixed) audio and video out of my tv running into the input 4 (or whatever) of the 990 shouldn't I be getting both audio and video
through it by merely selecting that input?

Maybe I'm confused on how this all works, is it not possible for the tv output to be run through the 990 or am I always going to have to have my tv set to Antenna 2?

To make the 10ft video connection from the tv output to the 990 input 4 all I have on hand is a cheap audio cable could this be the video problem? My only option for the tv out is composite so I know the video won't be the best but since I do most of my viewing with the Direct Tivo or HD tuner I'm willing to compromise for the ability to have the 990 handle the Antenna 2 sound and video.

I hope I'm making sense in what I'm asking.

Ah-ha! You were trying to get both audio and video! The only thing you should be able to achieve is audio. Here's the conundrum for video: the video source is the TV itself, which is also the device being used to display the 990's monitor output. But as soon as you set the TV to the input that is connected to the 990, the TV is no longer set to the other input (which it was using to generate the signal being sent to the 990).

Bottom line: when you are using the TV's internal tuner, you need to plan to only deliver audio to the 990. The video side is already covered internally to the TV, and trying to route it out of the TV and back in will just drive you nuts...

Okay thanks for straightening me out at least I understand now you can't do the video like I thought or wanted.

You can still do what you were trying to do by letting the 990 serve just as an audio pre-amp - switch between the tuner and TV input while watching the same video source.

If I understand corectly, you really want to be able to run the video fron your OTA antenna to the 990 and be able to feed that to the TV while your using the 990's AM/FM tuner to listen to a radio broadcast.
I don't think there's a straightforward way to do that as the 990 doesn't have coax conections. You'd have to find some way to get the video signal to component,composit or S-video in order to fed it to the 990.
If you have an old VCR around, you could use that to split and convert the signal from the coax connection, but it's not a very elegant solution.

There are two ways to watch video from an OTA TV signal while listening to either the radio or the TV audio.

Option 1 is to do what we've been describing in this thread. That is to use the TV's OTA tuner. In that scenario, the video signal doesn't need to go anywhere outside the TV. All you need to do is connect an audio signal from the TV to the 990. You could use the TAPE input (rename it to TV if you like) for that audio signal. Once you do that, you go to the station you want on the TV and then switch between the TAPE and TUNER inputs to use the different audio sources.

The second option, which will involve having both video and audio pass through the TV, requires that you use an OTA tuner that is not in the TV. The simplest choice here is the VCR, as KOYAAN suggests. You can connect that VCR to the 990 (we'll use VIDEO3 as an example input), and then use the 990's monitor output to go to the TV. In order to view the VCR's video signal while listening to either the TV broadcast or the tuner, you will need to switch to VIDEO3 first. This will establish it as the 990's video input. After that, you can toggle between TUNER and VIDEO3 to change audio signals, and because the TUNER doesn't have an associated video input the 990 will leave its video switching set to VIDEO3 the whole time.

From an audio and video standpoint, the two solutions should be effectively identical. If you already have a VCR or other device in the signal path that has an OTA TV tuner, you could use the second approach without having to add an audio connection between the TV and the 990. On the other hand, if you are using a cable or satellite receiver with built-in DVR for your TV viewing and time-shifting most of the time, you may not have anything with an OTA tuner except for the TV, and adding a stereo analog cable may be easier than adding an old VCR.

One more wrench to throw into the works: you've got thirteen months to use this arrangement before OTA analog TV broadcasts cease (I remember the date as the day before our daughter's fourth birthday). After that, you will need a digital OTA tuner of some sort (either built into the TV or in a standalone box like your Zenith HDV420) to get broadcast TV, and there's a good chance that the synchronization with your local radio station may no longer work so well.