Me again. Another topic. Hopefully, last one for today

Well, since our Outlaw 990 has many connections I wonder if we could RANK from best to poor quality (video and audio) what type of cables should we buy.

Maybe I got confuse formulating my question. Let me give an example:

If I have a CD player, or MP3 player (such as IPod),etc....which cable should I use? Analog, Coaxial or Optical? And a DVD player? Composite, S-Video, Component or DVI?

Ok. Now could we try to rank?

Digital Video: If your TV supports a DVI or HDMI input and your source has DVI or HDMI, use it. Keep in mind that the 990 doesn't transcode analog video to DVI, so you need both source and TV to include either a DVI or an HDMI connection - if you don't have it on both, you don't need to give DVI a second thought.

Analog Video: Component is best, if your TV supports it, then s-video, with composite dead last. The 990 will transcode s-video and composite sources to component, so if your TV has a component input you can run component cables to it from the 990 and it'll get any analog video signal the 990 has.

Audio: If you have a digital output, use it. Whether coaxial or optical is best is a matter of some debate, with no clear answer either way. If you don't have a digital output, then analog's the only choice.

Gonk,

Quite clear your answer. Thanks a lot.

Take care.

Gonk,

Does the 990 have to be powered on to pass thru a cable box signal. You know, so my daughter can just sit down and just turn on the tv::

My Loewe only has one Component input and its being fed from the 990.

Also, my Loewe is wide screen and the menu form the 990 don't look to good. the menu seems out of "kilter" and some items overlap.

Have yet to get the SACD to funtion. In fact the only thing I can get it to do is run on 7.1 from the oppo and just have two channel playback.

At least I got a small taste of my labor!

Im just happy it fired up! If I can get the oppo to get on my moniter I can get it set up.

Man I still got lots to do! Been working on this for two days. Electrician was here for 8 hours saturday. Ran into some problems with running wires thru beams. Didn't help that he dropped the nastiest looking drill bit I ever saw on his foot.

I said "hey, that could have been real bad"!

He looked at me, then we both looked at his socks as it fast turned red.

My first thought was "Curt Shilling!" (hey its not my foot and im paying this guy by the hour!), then I ran around and got a towel, paper towel, Peroxide, band aids and got him fixed up! After cleaning his toes from blood and putting a few band aids on where he cracked his nail, we are very close now. Can't remember the last time I touched another mans feet. But I felt bad for the guy, he's bleeding like crazy, and I want the damm job finished!

Ran a 20 amp circut to the den. Also one for the fridge in the garage. ran the Cat5 cable also on recommendations here!

I hope it all comes together tomorrow! Gotta call the cable company, my DVR cable box won't reboot properly! Family is looking at me funny now! I messed it up!

I got a ton of questions. So little time! I thought by now I'd be cranking out some movies!

If the 990 is off, nothing happens - many people wonder about retaining the ability to just watch TV with only the TV's speakers, but as a general rule it's a whole lot more difficult to set up that way than simply turning the whole system on any time you want to watch TV.

Widescreen shouldn't break the 990's menu in the way that you describe. It might stretch a bit, but that would be all. Is the overlap in any sort of pattern? (Bottom items wrapping around to the top, right edge wrapping around to the left, ...)

In the Oppo's menu (accessed by pressing "SETUP" on the Oppo's remote), go to the Speaker Setup screen and make sure the following settings are correct: Downmix=5.1CH (the default of stereo converts 5.1 sources to two channels), Front Speaker=Large, Center Speaker=Large, Rear Speaker=Large, and Subwoofer=On. That should give you multichannel SACD through the 990's 7.1 Direct input.

Gonk,

Thanks! I got most of it by just chilling out and reading it thru. I am still working on a few bugs, but it will take time.

7.1 mode sounds great with the oppo directly feeding into it with the 5 channels! SACD sounds great. The old CD/dvd player sounds better with processing. thru another input.

I think I got the SMS calibrated. IM sure I'll try it again. Does not seem to make much difference when pressing the presets. But I have to live with this system. after calibrating its not as "Boomy"". It also helped to have the auto setup feature in the 990.

Having only one compenent input into my TV is a bitch. Do they make component splitters? That or a universal remote should do it. This is our main system so I have to have a friendly approach to low tech family members!!!!!

The fun part this system is great! The LFMplus married with the M&K sub not just rocked the house, it seemed to sway it!!!!! When toned down it was smooth yet massive!

The 850's still have some break in time to go but they are really nice. I think I read they are "forward" sounding which they might be better for movie playing, but with the SACD dark side of the moon they sounded incredible!

A universal remote will actually be easier for you and for them than additional component video switching. Either a Harmony or a Universal Remote Corporation remote should do the trick.

I guess having the 990 on when the tv is on is not going to hurt anything.

Oh, when I put on the SMS video putput and routed into my Loewe it was crazy! IT was two halfs!

I just ran a composite and fed it into a front "camcorder" jack on the tv. It worked fine.

My old sony DVD is now running but I am using it with its component out for the first time and its funky looking on the screen. Have to spend more time on this! Because the Oppo is running SACD and directed imputs it would appear that having two players is needed. When playing a regular CD in the oppo it sounded thin. I don't want to go into the menu everytime to change its internal EQ.

I guess its possible to also run a two channel output from the oppo into a different input for CD playback only.

The combos are endless!!!

Great system by the way! Was playing the Animusic2 DVD last nite. The "pictures at an exibition" was great. The cannons at the end of the song really came out tight now the system is calibrated via the SMS!

The OPPO's DAC's are not as high quality as the 990's, which is probably why the CD's sounded a bit thin. Try this combo for CD playback: configure the CD input to use the OPPO's digital audio connection (the same one that you assigned to DVD for watching movies on the OPPO), set the processing to "Upsample" and go to town. This way, you can have the OPPO set up with the DVD input (digital audio plus component) for watching DVD's, the CD input for listening to CD's with the 990's DAC's, and the 7.1 Direct input for DVD-Audio and SACD.

Whoa! Good Idea!

Fact that I understood you might be most impressive! I'll try that!

Im thinking to solve my one input on my Loewe is either to get a component video switcher or the elegant solution to have a Component to VGA (Loewe has VGA in) adapter ($400) which would eliminate the need to switch back and forth which would add yet another step.

+


Gonk,

I set the Oppo on 7.1 input, and DVD as the Video.
Should I have used DVD input, DVD as the Video and the???? as the audio? The manual does not address enough the 7.1 input. I used 5.1 from the oppo into the 990. the 7.1 input does not allow for any upsample or any modes at all. I suppose this is the SACD way??

Are you saying I should change it? Or add a optical or coaxial "digital" output form the oppo to the 990???

By the way, you have saved me a lot of time hunting these things down. Thank you!

Or do

The 7.1 Direct input should only be used for SACD and DVD-Audio - for everything else, you want to use the OPPO's digital output so you can get the 990's better DAC's and (even moreso) the additional surround processing options. Here's the way I'd set it up: 7.1 Direct can use the Component-DVD video input (a very convenient trick, in fact), but the DVD input should also use the Component-DVD video input and the digital audio connection (optical or coaxial, there's no definitive difference between them) and should be used for watching DVD-Video discs. Setting the CD input up with the same digital audio input as the DVD is a convenient way to listen to CD's in stereo and watch DVD's in surround without having to touch the surround mode buttons - just a little "cheat" so to speak.

Gonk,

I understand better now, thank you!

I appreciate your "downconverting" the answer!

Im getting there.

I an unfamiiar with digital audio connections.

Which of these might be best to configure as you suggested? http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/digital-audio/index.htm

Thank you again for helping in my quest to a finer Outlaw experience and faster financial insolvency!

Digital audio connections (sometimes called SPDIF - Sony/Philips Digital InterFace) allow a source to feed the unaltered digital audio signal (PCM stereo from CD's; PCM stereo or Dolby Digital from cable and satellite receivers; PCM stereo, Dolby Digital, or DTS from DVD's) to a receiver or processor so that the processor can work with the original digital data for signal processing and (in the case of Dllby Digital and DTS) decoding. This also allows you to have a single high quality DAC (digital-to-analog converter) or group of DAC's in the processor, so you don't have to worry with getting good DAC's in each source component. I'd recommend using digital audio connections wherever possible - the only places to use analog are sources that lack digital audio outputs (the SMS-1) or formats which do not allow digital output (SACD and DVD-Audio).

In my system, I've got one of the Blue jeans Belden 1694A coaxial digital audio cables along with three Outlaw PDO optical and one Outlaw PSC coaxial digital audio cable. Whether coaxial or optical is superior is a matter of some debate, with no conclusive answer that I've ever found. For longer runs, I'd definitely lean toward optical (light doesn't care about EM or RF interference, after all), but for the short runs you're probably looking at I don't think it really makes any difference.