Please help me connect my tv
Hi Andrew,
Firstly thanks for getting back.
At the moment I am feeding RGB down the scart, but I know component is supposed to give a better picture, even if only slight. My trusty Tosh TV doesn't have component ports but has VGA.
Apparently there is a " VGA to Component adaptor/cable available from various retailers.
Would you recommend going down this route?
When I do buy the AV Receiver, I presume it still needs to be connected via scarts as well as the single phono lead.
It's all good stuff this digital techno stuff.
I'm nearly 40 and it takes abit to grasp i'm afraid!
Thanks again
Johnny
My trusty Tosh TV doesn't have component ports but has VGA.
Apparently there is a " VGA to Component adaptor/cable available from various retailers.
Would you recommend going down this route?
I think I'd stick to RGB Scart, Johnny! The picture gains via such a lead really will be minimal.
No, you won't need to connect the receiver via Scarts - in fact you can't, as there are no Scart sockets on it! You just leave the Scart to carry the picture to the TV, turn down the TV's volume completely, and let the digital audio lead carry sound from the recorder via the receiver. As your TV has line-out audio sockets on the panel to the right of the screen, you could also connect these back to a pair of line-ins on the receiver, so you can listen to off-air sound from the TV's tuner via the audio system - for example to listen to one programme while recording another.
I'm nearly 40 and t takes a bit to grasp i'm afraid!
Tell me about it - I'm almost ten years ahead of you...
Thanks Andrew,
I'll leave the set up as it is, but will treat myself to a new receiver and speakers once the boss lets me have some extra pocket money!
Regards
Johnny
Johnny,
Like you we have the Sony 560 player/recorder but then upgraded the telly to Tosh LCD with HDMI (32WLT66).
I did decide to upgrade to a decent component cable (QED P-CV1) from scart and I also set the player to progressive output.
Personally,
I think the component derived picture is better than with the scarts
(which was not a freebie scart) - Colour rendition is noticably
different - I find it richer and prefer the colour from the component
cable.
As for progressive, that makes a big picture quality
difference - I see details in my favourite films I had not seen before!
While I find fast action scenes track smoothly in progressive scan mode,
I do however notice a very slight pause in DVD playback when disk
layers are transitioned. However I can live with this. Good directors
ensure the transition is between scenes rather than smack in the middle
of a car chase or similar.
Personally, I think the big question is - for picture
quality, do we stick with the Sony 560 in progressive scan via analogue
(i.e. 576p) or get a cheap upscaling DVD player and feed 720p or 1080i
via HDMI?
Oliver
Thanks for your input.
Firstly I wasn't aware the my Sony560 supported progressive scan!
Told you I was a novice.
Does the progressive scan only come into play (the best expression I could think of) when component cables are used.
I notice the QED P-CV1 cable is component to component connectivety and you'll see from the earlier post that my Tosh TV has to use a component to VGA cable/adaptor
Can I set my Sony 560 to progressive scan output with my current set up i.e scart/rgb and if so how?
Thanks
Johnny
Johnny,
Sorry, yes the cable I use is component both ends - I should have read your post more clearly. Many apologies for this! And yes, progressive requires component video out from the DVD. It seems I gave you false hope...
You can get composite to scart cables or composite to S video, which would then allow you to output progressive, but I dont know if such cables would allow the benefits of progresive to be seen or if your TV supports progressive input. Hopefully someone else out there can answer that one!
FYI: On your DVD remote, there is a slide down cover. slide it down and note there is a button marked progressive. Press this once to activate progressive mode. You should see a dot and a progressive label in the lcd on the dvd player when in progressive mode (but this will depend on correct connection).
The limited input options on our old but perfectly good JVC TV compared to our newer DVD was the reason we upgraded to an LCD TV
Oliver_T.
- Login to post comments
You're probably OK as you are, Johnny - you could try a component video cable from the recorder to the TV, but you may find the gains in picture quality are minimal, assuming you're currently feeding RGB down the Scart from the recorder to the telly, and not composite or S-video. You can check this in the recorder's set-up menu.
The component output will alow you to send a progressive 576P signal to the TV, which may bring some improvements, but i wouldn't spend a fortune on a component cable until you've tried it out. You can buy basic component cables - which are in fact three cables - for around £15 or so, so this may be worth a try, though on a relatively small screen such as yours I'd be tempted to stick with the RGB Scart output.
When you get your receiver, all you'll need to buy is a single phono lead to connect the recorder's digital output to a digital input on the receiver (see p15 of the Sony's manual for more on this), and you're done. Add on the five speakers and a subwoofer, and you'll have complete surround sound from prerecorded DVDs, and can run normal stereo TV programmes through the amp's Dolby Pro-Logic II processing if required to get a good surround effect and better focus of the sound to the screen.
We run our big AV rig at home with DD PLIIX Music as the default setting - ie used whenever there isn't a true Dolby Digital surround soundtrack present - and it seems to work well with everything from movies and music to sports and the news.
Enjoy...
Consulting Editor, What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision/whathifi.com Audio Editor, Gramophone