s-video queston

GopherIce said:

With my old sd receiver I had my game system hooked into the directv receiver and then used the A/B output to play games, which allowed me to have the directv receiver installed into the video 1 on my television (for some reason I get a much better picture using video 1). I recently replaced the sd receiver with a r16-300 and realized that there are no 'input' capabilities so I am wondering if I can improve my picture quality using an s-video cable? My television only has enough ports for one A/V hookup and right now the receiver is connected using only a coax cable as the game system is using the ports.

...sorry, I found an s-video cable and realized it cannot work the way I thought because I then will not get the game system on the video, audio only...

Click to expand...

Directv receivers never had auxilary input for external a/v equipment.

You choices are simple however.

Either:
1. replace your TV with one that incporates more inputs

or

2. Add a 4 port source selector switch into the mix. There are several varieties that can be purchased rather cheaply ($9-$29) locally at walmart, bestbuy, circuit city etc). A switch will have 4 a/v inputs and one output to run to your tv's existing single input. You select the device your wanting to watch from the source selector and it is passed though to the tv display for viewing.

There are also video sendssing switches which will auto switch when a device is on; thus eliminating the need to switch the sources manually if you so desire. These are slightly higher in price; however the benefit should be obvious......

Yoda-DBSguy said:

Directv receivers never had auxilary input for external a/v equipment.

Click to expand...

I assume you are referring to the newer receivers because my standard philips 5500 that I just replaced does have 2 sets of inputs.

Thanks for the suggestions...I did not know that there was such a thing as a 4 port source selector switch and I will look into that...because even though I would like to replace the tv, that is not going to happen anytime soon.

Using S-video won't open up any ports on your DirecTV box, since it only carries the video signal. You still have to hook up two cables to the RCA jacks (red/white) to get AUDIO to your TV.

As for quality, there is a definite improvement in picture quality using the S-Video signal as opposed to the regular composite (yellow RCA jack). In fact, S-Video is the best quality signal you can use from a DirecTV receiver to feed a SD (480i) TV set.

Thanks for the 'input'... :lol: