Another HDTV question..

[ldogg53]

so I got my tv last night... Sony Grand Wega 42" LCD proj...
on the back there is "Video In" 1,3,4 and then there is "HD/DVD In" 5 & 6...

so I've got my VCR going to Video 1... the HD box going to Video 5.... and the DVD player to Video 6....

when watching televsion I can either put the tv on Video 5 or nothing and have tv showing... however, when on Video 5 the normal tv stations don't appear as crisp as they do when it is set to no video input.... but of course the HD channels are better when on Video 5...

this doesn't make sense to me... can anyone explain or clarify what is going on and if there is something else I need to plug in or unplug? my tv manual doesn't seem to address this..

 

[Dr Fear]

are you using the component inputs? what cable box are you using?

 

[ldogg53]

yes... using the component inputs....

I guess that the normal cable channels get a better signal directly from the coax cable rather than through Video 5 which is the component inputs for the high defenition?

I mean now way is it reasonable to think that I should flip between Video 5 and regular mode depending on whether I'm watching HD or regular programming.. that'd be a total PITA... am I missing something here?

 

[misterpink]

No, your not missing something. As far as I know that is what I have to do on my Mitsubishi 55" HDTV, w/ Time Warner cable. If I am missing something I would also like to do. But I jus leave it on HD all the time and don't care about the small difference in normal channels.

 

[ldogg53]

that is depressing...
oh well...

 

[BA93]

on a HDTV, normal channels are more blurry than they would be on a non-HDTV. Or at least that is the way I thought it worked.

 

[MilkmanDan]

This is all my opinion based on just enough information to probably make it wrong...

I have an XBR widescreen and I use the same setup. Partly because my wife just wants to be able to watch TV without turning on the cable box, and partly because of the noise that shows up (or isn't hidden) when watching non-HD shows through the HD outputs.

When you watch through the normal tv setting (I'm guessing you just plugged the coax into the back of your set), the TV does some processing to the signal that is not done when you're watching on Video 5. Look up "DRC" in your manual.

When you watch via the HD outputs, you get a decoded low quality signal in its pure form. And it sucks, even for digital cable channels. I don't sit too close to my TV, but I notice it whenever I move up.

To help the problem, I hooked up both the S-Video output and the HD outputs from the cable box to different video inputs on the TV. The S-vid goes to video 2, so I can use the TVs strech modes and DRC rather than the stretch modes from the box.

Like you said, it can be a pain in the *** to switch modes when you want to change what type of programming you're watching, but eventually most of the content will be in HD (or upconverted) and you won't have to deal with it.

I had forgotten how out of focus this is, but here's what the back of the TV ends up looking like.