Well we finally got ourselves a DVD Home Theatre system. I gotta say, listening to Dolby Digital Surround Sound for the first time is almost a life changing experience! Going from crappy TV speakers to Dolby Digital is just amazing!
After drawing flow charts and visual diagrams, we finally figured out how to get the speakers to work with our digital cable and VCR:
All three system on > VCR to 3 > VCR to Video > DVD on Video > and channels are now changed with the VCR remote vs. the cable remote.
This was very confusing for us. I wonder how many people give up on this part, and call in help?
Anyway, I surprised to find out that our TV does not support S-Video. I could have sworn that it did. No big deal, we hooked everything up through standard Composite-Video. The picture looks great to us, but I have to wonder: How much better is the video quality of S-Video vs. Composite-Video on CRT TVs? Likewise, how much better is Component-Video vs. S-Video?
Also, am I understanding this correctly: When I am watching cable and broadcast, I am listening to Dolby Pro Logic (and not Dolby Digital)?
We’re not going to rush out an buy a new TV anytime soon, but I’m just curious.
4 better? 7? It’s very subjective after all, but the s-video signal is “cleaner” than the composite, as it keeps luminance and chrominance signals on two different wires rather than try and cram them both into one.
That depends on what you’re watching and how. With digital tv (some cable, sat, HDTV), you may be getting a DD signal output by your set-top box or you might be getting plain ole’ PCM audio - your receiver should have an indicator on the display letting you know what kind of signal it’s getting.
S-Vid and composite there is some difference, but I don’t know how noticible it is. However, if you do get a new TV, don’t even bother with s-vif, as the new one will almost certainly have componant video, which is currently the best quality for home systems.
For analog sources such as a VHS deck or cable TV, you’d be hard-pressed to see a huge difference between S-video (funny plug with about 5 pins inside) and composite (the single, typically yellow, jack)
Moot point since your TV doesn’t support it anyway. I wouldn’t chuck a TV that you’re happy with simply because it’s only got composite inputs.
I’d say that odds are 100% that you’re getting good ol’ Dolby Pro Logic surround. Dolby Digital needs a digital connection - typically a single “RCA” type cable (looks like the traditional audio/video types, but is most often orange) or a fiber optic cable, which would be very different looking than anything else behind your TV. Also, DD isn’t an over-the-air broadcast format, so you’d only be getting it from a DVD or satellite system.
As for component, that’s the 3-cable setup, and with a progressive-scan DVD player feeding a high-quality TV, the picture is amazing. On my TV, this gives me a “film-like” image with no pixelation or scan lines.
Oops, left out that component’s trio of jacks is red, green and blue, as opposed to the composite video and audio trio, which is red, white and yellow.
And do bother with S-video if it’s the best-available option. They haven’t started putting component outputs on cable boxes or VCRs yet, and probably never will, since those media don’t carry or store component video, so they’d need to “fake” the component signal by means of conversion, which would only tend to diminish the overall picture quality.
As for your daisy-chained setup, doesn’t your new home theater rig have separate inputs for DVD, cable box and VCR?
We have a Sony DAVSB100 system. We don’t have a seperate receiver, as shown here. Actually, I am confused by this. Do I really need one? The DVD player has an amplifier and a tuner.
The basic cable runs from outside into the VCR and to the TV. Audio runs from the DVD to the VCR. Video runs from the DVD to the TV. Everything works fine.
Based on everything I have read, it appears that most home theatre setups have a seperate receiver which everything runs through. Since everything works fine with our “daisy-chain” setup, what advantage do I gain by having a seperate receiver?
God, I feel like such a moron for asking all these questions. I write code for a living for heavens sake!
You are not recieving any broadcasts in DD, just ProLogic then.
With your setup, given what you seem to want to use the system for and your refreshing lack-of-obsession over velocity-edge-modulated-comb-filtered-plasma-HD displays, I’d say you have nothing to gain by changing anything. Enjoy it!
I receive broadcast signals via satellite. I own a Samsung DLP TV. I don’t notice any difference in picture between S-video and component video, and if my eyes are deceiving me, not much difference (better, but not much better) than composite. Then again, it is a 63 in tv, and arguably I am sitting too close to it. Cartoons and anime, however, come out better than anything I’ve ever seen before (particularly on component).
Pro Logic = analog sound source, transmitted in stereo, but with surround information matrixed into the stereo information, so that the reciever can extract the surround channels by the end viewer. This technology needs programming encoded specifically for it, but requires no change to existant analog stereo transmission metods.
Dolby Digital = digitally transmitted sound, sent in discrete channels (Unlike PL) but undergoing lossy compression (like MP3). This requires some sort of digital transmission method, so it isn’t sent with standard broadcast or analog cable transmissions.
With DD, there’s more information available to re-create the original sound source, so I think we can all agree it’s a better choice when transmission limitations allow for it.
Over broadcast, you ARE receiving only mono, stereo, or Pro Logic sound. When watching DVDs or using some sort of coax or optical DD source you get the full 5.1 sound. I was just responding to:
You can only get digital sound over broadcast with digital cable, satellite, or OTA HDTV.
You can’t. It’s just not available over analog TV. Even “digital” cable is just digitizing standard off-air analog TV to stuff more channels into the cable. The digitizing doesn’t convert the Pro Logic into Dolby Digital.
Only way to get Dolby Digital is with a truly digital source. In day-to-day use, that means it’s only available from a DVD.
Unless you watch PPV, HBO, etc… on the digital TV transmission system - not everything is just digitized stereo from an analog source (though if you want to start splitting hairs, unless that DD sound is all synthesized, it came from an analog source, too)
I heartily disagree. As soon as the cable guy left my place after installing my Explorer 8000 (cable box\DVR combo), I switched out the composite cable for an S-video one and was astounded by the difference. Granted, none of it looks better than DVD, but still - upgrading to S-video made such an improvement that even my missus commented on it.
And not to knock the OP, but if your TV is so old that it doesn’t have an S-video input, you may as well hook up your DVD player with rusty wire clothes hangers for all the difference you’ll see in picture quality.
Level of benefit (s-vid vs. composite) will depend greatly on the size and quality of the TV.
Really? Sounds like you’re “knocking” him. FWIW, I observe the difference between a DVD hookup over coax vs. composite to be far greater than between composite and s-vid. To each his own.
Heh, and seems like just yesterday (1996) I bought the damn thing! I guess in today’s world, an 8 year old TV is ancient. The TV I grew up with was a 30+ year old Zenith!
Anyway, this is still a huge improvement over our previous state of affairs. Going from watching worn out VCR tapes,with crappy TV speakers to DVD with Dolby 5.1 is like switching from a '72 Plymouth to an '05 Viper!
We are going to wait a couple more years, and then get a nice HDTV.
