S-Video Issue

[acomire]

Hi All-

Has anyone ever seen where S-Video displayed a picture worse than coax?

I have. Here's what I got

Mitsu 45' RPTV
DSR7000
Blablabla -irrelevent

The TV is 2 years old so I really don't think that's the issue. When I connect the DTivo through coax it's fine. When I go the S-Video route, there is severe "shadowing" going on. It looks like the shadow images are embossed.

I have other devices that use the s-video input and they are fine

Ideas?

[wyatt9696]

sounds like a bum cable. take another s-vid cable off one of your other components that works fine, and swap them out. if that works, then you'll know it's the cable. check to make sure the pins on the cable are not all mangled up either. good luck. post your findings.

[acomire]

Originally posted by wyatt9696
sounds like a bum cable. take another s-vid cable off one of your other components that works fine, and swap them out.

Thanks, but I tried that already. I forgot to list that in my original post....

[JimSpence]

Try the composite video out (yellow RCS connector) on the TiVo. If your TV has more than one s-video input try it.

[dtremain]

Could just be a really good comb filter; I've heard others report the same.

Remember, what looks good is subjective and there may be aspects of one picture that you like that someone else might not. To sound hifonic for a second (isn't that where we all come from), it's a lot like comparing speakers.

Use what you enjoy. It doesn't matter what anyone else says.

[schell]

It might be that your tv is very far out of calibration, and the s-video is a better connection making the image seem worse, try turning down the brightness, contrast, set temperature to ntsc, and make sure sharpness is turned way down.

[acomire]

Originally posted by dtremain
Could just be a really good comb filter; I've heard others report the same.

Remember, what looks good is subjective and there may be aspects of one picture that you like that someone else might not. To sound hifonic for a second (isn't that where we all come from), it's a lot like comparing speakers.

Use what you enjoy. It doesn't matter what anyone else says.

Could be... It's a 3D Y/C digital filter. I'm going to re-calibrate all my settings and see what happens....

Thanks -

[mbcook]

Sounds odd to me. Every time I've tried it with every device (GC/PS2/Tivo/DVD/etc) and TV S-Video is anywhere from a little bit better (an old satallite box I had, made the text a little sharper) to like getting news eyes (MUCH sharper, vastly better color, etc).

To have it be a noticleable downgrade is odd. I'd say cable but you said that's not it, so I don't know. Do you have another TV you can test the TiVo against?

[conductorJ]

I have 2 TVs hooked up in my living room setup- a 27" Sony Wega, and a 60" SharpVision hanging from the ceiling. I got better wire when I hooked it all up, and noticed that S-Vid didn't look better than the 75 ohm video cable, just different. Didn't know which I really prefered. I'm running the S-Vid output of my Sony T-60 DirecTivo to my DVD recorder, and the composite output of the receiver to my VCR, wyed out of the VCR to my Wega and my SharpVision. Works fine.

[Kenster]

This may seem obvious, but don't you have to change your input setting to show that you are now receiving via s-video instead of the cable connection?

[conductorJ]

I have multiple inputs on both of my monitors, as I'm sure you do. Why not use em? It's like operating your stereo, and choosing between periferals- turntable, cd player, tuner, etc. I'm using 3 different inputs, depending on which video periferal I'm using-DirecTV receiver, DVD player, VCR.

[bodosom]

If you have some source material with sharp red edges (even better sharp red diagonal edges) try that. If the s-video signal is not clearly superior (as in greater fidelity) you have a misconfiguration, your display is miscalibrated, the cabling is bad (including the bits inside the devices) or a component is damaged.

[MackenzieMA]

I had a similar problem with a Magnavox TV. The Video input on the TV was very bright and washed out compared to the RF input. I fixed it with a 75 ohm 6dB pad on the TV's video input. Does you TV have separate controls for different inputs?