Main question concerns using the Pioneer VSX-815 receiver to get a signal the s-video equipped vcr can use.
I know nothing about this stuff. I just bought a Hitachi 26HDL52 lcd hdtv. I have Comcast cable, and they are switching me to their HD set top box next week, and they insist that the box has only a single set of component outputs and nothing else, so our old method of running the cable box through the VCR first and then on to the TV won't work. I have ordered a JVC HR S5902 S-VHS recorder, as we watch mostly time shifted tapes and don't want to get into hard disk recorders. The JVC has only an S-video in and out. The problem is to get the video signal into the VCR to record broadcasts from the cable box. The Hitachi has plenty of s-video inputs for playing the tapes. The Hitachi has one s-Video output, but the company says that this only works if the TV is on, which we would rather not do, and that it will not convert and transmit any HD signals, only standard TV, which will block out most of the local stations, as they are now broadcasting in HD.
I have bought the Audioholics-recommended Pioneer VSX-815 AV receiver. To use it to get another video output I would run the component lines from the cable box to the receiver and then back to a component input on the Hitachi for the TV. This Pioneer also has s-video out. MY QUESTION IS THIS: WILL I GET A USABLE SIGNAL FOR BOTH STANDARD AND HD (NO PROBLEM IF IS IS DOWNSHIFTED TO THE VCR'S CAPABILITY) BROADCASTS COMING OUT OF THE S-VIDEO OUTPUT TO MY S-VHS TAPE? The Pioneer manual is not clear on this and can be read to say that output has to match the main TV input, which is component and could be read to mean that if you have set up your cable and TV as component that you wouldn't get anything at all out of the S-video plugs.
My concern at this time is purely with the video input to the VCR, not the sound.
