Cable TV woes

[DBooger]

Cable guy came yesterday. Two TV's are up and running w/ good, clean cable programming / output.

The third TV (actually, display) is part of my home theater. Right now, its source for video is a DVD player, routed through the AVR. Connection from DVD to AVR and AVR to Display is HDMI 1.1.

When I came home yesterday, I reviewCable Guy's earlier work (first mistake: not being home to supervise). He ran the cable from the wall to the STB, and straight from the STB to the display (yes, there is a "Cable In" on the display). My wife wrote down the instructions, which were reported as, "Turn on TV. Turn on STB. Turn to Channel 3. Done."

No workee. The problems SEEM to be:

1) The display can't find / doesn't know there's a cable source out there.

2) The display (Sharp AQUOS) won't let me switch from "default" Channel 2. The error message is "No input signal" or something like that.

Getting the cable to work OUTSIDE of the AVR is OK. Making it integrated with the AVR would be better. Any ideas?

 

[markw]

First off, you don't want to use that path from the STB to the TV. You are getting the worst possible picture and most certainly you aren't getting HD. You should use, in ascending order of picture quality:

1) RF connection (what you're using now, which sux)

2) Composite video (Yellow RCA plug/jacks)

3) S- Video (four little pins within one plug. do thety still use this?)

4a) Component cables (Red, Green & Blue RCA jacks/plugs)

or

4b) HDMI cables (flat, wide connections on either end)

With all but 1 and 4b you'll need to run a red/white audio cable from the box to the receiver, but it's worth it.

With options 2 and above, you simply select that input from the TV set. You may have to "Assign" them, but more exact instructions are in the manual.

As for getting it to recognize the cable in it's current configuration, It sounds like the TV hasn't been set up properly. I suggest you check the manual and/or use the auto-search function that many TV's require when first used.