s-video question!!

[zdsf2]

I recently bought a 2003 RCA surround sound receiver and I am hooking it up to my dvd player, tv and dish network box....I bought a s-video cord and wanted to know (it looks like I can have up to 3 on these various connections) do you get rid of the yellow rca and go with the s-video only when you change over, do you keep both the rca and s-video connected?? what do I do? Also when I hooked the s-video up from my surround sound receiver to my t.v. and disconnected my rca yellow cord-I lost my picture (still had sound) so the only way I got the picture back was to rehook the rca and take out the s-video...I am totally confused ....help please....Zack

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

S-video and composite video (the yellow RCA jack) are both video connections, and you should only need one. We can help you with this. How do you have all of the components connected to your receiver (yellow RCA or s-video), and what is the model number of your receiver? It's possible that your receiver can't convert a composite video input (say, from the DVD player to your receiver) into an s-video output (from your receiver to your TV). So, if you are using both types of connections, you might need to go with all the same kind.

The other very real possibility is that you just need to switch the video input on your TV. The s-video input on the TV might be a different input selection (e.g. "Video 2" versus "Video 1"). Just a thought.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Adam is dead on with what he is saying.

I think first of all: Hope you didn't spend to much on the S-Video cabling. It should not have been more than a FEW DOLLARS at most. If you paid $20 or more for the cables, return them ASAP and go with some quality inexpensive cables which will work just as well.

Now, what you must do (most likely) is hook up S-video from your DVD player to the receiver. Then hook S-video from your receiver up to your display. This way, you maintain S-video from the start to the end. With the date of the gear (2003) and the brand (RCA) I would bet that this is an extremely limited feature A/V receiver and only handles very basic video switching. So, this would be the proper and only way to make an S-Video connection. (no HD for you!)

Now, once everything is connected as described above, you turn everything on and must put your TV on the S-video input.

If your TV does not have an S-Video input, then it is pointless connecting your gear via S-video.

In my experience, there is no visible difference to the average viewer, with normal video content, between s-video and composite video so it's a silly connection to use anyway.