Ok, this thread is a little old, but it proves that I did a search before creating a new post!
In pondering over a new A/V receiver or a pre amp/pro, I am debating amongst myself, the importance of VIDEO switching in an A/V receiver.
I have some questions, but also some observations, hopefully my observations will educate others, or maybe just spark controvesery.
There is actually an AUDIO question also!
First, my observations:
1. Video via a Receiver or Pre amp/Pro is MORE CONVIENENT! this is either a plus or minus, depending on your thoughts, and the people that share the remote with you.
2. Video via a Receiver or Pre amp/Pro gives you more options to get the BEST VIDEO SIGNAL to your monitor. If your monitor only has one HDMI (or DVI) input, and your Sat dish, Cable, and DVD player all have either DVI or HDMI outs, ALL the video sources can benifit from using the BEST input/output connection. No argument here, this is a big plus.
3. Some people have reported distortion when using thir Receiver or Pre amp/Pro for video routing. As they say, YMMV.
4. More and more AV equipment has on screen setups that only work (duh!) when connected to a monitor.
Now for the questions:
Q1. Is there any signal proccessing and enhancements happening via the receiver such as
Upconverting
Filtering
Signal Boosting
Signal Enhancement?
Q2. Kind of related to Q1, is hooking up a lower source video in and having a higher source video out, such as a VCR RCA out to a HDMI IN, does that offer any advantages, other than less cables?
Q3. (The Audio question!) HDMI is DVI video + high speed (is it 7 channel?
UPDATE- HDMI is actually 8 channel uncompressed audio!) digital audio. Will HDMI be considered to eventually be a universal input/output connector? Imagine having ONLY HDMI input/ outputs on all your devices, and only having ONE cable for every input or output that the device might need. (Like, will SACD and DVD-A eventually use HDMI outputs?
Q4. Given the option, is it better to go (for video only):
output device (say DVD)--> Receiver or Pre amp/Pro --> Monitor
or
input device (say DVD) --> Monitor
I would think that input device to Monitor would be cleaner and more accurate, but that depends on the answers to Q1 & 2.
Look forward to reading some comments!