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Misinformed Salesman?


Bob Foss

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My salesman says a receiver's ability to convert signals up to 1080p is not going to happen UNLESS I run my TV through the receiver. I remember how good my VCR looked years ago running through a receiver so I assume that's what I should do for the best picture on my Sony XBR9. My salesman says that is not a good idea and that HE runs his TV from the cable box; otherwise, the receiver is on when he's watching TV. Well, we don't watch that much TV and will be using it mostly for movies, so my question to anyone is: I am not too concerned about running my receiver a few hours in the evening with the receiver on. Should I do it for the best picture; or, is my salesman right..don't use the receiver to watch the evening news? Thanks.

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My salesman says a receiver's ability to convert signals up to 1080p is not going to happen UNLESS I run my TV through the receiver. I remember how good my VCR looked years ago running through a receiver so I assume that's what I should do for the best picture on my Sony XBR9. My salesman says that is not a good idea and that HE runs his TV from the cable box; otherwise, the receiver is on when he's watching TV. Well, we don't watch that much TV and will be using it mostly for movies, so my question to anyone is: I am not too concerned about running my receiver a few hours in the evening with the receiver on. Should I do it for the best picture; or, is my salesman right..don't use the receiver to watch the evening news? Thanks.

Older recievers could not upconvert video and prior to HDTV, normal NTSC from the VCR was the best you could get. Some tapes had a copy protection scheme and maybe your receiver filtered that out, improving your picture.

The salesman is correct, you cannot use the receiver's capacity to upconvert signals is the TV is not connected. In general, I run from the source directly to the TV to avoid signal degradation. IF the receiver can upconvert a low quality signal to, normally, 1080i and your source cannot, then I'd run that video source through the receiver and upconvert it.

I always use my audio system when watching the TV.

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I always use my audio system when watching the TV.

I hear all you Albrights do that.... what's up with that? Hmm

Well there not named Albright for nothing ! [:D]

I never ran the picture thru a receiver before, sound but not the picture.

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Mr. Albright: Thanks for the advice. My instinct was to do what you do and recommend. After all, why have a really nice TV like the Sony Bravia and not get the best picture possible. When I am not watching TV I would just shut the receiver off. Thanks again. Bob Foss

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Well there not named Albright for nothing !

I wonder if he grew up with "Alldumb" "Altrabright" (toothpaste), "Notso" (not so bright)....

I always thought Notso was the most clever.

Perhaps if he's never suffered any of those.... we can start... [6]

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Mr. Albright: Thanks for the advice. My instinct was to do what you do and recommend. After all, why have a really nice TV like the Sony Bravia and not get the best picture possible. When I am not watching TV I would just shut the receiver off. Thanks again. Bob Foss

You're welcome! I'm getting older, but when I hear "Mr.Albright",I look for my Dad. [:)]

I wonder if he grew up with "Alldumb" "Altrabright" (toothpaste), "Notso" (not so bright)....

I always thought Notso was the most clever.

Perhaps if he's never suffered any of those.... we can start... Devil

Plus No-bright, All-Dim, Half-bright, ........ [:D]

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Well, I am a senior citizen, John, but because of my lifelong military career, I tend to want to address someone by a title. I appreciate the advice and I figure since I'm not going to be watching TV 24/7, I can always turn off the receiver. Chattanooga is great...my wife and I visited the Tennessee Aquarium and those old train cars...beautiful city and state. Bob Foss

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I tend to want to address someone by a title

I should have probably saved my comments for elsewhere... so you know, he & I both share the same last name, though we're not related. I was just razzing him, not making any spotlight on your comments.

[:D]

All is well and I (amongst many others I presume) thank you for your service career. [Y]

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All HDTVs will upscale signals coming into the TV to whatever its native resolution is. If you have a 1080p TV with a 1920x1080 native resolution, that's what its going to output regardless of what signal it receives, 480p, 720p, 1080i, etc. If it receives a signal equal to its native resolution HDTVs usually don't do anything to it and usually perform 1:1 pixel mapping.

Now, it is possible that depending on what device in your chain of devices is doing the upscaling (DVD player, Blu-Ray player, receiver, etc) they might have better processors performing the upscaling than are in your HDTV. The only way to find that out is to try hooking your devices directly to your TV and then running them through your receiver to see if you notice a difference.

I personally run all audio and video through my receiver. Upscaling was not the reason I chose to do this, rather the convenience of being able to quickly switch between sources and being able to leave my TV on the same input all the time. My Marantz only upscales to 480p but passes everything else above that through at the same resolution it came in as. 1080p comes in, 1080p goes out. 720p comes in, 720p goes out, etc.

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Thanks, wuzzer. I probably won't be using my receiver for straight audio (music) just TV. And, I am not going to have what many here probably think is the ideal HT. My builder put in-ceiling wiring so I am just getting the Klipsch Reference series 8" and 6.5" speakers and a Sub 12 subwoofer through a Denon 2310 receiver. This is so much more than I had when I used to run my Akai cassette player through my Klipsch Heresy's in the 80s. But I do remember running everything through the receiver then, too. Thanks again. Bob Foss

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All HDTVs will upscale signals coming into the TV to whatever its native resolution is. If you have a 1080p TV with a 1920x1080 native resolution, that's what its going to output regardless of what signal it receives, 480p, 720p, 1080i, etc. If it receives a signal equal to its native resolution HDTVs usually don't do anything to it and usually perform 1:1 pixel mapping.

Hmmmm. We have a Sony Bravia that is about 2 years old that can't. I can't find where my 9 month old, 73" Mitsubishi can, either. There is a visible difference in the picture from a standard resolution to an HD signal. I have a Denon DVD player that up-converts standard DVDs to 1080i. The Sony Blu-Ray player I bought with the TV might, but it only plays Blu-Ray discs that are alreadt 1080p.

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Hmmmm. We have a Sony Bravia that is about 2 years old that can't. I can't find where my 9 month old, 73" Mitsubishi can, either. There is a visible difference in the picture from a standard resolution to an HD signal. I have a Denon DVD player that up-converts standard DVDs to 1080i. The Sony Blu-Ray player I bought with the TV might, but it only plays Blu-Ray discs that are alreadt 1080p.

John,

There's obviously going to be a difference between a standard resolution signal and an HD signal. A TV or any upscaling device for that matter can only work with what signal its given. A 480p signal upconverted to 1080p will never look like a true 1080p signal. Lots of people get caught up in the upconverting game and think that they are viewing a true HD picture when in fact it is not even close to HD. The TV is still outputting 1920 by 1080 lines of resolution.

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Let me put my two cents in and take this from someone that is a Audio and Video engineer for 20+ years. When we had NTSC and early days of HD the receivers but the most high dollor one's didn't have the bandwidth for a good picture, so you would bypass the receiver. Today that has changed short of the most cheap receivers. A good receiver may have a better upscaler than a tv, mine does. My blueray has a better upscaler than the receiver, so I use the blueray upscaler for disc and the receiver for Dish. If you run everything throuh the receiver you can use only 1 cable to the tv, a HDMI so less money to hook it up.

My other point is why would you have nice Klipsch speaker system and a nice receiver and listen to cheap tv speakers. Yes you put more hours on the receiver but so what. Who has the same receiver that they had 5 or 10 years ago? I have gone throuh 5 prepro's and receivers since 1984 with my first home theater. As for the speakers us them. I'm still running my same 84 Corns and 85 Heresy's and have only replaced one tweeter form my son. You spent the money so us it.

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