ATSC Tuner is GREAT, but question re comp. video

[JHZR2]

Hello,

I refuse to pay for cable. I refuse to pay money to watch commercals. It is counter-intuitive. Sure, some of the shows on various channels are interesting, but we really dont watch much tv.

The shows my wife likes are mainly on NBC. Living so close to Phila, the towers are only ~12 miles away as the crow flies. That said, we wanted to still optimize our TV reception.

I spent some money (>$100) to buy an HD off the air receiver. I also bought a higher-end ($60) terk antenna.

I have to say that HD broadcast TV is great. The channels are crystal clear, and on a number of channels, we also get sidebands, so for example, NBC has one that is only weather and news, and another that is a local info channel. Ditto for ABC.

It is really neat, and signal is definitely improved. On an HDTV, it would really be great.

Anyway, enough praise for HD 'free' tv... Might have to look into HD FM radio now, since Ive been so happy with this. having music sidebands would be awesome.

So my question... My TV, a 2002 Panasonic Panablack CRT 32" has RCA, S-video and one component input. Coming from my DVD player, the component video looks fine. Coming from the tuner, I get picture, but it has a strong pink overtone to it. Ive checked the connections multiple times, and have used the wire that came in thebox, as well as my high end belden cable that I got from blue jeans cable - a quality item. No dice. the leads are not crossed or disconnected, I tried a number of things. My thought is that perhaps the output on the tuner box is defective, Ill likely buy another to test, and return if necessary.

All of that said, any ideas why Id be getting a strong pink overtone on the signal coming from my tuner? Works great on RCA video out of the tuner and into the TV, and though my TV will never really use the HD end of it, the tuner has some neat on screen controls that only display via HDMI and component, which I can't see when using the other connectors... Kind of stinks, since samsung wasnt nice enough to even show a channel number display when outputting to the TV via RCA or s-video, so youre really winging it...

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

JMH

 

[wwillson]

I had the same problem and thought I had a good quality component video cable. I talk to a few people in-the-know and they all said change out the component video cable. It worked....

Wayne

 

[BradC]

I agree with Wayne, try another component cable to see if it's the cable or a faulty tuner.

If you're looking for cheap but decent cables for the test, try the Philips branded ones at Wal-Mart. They are actually quite good cables, and affordable. Stay away from Monster, overpriced and average quality.

 

[JHZR2]

I know that my higher-end cable does indeed work - works beautifully from my dvd player.

No such luck from the tuner. Ditto when I swapped cables the other way around... using the oe cable from the tuner on my dvd drive. Additionally, I used both components in 'rca' form, using each of the component leads instead to do let, right and composite video. Worked fine.

I guess my question was more pertaining to if there is any sort of color adjustment or calibration that has to be done when using component video streams...

Thanks!

JMH

 

[JHZR2]

OK, so new update... went to circuit city to buy another exact duplicate of the tuner, thinking that maybe something was wrong with the original's output stages. Connected it up and pink again. Tried again with my original high-end component cable that I use for the DVD player, the component cable that came with the first box, an d the component cable that came with the second box.

All three made perfect picture when coming from my DVD player, but all were pink when attached to the tuner.

THen we took the tuner upstairs, where we connected it to a sony TV that is a year or two newer than my big panasonic. THe picture from component cables works perfectly, color is exactly correct.

So, it seems that there is some sort of incompatibility between the samsung tuner and my panasonic TV. My yamaha DVD works great through component video on the panasinic tv, so the component inputs arent really suspect to me... it really is something else.

Any thoughts???

Thanks,

JMH

 

[chas3]

component video is no longer component video with the advent of hd. it could be that you have a progressive component signal which the panasonic doesnt support.

 

[JHZR2]

you mean progressive scan, like 480p, 720p, 1080p, instead of interpolated, like 420i, 720i, 1080i, right???

I have a switch for a variety. My options are 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i. For the component to work at all on my TV, I have to set it at 480i, as whould make sense since it is an analog CRT TV. still get pink... so I think there is an incompatibility. Can you expand a bit on your knowledge???

Thanks!!!

JMH

 

[chas3]

no, i mean like component used to just be 480i period. with the advent of hdtv, component can now carry several different formats, like 480p, 720p, 1080p/i.

it is curious that with the switch in the 480i position you are not getting a good signal. that should match. if you disconnected the chroma signals (r-y and c-y) do you get a correct greyscale? i suppose it could be a difference between 4:4:4, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0. if you just plug in the try connecting the individual components into the y component of the tv and see what the various signal look like.