New TV = New Problems

[Wilson]

I need some advice here....

My Gear...
I got a new TV Samsung LN52A750

Pioneer VSX-74TXVi Receiver

Motorola Cable box

BPD-51FD BluRay player

XBOX 360


Here's my problems.....
1) My receiver has some limitation where it will only pass through 1080i. The BluRay player via HDMI as well as the xbox via component. If I understand things correctly this shouldn't be a problem because the TV should deinterlace this to be equivalent to 1080p. Is that correct?

2) Here's where it gets a little weird. If I route the cable box through my receiver no matter if I use HDMI or component it ends up as 720p at the TV. If I hook up the cable box direct to the TV I get 1080i. That wouldn't be a problem but if I use HDMI the picture will cut out for a millisecond and I get a blast of noise that sounds like static every 10 seconds or so. If I use component direct to the tv I get 1080i but there is a notable difference in picture quality vs HDMI. Any ideas at all???

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by Wilson

If I route the cable box through my receiver no matter if I use HDMI or component it ends up as 720p at the TV. If I hook up the cable box direct to the TV I get 1080i.

That sounds like the receiver isn't passing the signal correctly. I'd look into the AVR's manual to see if there is a setting that needs adjusting for passing HDMI direct.

[Wilson]

So this is kind of strange. Like I said in my previous post the input on the tv would say 1080i if I hooked up my cable box to the TV direct but then I had those problems with the picture cutting out.

I have since found the advanced settings on my cable box by just hitting the menu button when the box was turned off. There it had settings for 16:9 content and 4:3 content. I changed the 16:9 to 1080i (it was set at 720p) and the 4:3 to 480p. Now everything is fine (1080i) running through my receiver. I still find it odd that the TV was reading it at 1080i even though the box was set to 720p.

Just for the sake of discussion I have to ask again if there is really any picture loss on this TV using 1080i vs. 1080p. Because really all of the lines of resolution are still in the 1080i signal and theoretically if the deinterlacing process is doing it's job the TV should be displaying all the lines all the time. Or is there something in the process that could somehow degrade the signal? I've done a few tests with my Xbox set at 1080i and 1080p and I just can't see any difference.