Panasonic TH42PZ70B set up

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I've just purchased the above and i'm running it with the following. Onkyo TX-SR 605 receiver, Jamo A102HCS5 speakers (although i recieved the full A102HCS11, so i'm using the dvd as well), standard Sky, and an Xbox 360 (not Elite) with HD-DVD drive.........I've a few questions about my set up.

My intention was to run everything into the amp and just have the one HDMI cable running to the TV, but i seem to be unable to do this.

Problem 1

When I run the scart to composite cable to the amp from the sky, the picture i get is shocking, yet when i run a scart straight from the sky to the tv the picture is a lot better. Are both the amp and the tv both trying to upscale the signal, making it worse?

Problem 2

As I don't have the Xbox Elite, I have had to run an optical cable to the amp for my sound, and a VGA cable to the TV. Is there a better way to do this? On my Xbox I then attempted to re-set the picture settings to 1920 x 1080 to take advantage of my full HD tv when watching an HD-DVD, but i don't get any picture at all when i select this setting?

Thanks for any help

 

[Anonymous]

Hi I don't have the same set up as you but I've heard of people having similar problems when I was looking into choosing an av receiver. In the end I chose the Sony STR DG-910 largely on budget but also because like you I wanted to run everything through it with just 1 HDMI cable to the TV. As I said I haven't seen the 605 but my best guess at what's causing your problems would be:

1. It sounds like you are losing the high grade RGB signal on the way to the amp. Scarts can carry it but composite can't (composite is probably the worst quality of analogue signals). So even if you have your Sky box set to RGB, which it sounds like you have, the cable is only giving you low grade PAL composite. To be honest, you're better of connecting Sky to the pana directly by RGB scart. Does the standard Sky box have component? If so this would be as good as HDMI, but maybe it's not an option.

2. I have this problem with my Sony. I haven't seen the 605s spec but it assume the issue is similar. My amp simply can't do 1080p over the component connection. In your case I don't think VGA can carrry 1920x1080 either. If it was me I would run a component cable directly to the TV, set the box to 1080i and use it on those settings for games and HD-DVD. Keep in mind that the TH42PZ70B only does 1080p over HDMI anyway so the best you'll be able to get is 1080i. I am lucky in that my Tosh 37x does allow 1080p over the component connection from the xbox 360. Many people say there's no difference in 1080p and 1080i on a 42" TV. As for the sound, the optical is your best option as you can only get HD audio off the Elite's HDMI connection. In your XBOX's audio settings change the optical output to "DTS master" (or something similar, can't get to my 360 to check). It's not TrueHD audio but beats the hell out of DD 5.1.

It's amazing that having spent so much on a decent av system that we can't simply connect everything to it and have the picture and sound outputting in the max quality possible 🙁