Upscaling question....best for Sky HD

[Gerrardasnails]

......I have the new Sony STR-DA3400 receiver. Like a lot of receivers under £1k, this machine upscales analogue connections to 1080p but does not upscale hdmi. I have Sky HD. Would I get a better all round picture using a scart to component cable from HD box to receiver and then upscaled to 1080p or would hdmi still be better at 1080i?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Gerrardasnails:......I have the new Sony STR-DA3400 receiver. Like a lot of receivers under £1k, this machine upscales analogue connections to 1080p but does not upscale hdmi. I have Sky HD. Would I get a better all round picture using a scart to component cable from HD box to receiver and then upscaled to 1080p or would hdmi still be better at 1080i?

Anyone, opinions please?

 

[Andrew Everard]

No, go straight into the TV via HDMI. The Scart output only delivers standard definition, so you'd be wasting the whole point of having a Sky+ HD box.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Andrew Everard:No, go straight into the TV via HDMI. The Scart output only delivers standard definition, so you'd be wasting the whole point of having a Sky+ HD box.

Many thanks.

 

[lastcoyote]

Just further on this subject... can you tell me what connections i should make?..

I've just got the Pioneer PDP-LX5090 plasma and i've got on order the Yamaha DSP-AX863SE amp. Currently have Sky+ but when my Sky HD box gets 'installed'..or more accurately put - plugged in! (i'm not bitter about the install charge..MUCH!)... how should i connect it all up?

I'm thinking the best way would be to connect the SKY HD box straight into an HDMI input in my Pioneer plasma and then use an optical cable from the SKY HD box to my Yamaha amp for the sound.
Will doing it this way make my Pioneer plasma do the upscaling for Standard Def channels?

I was originally going to put the HDMI from the SKY HD box into the amp but just read that the Yamaha amp doesn't upscale through HDMI. Even if it did would I get the same result considering the plasma itself will use it's built in scaling?

Does any of this make sense?

 

[mattjax05]

lastcoyote:

I'm thinking the best way would be to connect the SKY HD box straight into an HDMI input in my Pioneer plasma and then use an optical cable from the SKY HD box to my Yamaha amp for the sound.
Will doing it this way make my Pioneer plasma do the upscaling for Standard Def channels?

I do it this way so I have the choice of using the tv speakers (when normal watching) and the AV when wanting DolbyD. Upscaling wise, it all depends on what you set the sky box at. You can set it to output at 'auto' which would send SD content to the tv without upscaling it (the tv would then be responsible for scaling). Or you could set the output to '1080' (this would send all definition pictures to the tv as 1080). Best to try both to see which is the best picture (if you can tell the diference!)

 

[mattjax05]

lastcoyote:

I was originally going to put the HDMI from the SKY HD box into the amp but just read that the Yamaha amp doesn't upscale through HDMI. Even if it did would I get the same result considering the plasma itself will use it's built in scaling?

Again, it all depends on what you set the settings on the sky box to. The plasma wont use any scaling for SD if you set the sky box to 1080 and fed the cable through the AV and then to the tv. However, feed it an SD signal (set the sky box to 'auto') an the AV will pass the signal onto the tv as SD and the tv would scale it.

Don't forget though if you do decide to go the AV route for hdmi, you will still need an optical cable for DolbyD and you would need to turn the AV on everytime when you want to watch tv.

 

[Sorreltiger]

Easily the most most convenient way of doing it would be to connect the HDMI and the optical cables to your amp - which you will have set up to know that Sky HD comes in that way. ÿThe amp will pass through the signal from the HDMI input to your TV. ÿAll of the Pioneer TVs are excellent upscalers - superior to the Sky box, which you should set on Auto.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a similar question - I have a Pioneer 428xd, SKY HD & Sony 820 amp.

I feed my Sky HD HDMI into the Amp and then into my Plasma (audio via Optical) via HDMI.

I am losing any picture quality this way and if so whats the best settings on the Sky Box?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Just a note to throw a spanner in the works, I have just purchased a Onkyo 876 with the HQV upscaler to 1080p.

I have tried various options with both my panny Bd30 & sky+hd box, with various connections to see what happens when passing the HD & SD content through the HQV scaler.

(The Onkyo 876, upscales HDMI if you set it too by the way) Sky SD material looks much better, especially with the edge enhancer on the mid setting. block noise is greatly reduced and the overall picture is much better, ITV is even watchable.

Sky HD content unbeliveable looks better, obviously the HQV has more information to work with, but I noticed a big improvement watching Open Season on the HD channel 9amongst other content), especially the edges look much better. And Sport looked smoother, the 46V3000 LCD TV I have is known for some motion blurr on sports & fast moving action, but ran through the HQV scaler it looks much smoother.

I have decided to leave the BD30 on the "through" setting as this looks awesome left alone @ 24fps. However I have connected the component & optical output to the Onkyo 876 as well, and re-assigned another AUX for SD Dvds, as this also looks better than the BD30's 1080P upscale attempt. So the HDMI is free to output HD picture & audio.