I have a strange question that I have been wondering. I just got my epic 60 system setup and everything is going great. I currently do not have a modern TV in the listening area that has component or higher connections. In fact the best the TV has is S-Video. I am going to replace this tv in a few months with something new. I am trying to enable Dolby digital on my xbox with the new system. To do this you need to hook the xbox up through a special cable that only has an optical and component ends. I am running the new Yamaha RX-V1500 for an Amp. I know that this amp supports upconverting. My question is since I do not have component video on my TV and the xbox basically would require this if I wanted the dolby digital due to the cable would it work to hook the xbox up to the Amp through the component and go from the amp to TV via S-video, basically downconvert? Is it possible to downconvert with these Amps? I have not seen much about this with any of the amps, just up converting. Thanks

Chunk, if you examine p.2 of your 1500 manual you'll note that one of the features shows a double-ended arrow between Composite and S but a single-ended arrow going from S to Component. This strongly implies that transcoding from S down to Composite is possible, but not from Component down to S(or Composite). For more than a strong implication go to p.17 and note that the signal flow chart there shows that there's no flow down to either S or Composite from the Component input.

I'm not familiar with the requirements of the xbox, but if you've described them correctly you can't make that connection with your 1500 and TV.