Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater hooking up A/V components

I have a problem that I'm hoping someone has an easy solution for. Let me lay it out.

1. I have a 25" GE TV that has no A/V out jacks. Just one set of RCA in jacks on the back of the TV. So far this has not been an issue. All of my audio runs through my SR600, but video works as follows:

1. The VCR can send video to the TV through the COAX that they are connected by.

2. The DVD sends video to the TV by using the one video in jack on the back of the TV.

Although this isn't ideal and I would like to run video through the SR600, this has worked well for now.

Now the wrench in the works....
I bought a Playstation2 last night. The way things are setup now, I need to slide out the TV to get to the back of it and manually switch the video cable between the Playstation and the DVD depending on which one I want to use. There's got to be a better way.

As a side note, I also have a seperate DVD player that does SACD/DVD-A that I would like to be able to see video on as well, so if a solution could encompass all 3 that would be great.

I have only come up with two options other then manually switching cables.

1. Buy a new TV. This is not really an option right now, I need to find a way to get this to work until I am ready for a TV in a year or two.

2. Get some type of box from Radio Shack (assuming something like this exists) that lets me run the TV in to the box and there are multiple inputs for the different components from there. This box would have to have some type of switch to change between the components, which would determine what appears on channel 0 on the TV (the video in jack's channel).

Any other ideas? Anyone know if such a box exists at Radio Shack or somewhere like that?

Thanks for your help in advance.

sony makes a box. i have one that switches my daughters dvd & playstation. someone gave it to me i think he got it from sears but im sure the shack has something too.
Jake

I found this at Radio Shack online.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F010%5F011%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D1983

For $20, I think I am going to go pick one up and give it a shot.

I think I figured out how to do it without that box actually. I'm glad I kept looking at it before I left. There is a monitor out on the receiver that goes to the video in, which allows the TV to just be a display. I should then be able to hook up everything else to receiver. I'm still trying to get it all put back together, so we'll see. I started thinking about that other box, and didn't see why it would be able to do something that my receiver couldn't already, with all the jacks it has. I think I'm going to be ok and just needed to think about it all a little more.

I used this type of situation as an excuse to get a new AV reciever. I'm guessing this isn't a good solution for you...

Yeah, using the avr to switch video is fine for the most part. Some videophiles may worry about the extra stage that the source material has to go thru when passing thru the receiver. But I wouldn't worry about it unless you are sending HDTV via component or DVI thru the receiver. Besides, if you had a DVI switching receiver, it's probably high end anyways.

I got it all working through the receiver. Thanks for the suggestions. The only downside ends up being that my wife will now have to relearn what the receiver has to be set to for certain things to work. I'll admit, it is a little confusing that you have to set the receiver to video1 to play a DVD instead of to DVD (DVD is used for the SACD player, since it is the only place on the receiver that has room for all the SACD hookups.)

UPGRADE ALERT!

You can "help" your wife w/ a universal remote. I currently use a Harmony 688 and love it. Push one button and it does macros to turn on the display to the correct input, turns on the receiver to the right input, set the desired sound mode, turns on the correct component (like DVD, Tivo, etc). My wife then doesn't have to learn any of the components. And there's a help button to guide her if something goes wrong. There's the Home Theatre MX500 that similar to that. Anything that supports macros is the best. I also use a URC6131 ($15 from circuit city), which duplicates the other remotes but it doesn't do macros.

It's on my shopping list. I am debating between the Harmony and MX700. I am trying to get a demo setup of the Harmony, so that I can see it in action to compare it to the MX700, which I have already seen. It sounds like the Harmony is easier to setup, but doesn't have all of the functionality that the MX700 does.

My wife HATES dealing w/ the complexity of our HT. Her dad has an MX500 and we both HATE it, probably because the a/v consultant (not me) who set it up did a poor job, not even using macros. I won't even watch tv there, we'll watch in the kitchen.

When I got the 768, it was a little tough for her to grasp. Now w/ the 688, she likes it and doesn't worry about what to do. Granted, all she does it use the TV for HD Tivo and DVDs for our kid. She was able to use the 6131 but w/o the macros, it's tough to "explain" all the button presses.