My older "HDTV ready" television (D52W20) doesn't have a HD tuner. I recently got an external HDTV tuner (Samsung H260F) and an indoor antenna. It works fine, and pulls in quite a few stations (I haven't really run the statistics yet), but only if it's connected to the component inputs.

The problem is that I don't have enough component inputs. I have 3 devices now that absolutely require some form of hi-def input, the progressive scan DVD player (for 480p), the XBox 360 (for 1080i), and now the external HDTV tuner.

I thought I'd get around this by using the DVI-D input. The tuner has a HDMI output, and there are loads of HDMI to DVI cables and converters. Except that in my case, they don't work. The result is a black and white image that's quite dim. It's not that the TV isn't HDCP compliant. It says it supports HDCP in the manual. If that were the problem, I shouldn't have any picture at all. Nor do is it the cable, I bought a $10 converter cable, and an $70 cable + adapter when that didn't work, and I get identical results with either one.

I know that a cheap switch box isn't the answer, because I have a cheap switch box for component inputs, and I got nasty problems with both the DVD player and the 360. Namely, screen blank outs with bright images with both sources, and occasional tearing of the image with the 360. Those problems when away when I did away with the switch box and went straight to the component inputs.

So I'm kind of stuck. DVI doesn't work, and I'm not sure what I can trust with the switch boxes. A lot of those run $200+, particularly the ones that switch optical audio, which all three sources produce.

- Gus

What resolution are you using over HDMI/DVI from the tuner?

I'm using 1080i. The TV is older, and only has support for 480i, 480p, and 1080i, no 720p support.

After some thought, my short term solution is to take the DVD player out, and see how I feel about using the 360 as a 480p DVD player.

A friend suggested that I look into getting a newer receiver with component input switching. That's an expensive solution, but it seems like it might be a good idea if I ever add another HD source (like a PS3), and it means I could do away with the external switching I'm currently doing for optical audio, since my current receiver only has 1 optical audio input. I'm not sure how to search on # of component / optical inputs, though, or how to tell if the receiver's HD switching won't suffer from the problems I saw from HD switching before.

- Gus

More information: I just tested it, and the DVI input does work at 480p, just not at 1080i. Of course that defeats the purpose of the HDTV tuner.

- Gus

is the little "slide switch" on the back of the 260F set to 1080i ?

Yes. Initially I had the slide switch at 1080i, which gave me the dim B&W image. Shifting it to 480p gave me a full color image, but as I said, 480p is not really what I want.

- Gus

In a lot of cases that is the best they will do.

Does it give you the 1080i out of the component outputs ?

From page 2 of the manual:
DVI-HDTV Input
Lets you connect a component with a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) output. DVI provides an uncompressed, digital video
interface developed for high-bandwidth digital connection. It supports the overlay of high-resolution graphics needed by
some electronic program guide navigation and other interactive services. DVI, when combined with HDCP (High bandwidth
Digital Content Protection) technology, creates a protected digital connection. The DVI-HDTV connection is designed to
display either progressive scan (480p) or HDTV (1080i) signals at a bandwidth of up to 1.78 Gigabits per second.

Yes, I do get 1080i from the component output of the tuner, and that works fine. I'm pretty much 100% certain at this point that it's a limitation of the DVI on this TV. Or possibly a defect with the TV, but there's just no way to test that input with another source.

- Gus

Because it is kind of aged, the TV doesn't support 720p/1080i DVI-HDCP.

Yes, I do get 1080i from the component output of the tuner, and that works fine. I'm pretty much 100% certain at this point that it's a limitation of the DVI on this TV. Or possibly a defect with the TV, but there's just no way to test that input with another source.

- Gus

While it sure does seem to be the case, do you have a source verifying that the lack of 1080i support through DVI is intentional? This particular TV has no support for 720p through any input, but it seems pretty silly that they'd support 1080i through component but not through the other HD input.

- Gus

It was by design. This RCA HDTV supports 1080i via component flawlessly, though.

While it sure does seem to be the case, do you have a source verifying that the lack of 1080i support through DVI is intentional? This particular TV has no support for 720p through any input, but it seems pretty silly that they'd support 1080i through component but not through the other HD input.

- Gus

BTW, are you sure the DVI-D cable you use is dual-link? The connector of a dual-link looks different from a single-link.

http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/dvi_info.html

Yes, I do get 1080i from the component output of the tuner, and that works fine. I'm pretty much 100% certain at this point that it's a limitation of the DVI on this TV. Or possibly a defect with the TV, but there's just no way to test that input with another source.

- Gus

The conversion cable I have is DVI-D single link.

EDIT: Apparently this is the only kind that exists. According to this (http://bluejeanscable.com/store/dvi/index.htm) web site:

We're often asked why there isn't a DVI-I to HDMI cable or a DVI-D Dual Link to HDMI cable; the reason is that HDMI (at least, the 19-pin version of HDMI implemented on all consumer HDMI devices) is a single-link, digital-only standard, so there's no way to hook it up either to a DVI analog or Dual-Link signal; one could build the cable, but the additional pins at the DVI end wouldn't actually be hooked up to anything.

- Gus

No, it won't. A quick search on dual-link HDMI -> DVI turned up the quote above.

- Gus

I've resolved this. I couldn't get the H260F's HDMI output to work correctly with this TV in any configuration, but after I connected the tuner to an Onkyo SR674 receiver via component cables, allowed that to convert the component signal to HDMI, and then connected the receiver to the TV via HDMI -> DVI, I got a perfect high-definition picture on the TV.

I also succeeded in connecting a Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player to the TV via HDMI -> DVI, but only if the Onkyo receiver was in the loop.

So. Yes, the DVI on the D52W20 can accept 1080i signals and display them correctly. However, it does not play nicely with at least two current HDMI sources. But it does work with the HDMI output of that receiver.

- Gus

Mine does 1080I perfectly via an HDMI to DVI cable. The 1080i source is an old Radio Shack Accurian DTV converter. I had to adjust the horizontal positioning, which is a menu option when using the DVI input.

Mine does 1080I perfectly via an HDMI to DVI cable. The 1080i source is an old Radio Shack Accurian DTV converter. I had to adjust the horizontal positioning, which is a menu option when using the DVI input.

myd52w20 has a lg3510 as the stb and i'm hooked via dvi from stb to tv works perfectly from day one.