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TWC HDTV Box S Video Out

301 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by John Mason, Oct 15, 2001

Ash Sharma

Discussion Starter · Oct 15, 2001

I am using a General Instrument Cable Box box with a seperate High Definition Decoder both provided by Time Warner In Houston.

Is there a way to get S Video out of this combination for non HDTV programs.

I am currently using the RCA out of the General Instrument Box which as you may agree is very bad quality.

I do get 8 HD Channels in Houston but lack of S Video is a bummer.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Ash

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TerryB

· #2 · Oct 15, 2001

There are different variations of the GI/Motorola box and sadly some of them do not have a SVideo out or a digital audio. I suggest you swap out your cable box if it doesn't have these useful options. It's a hassle getting everything setup properly again, thay have to hit your box after you install it, however if your a tinkerer, you can just take it in to the local TWC office and they will exchange it. I've got a 4:3 set and I use the s-vid. on most non HD stuff.

Good luck

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Ash Sharma

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 15, 2001

Terry,

Thanks for the response.

My cable box has dolby digital written on it. It does not have a S Video out but connects to the High Definition Decoder (this is a seperate box) through a high speed connection (a cable supplied by TWC).

The high definition decoder outputs Dolby Digital via a coax cable and has a S Video out connection too but once you set the output of this box to HDTV (native) it does not output S.

Ash

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RTChoke

· #4 · Oct 15, 2001

My digital box (Motorola DCT2224, not the HD decoder) from TWC Houston has an Svideo output which I plug into the TV for the regular channels.

Picture still looks bad. Sorta like drinking cheap wine in a crystal glass.

--R

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John Mason

· #5 · Oct 15, 2001

Quote:

Originally posted by RTChoke
My digital box (Motorola DCT2224, not the HD decoder) from TWC Houston has an Svideo output which I plug into the TV for the regular channels.

Picture still looks bad. Sorta like drinking cheap wine in a crystal glass.

Suggest you try using a component or RF output if possible. Using S-video for non-digital channels means you're employing a filter within the converter. That may produce dot crawl and overall poor images since built-in analog-to-S-video converters often aren't very effective. I find bringing the comb filter in my set into play (via RF or component inputs) makes images much better with my Scientific American 2000HD. Digital channels (above 80 here) are fine via S-video. In fact, as I've been commenting is a few threads recently, I believe that digital-channel cable movies here sometimes match the fidelity of DVDs.

On Ash's original query, don't think you should use the component out jacks of HDTV cable converters for anything but HDTV/DTV--unless a converter arrives that everyone agrees does the job for NTSC and ATSC (via component out). -- John

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