[carter840]

Alright so I have just spent the last hour reading about pip and am still helpless.


To start I have the following:


Comcast supplied CISO RNG200 DVR cable box

Sony EX55 TV

Dennon 2310 AVR

Harmony 900


So what I seem to keep coming across is that my TV needs to have a dual tuner for pip, and from my research I couldn't find any proof that my TV does. That said I don't understand why my TV has anything to do with it. If the cable box can do pip (and CISO says it can) why should be TV have to, isn't it just a monitor of sorts. I am also wondering if there is anyway my AVR can help me out.


I guess it just annoys me that I can't get something like pip which is pretty basic despite my expensive setup.


Any advice? Thanks

 

[Weags]

While your box may be able to do pip , I would assume it would be up to the cable provider to enable this feature. If it is not working when you hit the pip button on your cable remote I'm guessing it isn't enabled on the box.


If that is the case, the other options you have would be to get another cable box so you would now have two tuners or put a two way splitter before the box. One wire to TVs ant/cable input and the other to the box. This would limit the channels you could get in pip depending on what your TVs tuner will receive. In other words, one of the pip tuners (the cable box) will receive all of your channels, the other pip tuner(your TVs tuner) will be limited to unencrypted channels that it can tune. And those will vary depending on your cable system.


IMHO, pip is just not worth the hassle. It sounds cool at first, and you may use it at first, but then it becomes a forgotten feature, at least with me it was. It's ultimately my preference to not bother with it but some people do like it.

 

[joed32]

Not many TVs include PIP anymore.

 

[sitlet]

You don't need a dual tuner pip if you have a cable box. The cable box will be on one hdmi input, then you run a coax to the wall or a splitter right to the tv for the cable input. You should be able to have the main picture on hdmi (the cable box) and the pip on the cable input. A dual tuner is only needed if you ONLY have one coax going to the tv and nothing else.

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carter840 So what I seem to keep coming across is that my TV needs to have a dual tuner for pip...

Not necessarily. If the TV has PIP capability, it may not need a dual tuner; it just needs PIP capability. In other words you could use two external sources for the two images in PIP, for example two cable boxes, or a cable box & DBS box, or Blu-ray player and PC, etc. Most sets that have PIP can use the internal TV tuner for one of the PIP images.

Quote:

That said I don't understand why my TV has anything to do with it. If the cable box can do pip (and CISO says it can) why should be TV have to, isn't it just a monitor of sorts.

No cableco enables PIP on any of the HD boxes available at this time. In other words the box is capable but the cableco does not allow it.

Quote:

I am also wondering if there is anyway my AVR can help me out.

Unless the AVR has PIP capability, no dice either.

Quote:

I guess it just annoys me that I can't get something like pip which is pretty basic despite my expensive setup.

Although it may seen 'pretty basic' to you, PIP in HD is a lot more complicted than it used to be. Only a few high end HDTV's have it, like the LED 7000 & 8000 series from Samsung.


Not sure if Sony offers it at this time, but if you can't find it in the owners manual, you are out of luck.

 

[Weags]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken H No cableco enables PIP on any of the HD boxes available at this time. In other words the box is capable but the cableco does not allow it.

I can vouch that at least one does. I had charter with what I think was an 8300dvr and they had pip active on the box. This is the only time I have seen it active though.

 

[domino92024]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/20792132


No cableco enables PIP on any of the HD boxes available at this time. In other words the box is capable but the cableco does not allow it.

Hmmm...coulda sworn that I was using PIP on my Cox issued SA 8240HDC DVR today.

 

[Ken H]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Weags /forum/post/0


I can vouch that at least one does. I had charter with what I think was an 8300dvr and they had pip active on the box. This is the only time I have seen it active though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by domino92024 /forum/post/20793432


Hmmm...coulda sworn that I was using PIP on my Cox issued SA 8240HDC DVR today.

This is news to me. Since I've been at AVS, I've never seen or heard of any cableco enabling PIP on one of their boxes.

 

[rand512]

My cable box (scientific atlanta 8300HDC through time warner) can do it!

 

[Weags]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/0



This is news to me. Since I've been at AVS, I've never seen or heard of any cableco enabling PIP on one of their boxes.

We learn something new everyday. My experience with charter having it was about 4 years ago. It actually worked well but I haven't had a provider since that offers it.

 

[aemeeich]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/20792132


No cableco enables PIP on any of the HD boxes available at this time. In other words the box is capable but the cableco does not allow it.

My SA 8300HD from Time Warner in SE WI has PIP enabled, however, I never have used it.

 

[Ken H]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Weags /forum/post/20795290


We learn something new everyday.

Indeed.


My sincere thanks to all those who contributed to my lesson.