Have your say & ask the experts

ive just looked at back of hd box and no it dosnt have component outputs, has audio L&R and s-video.

just looked at my sky settings and it is set to auto, although my amp is set to 1080i for hdmi, so im guessing my amp is doing the upscaling not my tv? it looks really good on sd at the mo.

Firstly (as j4mm3r has stated) the Philips 9664 has a fairly soft scaler though it looks fine with a very good transmission. Many transmissions are not fine though and they look soft. Normal def TV is not my long term priority, so the TV's other positives were more important to me. I would like to be able to upscale Sky before it gets to the TV therefore. I have become aware (as many are pointing out) that Sky HD boxes no longer have a set of component outs – pah. The older ones did as daveh75 with his unusual looks points out (I am calling the kettle black).

Oldboy – yes it gets worse! Keep as active as you can is my suggestion as I became rather immobilised when my back went and lost a lot of stamina and flexibility. So hard to get it back and I put on much lard. I had made up my mind about the Sony amp (with that extra optical input and cheaper price tag), but the non upscaling of HDMI has thrown me in to total disarray. I hope my last question to you regarding your PS3 problems has at least put you on a route to relief (I may be overstating my part in that). We ARE all friends on here, but we occasionally misunderstand and bang the keys before we get our brains in gear (I mean me by the way).

Back to j4mm3r – wise sage and nice amp owner. From reading the Denon website, the 1901 does not upscale HDMI to HDMI, only analogue to HDMI. The spec for the 2310 shows it does the lot and from some surfing yesterday (when I should have been sanding) I see that amps below the price point of your Denon (from any manufacturer) don't scale HDMI-HDMI. You seem to have managed to get your amp at a good price as the best I've found is £759, but that is £359 more than I was about to spend and it is not really justified by the speakers I have either. I would have to go without something else to get the 2310 and it's probably my other half (of 17 years!).

Your plasma (I presume) upscales normal def more kindly the_lhc, so this probably sounds like a pointless discussion to you. I have found most of the standard def I watch is OK, but it would be nice to be able to experiment with upscaling outside the TV without buying a very pricey amp.

It's interesting as a topic too.....

j4mm3r:

just looked at my sky settings and it is set to auto, although my amp is set to 1080i for hdmi, so im guessing my amp is doing the upscaling not my tv?

Yes, certainly sounds like it.

Badamz:

Gosh – I don't look at this thread for a few hours and I'm bombarded with facts & questions.I may have to learn a thing or two from the_lhc as his cut and paste technique

Cut and paste? Pish and tosh dear chap! Try clicking the "quote" link, rather than "reply" when you want to include someone else's comments. Doing it my way will require you to add additional "quote"s and "/quote"s (with [ ] round both the bit's in "". I can't actually type that as it treats it as a quote block!) everytime you interrupt a quote with your own comments. It's not difficult though.

Your plasma (I presume) upscales normal def more kindly the_lhc,

I believe it's supposed to be quite good, but to be honest I've not compared it to anything else, other than the Sky box itself.

so this probably sounds like a pointless discussion to you. I have found most of the standard def I watch is OK, but it would be nice to be able to experiment with upscaling outside the TV without buying a very pricey amp.

Not at all, I'll be trying it out once I've upgraded my amp, it's all useful info.

I'm getting lonely i need to speak to someone, i know... Badamz!

Badamz, not sure im understanding you correctly but the denon avr-1910 definatley upscales hdmi-hdmi (unless ive made error). Ive checked the user manual and its def there, same settings procedure as mine, and ive re-read the what hifi review online and the magazine and whf state...

'And, while analogue video upconversion and upscaling are features found in the majority of amps available, the Denon also features HDMI-to-HDMI upscaling.'

have i misunderstood? perhaps Andrew or Clare could clarify?......

This online dating business is getting out of hand! J4mm3r - you understand me perfectly (and hopefully can put up with my sense of humour - though sense is not a word that can reasonably be applied to my humour).

Having read your info above, I went straight to the WHF 1910 review and you are 100% correct (although since you are quoting above you could hardly be wrong). However, the Denon site says this for the 1910 (I'm copying and pasting and it's doing strange things to this post, so allow for spaced out format etc.):

Scaler

480p / 576p / 720p / 1080i / 1080p (for analogue Video-Signals > HDMI-output)

Whereas for your superior fancy-pants 2310 is says:

Scaler

Analog and HDMI-Source -> HDMI-Output: 480/576p / 720p / 1080i / 1080p

Both Denon and WHF cannot be correct (since they are mutually exclusive spec descriptions). My head is starting to hurt. Maybe I should just contact Denon - though a comment from any of the WHF team would be welcome since we are quoting them and maybe I'm contradicting their review.

* I have just emailed Denon as the extended spec page maybe suggests it does - despite the above. I have read too many spec sheets and I am fatigued with it all, so allow for a silly old twit.

* Denon got straight back to me and said "The AVR 1910 will upscale both analogue and HDMI. This is definable." Looks like it's the Denon for me then.

As always - thanks for keeping me thinking.

PS: I put this earlier but it seems to have got lost.... Last night and once last week, we got up to find the telly was on. I had switched it off at the side touch control (not put it in standby with the remote). The Ambilight went off, the picture went off - the TV seemed to be off (totally dark in an unlit room). In the morning the Ambilight was on, the backlight was on (no picture as Sky on standby). What's going on there then? I have emailed Philips. Will reply with theirs.....

I've not heard back from Philips yet (though I have 100% confidence they will get back by the 4 working days they state, as I have found then very helpful up to now). I have not turned it off at the mains, simply because it is a little awkward as all the AV stuff is connected to a Belkin surge protector 8 way block and I leave this on as the Sky box and DVDR are left on standby (oh - how anti-green) and it is rather back bending to unplug the TV where the Belkin is at the moment (and flexibility in the back department is not my speciality). It is a little worrying though (and Spooky as you noted).

Anyway - I'm looking into ordering an AVR-1910 this week. Nobody seems to offer it at even a penny under SRP though which is a bit anti-competitive I think. I remember early 2001 when we got our Kef Eggs (the first ones out). The place we were going to get them from online was prevented from selling them anymore as he had been offering them at a lower price (£70 off) and Kef stopped supplying him - that's what he told us. Some stuff does not seem to get discounted, but it is annoying when the Sony amp I considered is £500 SRP, but you can get it for £400, but the Denon is £450 is £450 is £450 and ever shall be......

The flipside of this moaning is that I think it is worth £50 more than the (very capable) Sony.

* 2:45 this after (Wed) Philips have got back to me and want me to email my firmware vesion details.

The conclusion (theirs) is that the TV is being 'tripped' on by connected equipment. My conclusion is that I would prefer a 'proper' mechanical off switch on the TV that means off is off as with a touch button it is only electronically isolated from the mains. Call me old fashioned. They could have put one on the back (like a switched PC PSU). If they think this is the problem, clearly the thing is not fully off – how would it know about a signal from a connected device if it was fully off? I'm not worried about there being a fault as it has been fine otherwise. They suggested leaving it overnight with nothing connected, but it has only done it twice and I can't be bothered ripping everything out night after night as I drag myself up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire..... It will be unplugged from now on (that is only difficult in our 'temporary' tv on a table set up. It will be going on the wall soon (borrowed my Brother's SDS drill yesterday for cable-wall-penetration!)). I'm running a dedicated spur with a fused switch.

It has not come on from Standby.

We ordered a Denon AVR-1910 on Saturday. Managed to find it a bit cheaper (£435 delivered) so looking forward to a chunky arrival this week.

The floodlit Grand Prix looked very good (and watched it in the evening with the Amblight as we were out at my Mother's 70^th do in the afternoon).

Hi badamz,

Update on lip sync problems with my ps3 and new tv, it seems that if i connect the ps3 via the Anynet plus (hdmi-cec) feature on the tv it is recognised as a playstation3 and it has an effect on the lag i was experiencing, it seems to really cut down (but not eradicate) the ammount of lag i suffer across formats on the ps3, i presume this is down to the fact that the tv and ps3 are now 'talking' to each other over hdmi? Either way it is alot better since i done that with only occasional manual lip sync now needed, not perfect but it's liveable with now woohoo!!

That's strange that problem with your Phillips tv as i have had a similar problem, my tv had been turning the channel over by itself and turning on also by itself until i found that my vbox was over riding the tv even when on standby due to it being connected via (gasp, i know hd high on list) scart. Just needed to turn off the auto detect on the vbox and it's been fine since but i'm with you on this, if by turning the power off it's not actually off then what is the point? My tv is even worse....there is no power off button atall, all you can do is put it on standby no matter whether you turn it off via the remote or the power button on the tv meaning unplugging is the only way to actually turn if off, just what happened to the old fashioned off button?

Good choice with the amp (cue intense jealousy rising!) don't you just love those big boxes full of shiny new equipment when they arrive at your door! lol.