HDTV Forum

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Hello to the great wealth of knowledge. I just had an interesting experience with our cable company (Cox) offering of a HD Cable/DVR box. I have been using a Audio Authority AV switch for some time and it works great. The setup was Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000HD switched through the Audio Authority Model 1154. Everything worked great. The 8000HD began to degrade somehow, including drop outs during recording etc. Long story short, I upgraded through the cable company (read free). They brought a SA Explorer 8300HD and plugged it into the existing cables (through the switch). The picture was faded; color off; not sharp; very bad. Tried another box, same results. We plugged the composit video cables into the monitor and it worked perfectly. I.e., the switch would not work with the new box. It worked with the older one and the DirecTV box and the DVD, but not the 8300HD.

What changed? I would think the signal would be the same. Anyone have any ideas here. I like the 1154 switch. It makes it very easy to go from one source to another. Just turn on the next source and it switches.

Marvin.

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As I recall there was some discussion on this on the AVSForum (don't recall which thread). The problem is that the 8300HD has direct coupled outputs (in other words, there is a DC component in them) and the Audio Authority switch has direct coupled inputs. The switch is solid state and the DC level from the 8300 screws the switch up. Fortunately, Audio Authority offers a $15 accesssory, contains 3 coupling capacitors to keep the DC out of their switch.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... ost6471156

I also believe that there have been similar problems when running 8300HD component outputs through certain Surround Sound receivers.

Dave Hancock