so how does the HD300 work with composite out?

[SomeWhatLost]

thinking about getting my parents an HD300 + sageTV combo...
V7 seems pretty stable, so my sageTV technical support duties should be pretty light/non-existent... but they only have old TV's, so no HDMI or component...
and I only have HD200's... so I really cant test it out either... anyone with direct experience with HD300's and composite?

[SomeWhatLost]

16 people have viewed this, and no comment on composite?
I realize that Composite is an old and icky technology...
but really? no one has used a modern Media Extender, a pretty good one by all accounts, with a crappy old TV?
I know the quality wont be at the Component or HDMI level of goodness, but still, is it usable?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

16 people have viewed this, and no comment on composite?

Seriously? You waited less than two hours to start scolding people for not answering? That's got to be some sort of record (but not one you should be proud of).

For what it's worth, the one time I connected my HD300 via composite to an old CRT TV, it worked fine for the two minutes I tried it. It works less well connected to the composite input of my PVR500 card, but I've already posted on that in another thread, which you could probably find in about 30 seconds by doing a forum search on "HD300 composite".

[reggie14]

I had an HD300 connected to an SD TV before I got a small HDTV in my bedroom. As I think GKusnick and I discussed in a different thread, it didn't go so well for me. It worked, but the colors were all screwed up. I was able to mess with the saturation and hue settings on my TV to make it look acceptable, but then I couldn't use my DVD player on that TV without messing with the color settings again.

Your mileage my vary. I tried the same HD300 with the same breakout cable on my newer HDTV and it worked fine. I had no intention of using composite video with my new TV, I just was just curious if it worked.

[gplasky]

If they are only watching from old TVs it's not going to look any different if they're watching via composite from a HD300 or some other source. A compostie signal is a composite signal. It's not going to be any better or any worse. It ill probably also depend on how old the TV is. As you can see reggie14 had an issue. I tried it on a small 9" color tv and it worked fine. Didn't watch it for long.

Gerry

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Seriously? You waited less than two hours to start scolding people for not answering? That's got to be some sort of record (but not one you should be proud of).

oh, I am not scolding anyone... I guess mild amusement doesn't come across very well in a text post...
I probably could of phrased that better, or added more smilies or something...

so technically the old record still stands just out of curiosity who holds the old record?

I know about some of the 'problem' post's, I looked at those... I was mostly looking for people to come by and say 'it's fine, for what it is' which you usually don't get to much in 'problem' post's....

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by gplasky

If they are only watching from old TVs it's not going to look any different if they're watching via composite from a HD300 or some other source. A compostie signal is a composite signal. It's not going to be any better or any worse.

that is not actually true...
yes, the upper level of goodness is limited by the transmission technology, but unfortunately composite is analog, so the Level of Goodness is also effected by the quality of the components used and how well they are laid out..
with composite, its very old tech, and I am sure there are a bunch of standard layouts/bom's already out there that work great that can just be copied, but on the other hand it is very old, and it could be that no one cares any more...
ie it has just become a check mark on a marketing check list... but it doesn't matter how well it works...

[sharky905]

I have hooked up the composite a few time from my HD300 to an older Sony SD TV - looks fine - never had a problem. If they haven't upgraded their tv yet, they will be happy with the composite signal from the HD300.

[SomeWhatLost]

thanks, that is what I was hoping for...

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

thanks, that is what I was hoping for...

Worst case is that if you have a problem with the composite out on the HD300 (which I have seen a few people reporting issues), is why not switch out one of your HD200's for the new HD300? I don't recall ever seeing an issue with composite out with those. Just saying.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Worst case is that if you have a problem with the composite out on the HD300 (which I have seen a few people reporting issues), is why not switch out one of your HD200's for the new HD300? I don't recall ever seeing an issue with composite out with those. Just saying.

I don't know about SomeWhatLost's case, but one of my biggest reasons for getting the HD300 was to get something that decoded DTS. I'm starting to get blu-ray movies, and not all of them have a Dolby Digital track. So, swapping my HD300 and my HD200 (which was connected to a surround sound receiver) wasn't a good option.

In the end it worked out fine. Sure, I wish composite video from the HD300 would have worked better on my old SDTV, but I just used that problem as an excuse to get a nicer TV in my room! It was a good move.

[BobbyDing]

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents for those lurking this thread in the future. I have an HD200 and HD300 running with SageTV 7, Win XP. At present (and for the past 18 months) I use only composite outs on SDTV's. I can say it works just great playing SD and HD content (once you set proper over scan settings on the extenders). I'm hoping to add a couple high def TV's next year if my budget allows.

Bobby

[Hunter69]

Well I setup the composite in my setup. What I did was purchase a HD300 to replace an HD200 in my bedroom due to bluray sound issues. The hd200 was shared among 3 tv's. I had hdmi to my main tv and composite to the other 2. I found that the hd300 had changed things and could not hook up the composite and hdmi for simultaneous output. So I had to switch off to component for the main tv and composite for the other 2. To make a long story short, I had picture stability issues for quite sometime. I thought the hd300 was at fault but after while I discovered it was another device used to distribute the signal. Since that discovery all has been rock solid stable.

As far as signal quality, no complaints. The only issue with the analog tv's is due to me mixing in 4x3 and 16x9 tv's. If I only had 4x3 then just the initial calibration would provide as good as a analog signal/480 pic can be.

I just thought I would include a little extra info on my setup in case you ever think about sharing your hd300 with other tvs. Remember
no simultaneous output with hdmi and composite/component. So if you ever set something like this up plan a way to connect component to a hi def tv and composite to the low def tv. Then you will need a way to share sound because the break only has one red and one white. Sorry for being long winded.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

I use only composite outs on SDTV's. I can say it works just great playing SD and HD content

after actually hooking it up and watching it a bit... I must say you are completely correct, it really does look great... it turns out I really was worried about nothing... sure it is better on a HD set, but the differences aren't at all that big...

[MrMark]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

thinking about getting my parents an HD300 + sageTV combo...
V7 seems pretty stable, so my sageTV technical support duties should be pretty light/non-existent... but they only have old TV's, so no HDMI or component...
and I only have HD200's... so I really cant test it out either... anyone with direct experience with HD300's and composite?

The HD300 works fine for me via composite video. It would look even better if it had S-Video capabilities, because that would solve a lot of hanging-dot issues, particularly on the menu screens, but unless your parents have a very good SDTV and a critical eye, they'll probably never miss the improvement that would come with an S-Video connection.

-Mark

[gregmac]

I still have a tube TV in my living room (which unfortunately works well enough that I can't really justify replacing). It has composite and s-video. I was disappointed for about two seconds that the extender doesn't have S-Video, but really -- if I was Sage, I probably would have made the same choice. If you care enough about the quality to really want S-video over composite, you're likely going to use component (which is even better) or HDMI.

I have the HD300 hooked up to the TV via composite, and the surround system (Logitech Z5500) via optical, and it works very well. Composite quality is good enough to drive the CRT, and of course the sound is excellent.

(Side note re Z-5500: this is an excellent system for use with a single-source system like SageTV. It doesn't have the switching capabilities of a full out receiver, but if you don't need that or can just use your TV's switching, it is great. It gives my $1500 system (Pioneer receiver and harman/kardon speakers) a run for it's money.. and I've seen the Z5500 on sale for as low as $200 on black friday).