Samsung DirecTV HD receiver

[jvo8]

Does anyone know how comparable this unit is to the Sony's DirecTV HD rec.? I have the Samsung and when watching HD programs, its perfect. But when watching reqular sat. signail stations, (ie. local, MTV..) the quality is very poor. I thougt if might be the TV, but when I switched to a rec. Sony/RCA sat. box, I did notice a difference in color and quality of the non HD stations. Any advice?

I'm currently using Monster THX component cable for the Samsung unit. when tesing with other units, I used reg. s-video. TV is the Samsung DLP 50". Thanks.

[57U]

Some STBs do not output SD channels well on the component connection. Try the S-video connection and see if that's better for the SD channels. I know you'll need to change inputs, but that's what a lot of us do.

See the FAQ post on Cables & Connections.

[Lowpro]

The component outputs on the Samsung box will only output at the resolution that's been set via the hard switch on the back of the unit. It does not matter what type of programming you are watching. Often times upconverted 480i programming will look worse depending on your display. The composite and s-video outputs always output 480i and for many people standard programming looks better using these outputs. Run both component and s-video to your set and only switch to component when you are watching HD programming. That's really the best solution with the SIR-TS160.