Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
As others have indicated, if your picture quality looks better connected direct than it does patched through the receiver, then there you have your answer. And it sounds to me like you got a defective unit, or a setting is way off.

HDMI and component are the only connections with enough bandwidth to carry 720p/1080i/p HD signals. There's no way that a composite video connection should look better, if you know what a calibrated reference picture looks like. The only situation where this is conceivable would be if you're using 480i signals.

Back in the first generation of HDMI -connected HDTVs, you did have instances where the component video produced better picture quality than the HDMI connection. This was a case where the analog video circuitry in the TV was better than what they used in the digital signal path. With newer TVs, the HDMI connection will typically result in the best picture quality, and many of the latest TVs have begun phasing out analog video connections.

And beginning with this year's Blu-ray players, the analog video outputs are limited to composite connectors. You need to get this straightened out at some point, because analog video is disappearing.

In a worst case scenario, we could just go with an auto-sensing HDMI switch. I use an older receiver without HDMI switching, so my video sources are switched using an HDMI switch. I simply plug the sources in order of priority, and the picture going to the TV switches automatically as I turn video sources on and off. Very simple, and they cost less than $100. Some I've also seen selling for less than $40.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-001-_-Product

Look into those options if you have a problem receiver, but can't afford to replace it right now.
Be very careful about those auto sensing switchers. Every one I tried could not pass any audio above 24/48khz. That means no Bluray concert video's or music only disc with 24/192khz. They just played back at 24/48khz.