OK, time for a really stupid question..

[twwesn]

I will be in the process of moving shortly and tearing down my existing TV and components and reassembling them in my new house. I have never hooked up any video portion of the following components (DVD, VCR, XBox) to my receiver, only the audio. What do I gain by running the video thru the receiver (I will have a new Onkyo 601)?? I was always under the assumption that any connection will result in signal loss so I've always run the video directly from the sources to the TV. Man do I feel dumm so take it easy on me!!

[Woochifer]

It's all about convenience. Running the video through the receiver allows you to do your audio and video switching through a single remote. It also minimizes the amount of cable that you need since most of the equipment will be closer to the receiver than the TV, and you only need one output running to the TV with the receiver controlling the video switching..

[Geoffcin]

I will be in the process of moving shortly and tearing down my existing TV and components and reassembling them in my new house. I have never hooked up any video portion of the following components (DVD, VCR, XBox) to my receiver, only the audio. What do I gain by running the video thru the receiver (I will have a new Onkyo 601)?? I was always under the assumption that any connection will result in signal loss so I've always run the video directly from the sources to the TV. Man do I feel dumm so take it easy on me!!

My old Pioneer VSX-5500 had rudimentary video noise reduction and sharpening. I had the VCR running through it for a time, but it was only with composite. Right now I have two component video cables going directly into the TV, but if my TV didnt accept two component inputs I would be forced to use the receiver as a switch.

With DVI you should be able to do digital processing in the receiver, but I think that it might be too costly to add that to most receivers.

[ciscokid1970]

The only time I recommend that people combine all the video signals in the receiver then go to the TV is if they TV only has one input.

BUT if your TV has multiple inputs...use em.

Reasons:
1. Loss of video quality...more cables, more connections...more possibility to add noise to the signal.

2. Different sources will give different video level outputs...since it is going to only one video connection on your TV you have to calibrate to look good for the vcr or the dvd player. But if they are on seperate inputs the contrast, color and brightness can be uniqe per device.

3. less cables...for example you own a DVD player and VCR if they are different formats like s-video, component video and composite. So you will still have to buy more than one type of cable. And sometimes it is cheaper to buy 2 sets of 6foot cables than 2 sets of 3foot cables and one set of 6 foot cables.

see ya