What kind of cable box for Samsung PN50B850 HDTV

[swimmerken]

I recently purchased the Samsung plasma 50" HDTV. Its display format is 1080p. I do not yet have a TV provider, but from what I can find out from the websites of Bell TV and Rogers Cable and various posts to Digital Forum I am leaning toward the latter as the lesser to two evils.

In any event I now need a receiver which is up to the capabilities of the HDTV. The closest on which i can get any information is the Pace DC551 which Rogers offers. I like the ability to feed my current component DVD which is 480p and other AV devices such as my two camcorders through it and then via an HDMI connection to the HDTV.

I have nevertheless two concerns. First, I can't determine from information on the Rogers or the Pace website whether this model has 1080p capability or stops at 1080i. Second, the general specs provided by Pace say that the HDMI is version 1.0; whereas the Samsung manual for my model says that less than version 1.3 will cause colour attenuation.

Can anyone enlighten me with respect to my two concerns?

[57]

1. There is no 1080P broadcast, so 1080i is the maximum, althought the Pace STB does allow for "passthrough" of other signals (480i, 720P). HDMI 1.3 is not required for this STB, so 1.0 is perfectly adequate.

2. I'm not sure if the STB "transcodes" incoming component video to the HDMI outgoing port - it may, it may not - check the specs. Even if it does transcode, it may not be the best transcoder out there...

3. I would suggest that you'd do better connecting your devices directly to the TV with the best possible connection, provided you have the connections on the TV. If not, you could also consider an external switch.

4. The Pace STBs have been quite problematical and I do not recommend their use - instead suggest the SA4250HD STB, or the SA8300HD PVR. The SA8300HD does have an "aux" port on the front, but only for composite video and analogue audio, which is transcoded to the HDMI output.

See the following post, useful for those new to HD - FAQs, Search Tips, Optimization, etc.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

[swimmerken]

Thanks for your response.

1. There is no 1080P broadcast, so 1080i is the maximum,

Sorry. Perhaps I confused the broadcast maximum with presumably the maximum provided by other media, e.g. BluRay. The manufacturer's specifications say this HDTV is 1080p capable and may for that reason recommend HDMI version 1.3 (or later?).

although the Pace STB does allow for "passthrough" of other signals (480i, 720P). HDMI 1.3 is not required for this STB, so 1.0 is perfectly adequate.

2. I'm not sure if the STB "transcodes" incoming component video to the HDMI outgoing port - it may, it may not - check the specs. Even if it does transcode, it may not be the best transcoder out there...

The manufacturer's specs say it does transcode.

3. I would suggest that you'd do better connecting your devices directly to the TV with the best possible connection, provided you have the connections on the TV. If not, you could also consider an external switch.

That is part of the problem. This Samsung model, which only became available in Canada last month, is so advanced that it has four HDMI inputs, but only one component input (red-blue-green RCA pins), the green input of which also serves as the AV video (yellow) input. It will not accept AV input if the yellow pin is substituted for the green one if the red and blue pins are left attached. So, if I want to switch between my current DVD player and one of my camcorders, I have to remove completely from the back of the HDTV all three component video pins an insert the AV yellow pin in the green input. This is a bad feature of this Samsung model.

4. The Pace STBs have been quite problematical and I do not recommend their use - instead suggest the SA4250HD STB, or the SA8300HD PVR. The SA8300HD does have an "aux" port on the front, but only for composite video and analogue audio, which is transcoded to the HDMI output.

Since I want to rent the STB for the time being I could try the Pace model, and if it proves too problematical have Rogers exchange it. The advantage of this Pace model is that it does have both component and AV inputs. If however I try the Pace and it becomes too problematical I could change to the SA8300HD, and with an external switcher I could use the AV output from the DVD player instead of the component output. All the foregoing arrangements would be pending upgrade in time to external media devices which are up to the capabilities of the HDTV.

See the following post, useful for those new to HD - FAQs, Search Tips, Optimization, etc.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

Quite interesting. Thank you.

[swimmerken]

I forgot to mention in my previous post that in view of the limitations for component and AV inputs for that particular Samsung HDTV model, I will have to use an external switcher for AV devices regardless of which option mentioned in that post I end up choosing.

[57]

In light of your last post, I would suggest an A/V switcher that could handle all your needs, or perhaps an AVR that could handle all the switching. Make sure you get an AVR that transcodes the incoming signals to the outgoing HDMI. See the following for AVR features.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76082

You don't mention what you have in terms of an existing AVR.