# Pioneer VSX-9140TXH - Upconverter and Image Quality



## engineers (Jun 7, 2010)

Hi,
I bought my first actual home theatre system yesterday: Pioneer VSX-9140TXH receiver and Polkaudio AM8559-A speakers. When I installed the system, the sound quality what outstanding, but the video quality was not good.

This is what I've connected to the receiver and how:

1- Sat box 1 (SD): connected by A/V Cables to the “DVD” port of the receiver.
2- Sat box 2 (SD): Connected by S-Video cable to the “TV/SAT” port of the receiver.
3- PS3 (HD-1080P): Connected by an HDMI cable to the “BD” port of the receiver. 

The receiver is connected to the TV (Samsung, don’t recall the model name, Full HD – 1080P) with an HDMI cable (I got it on sale for cheap, but it says on the box it is gold plated and …)

Now, I know this system upconverts SD video to HD, and I also know that it’s not going to be a significant improvement if my source is Cable TV + Digital box. However, I DO NOT expect the quality to drop neither. When sat boxes are directly connected to the TV, quality of the image is better than having them pass through the receiver. (I checked the setting and put the output resolution to 1080P!) 
To make sure, I tested blue ray videos on my PS3. Again, direct connection gives me a sharper picture than when I go through the receiver, even though the receiver should only send the signal through with no modifications. It doesn’t even give me access to the setting for output resolution in this case, because I’m using 1080P HDMI input. (I know the difference, because in darker scenes, the image is not sharp at all. When the screen goes black, I can see some areas with dark gray and some solid black.)

I’m not sure if I’ve messed up the wiring, setting or what else. Does anyone have an idea? Maybe have experienced the same issue? Any help is useful!

Thanks,

AH


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Make sure all video processing is turned off in the AVR, no noise reduction, color modification, or scaling...just pass it straight through to the TV. Then, you can experiment with scaling to the native resolution of the TV is you're still not happy about the quality.

For cables, HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite is the preferred order.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
I would highly recommend at least upgrading 1 of your Sat Receivers to HD. I could not imagine watching TV without HD.

That being said, it is surprising that you are getting noticeably worse performance by hooking up things throgh your AVR.
Cheers,
JJ


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Yes, check that you have a pass through mode on the AVR so that it does not touch the video, if you have and are still not happy then depending on how long you have had it I would get in touch with the dealership you bought it from and see if they can help or offer an alternative product depending on age?

Edit: That is if using HDMI only, if you are up scaling older types of connection then it still maybe faulty or just not very good at scaling and other video processing.


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## engineers (Jun 7, 2010)

Hi,

Well, I tried passing the signal through to the TV, but when I turn off the Upconversion and change the output res to "Pure" (meaning it sends the original signal through with no processing) the screen goes black and then the TV message pops up saying there is no signal. Well, I'll try using components instead of S-video and see if I can get a better picture.
Thanks guys,

AH


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

My assumption is that when you selected the "pure" mode you also turn off the HDMI conversion output for all analog video sources. Try running a component video connection between your display and the receiver.


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