I've been stumped by this before. Happened again Wednesday. I got the cable box running thru the A/V receiver on a spare video input and everything sounds good. Client says "How do I get my PIP?" so I start shuffling cables.

Ran one cable TV line directly to Ant-A on the Mits RP and the cable box output to Ant-B; cable box to Video 1 on A/V now is no good since sound will only be from the cable box channel.

Back of TV has "Tuner/Monitor out" jacks so I bring cable box output to Input 1 on the TV and tuner/monitor out from the TV back to Video 1 on AVR. No good; it's only an output for the tuner, so the Input 1 signal doesn't loop back out to the AVR.

Now I ensure that both PIP inputs are internal tuners (Ant-A and Ant-B) on TV. Now I get audio out the TV to the AVR when I swap PIP. Done, right? Wrong! The mits only displays Ant-A in the PIP window with Ant-B full screen, not vice-versa. So I hear the sound when I swap but the picture won't display one of the two ways.

Mits needed to display both tuners in PIP mode or loop the Input-1 signal to the tuner/monitor out jacks. Either one would have worked.

Other than some serious automation (which a low end customer isn't interested in) is there a work around?

Tom,
This one got my attention. Any chance of getting a model number?
Jeff

Years ago, there used to be a mode on the Mitsubishi TV's called something like "home theater mode" or some similar name. Not sure what they call it now. If you ran the A/V outputs from the TV to the receiver, this allowed the sound to follow the picture in picture.

Also, most TV's fo not allow picture in picture to be fed through both antenna inputs. One of the PIP sources must be from one of the video inputs.

Cable boxes complicate things further...

Tom,

even though I always try to talk customers out of using PIP (a giant source of service calls) heres the hook-up to make it work as seamlessly as possible.

Take the raw cable feed before the box and split it with a two way

Run one leg directly into the Mits TV tuner input.
Run the other leg into the cable box input.

If using a VCR:

Run the cable box audio/video line level output into VCR EXT line level input.

Run the VCR's video output to the Receiver( choose any video input, I usually use VCR-1

Run an audio pair out of the VCR output into the TV EXT-1 input.

Run your Receivers monitor output into the Mits EXT-1 video input.

Run the TV's Audio output into the same input on your receiver that the video coming from the VCR is hooked up to.

Operation is simple.
Turn on VCR make sure it on EXT to receive cable signal.
Turn on TV and select EXT-1
Turn on receiver and select VCR-1
Change channel using cable box

When you hit PIP the TV's EXT-1 will be in one picture and the raw cable signal will be on TV's antenna input. When you issue the swap command for the TV's PIP, the audio will swap with the picture without the customer having to do anything to the receiver.

Playing a VCR tape is also easy, just pop in a tape, the receiver is already on the correct input.

Keep in mind that in this scenario everything is analog. If you have a digital connection on the cable box you should make that connection to the receiver with either the S-VHS or component if its a high definition cable box.

I know it seems like a rubiks cube of cables but it works. Let me know if you prefer a diagram. end me an E-mail or fax and I will send you one.

I think that takes me back to my problem of no audio out from the TV when Ext-1 is selected.

Tom, this is also a response to your last post.

In the paragraph above, do you mean you "get audio out the TV" on the other audio output? I thought Mits TVs had Tuner/Monitor out PLUS another output that followed what was chosen by the remote, so when I first read your post, I thought you meant "I take the Audio Out" (capitalized because it is a named set of jacks).

Anyway, you definitely will not get the Ext-1 audio out of the Tuner/Monitor jacks; if you get no audio on Ext-1 from the other output, then something is wrong with the TV. That is the way it works. In fact, the few times I have done such a hookup, I have used g1130's approach, and I never ran across a circumstance where I would use the Tuner/Monitor output.

Tom,

I've done this a million times...trust me it works. think about it. When EXT-1 is chosen on the TV the cable audio goes through the TV to the receiver via the VCR1 input. Most of the Mits TV's pass fixed audio out of the TV and also allow you to use the TV spkrs if you have kids and don't want them to mess with the stereo stuff.

Just follow the diagram!!!!

Are you trying to give him audio from both his TV speakers and A/V reciever from any combination? Good luck. My old boss used to try to do that for his clients and his reasoning behind it was "Sometimes people just don't want to listen to it through their A/V system". Everything was hooked up with all their outputs...compnent, composite, S-vid, digital, analog...etc. It's a waste of time, and the final wiring job looks like a mess. Not only that, but it makes operating the system not only confusing to us, but even more confusing to the client. I used to explain to my clients that it wasn't worth it to hook things up that way, and then asked them to explain why they didn't want to listen through their AV reciever. I always got the same answer. "It's too loud"...I used to come back with "Well, then turn it down, and switch your subwoofer off". It's a lot easier then two sets of instructions where one is more confusing than the other. If you give your clients too many options they will run with it and make the setup rediculous, because they don't want to give up their "old way" of watching tv. If you tell them "this is how it should be" they will trust you because you are the expert, and they will learn how to operate it correctly. Now, if you set it up so all the sound is directed through the reciever you could easily set it up to switch sound with the pip video by setting a macro on the curser buttons. I have mine set up so when you press to the right it switches the reciever to the source in the right window, and the opposite for the left. It works great.

My brother, dont get stuck here.
Just explain to him that he must choose between using pip OR having simple operation of the system he originally had you design. The way PIP was designed on his particular set DOESN'T mix with, and is last priority to the audio setup. Even if it was to work, he would NEVER continue using it because of the pain in the butt factor of getting it setup. Guarantee it.
This is the point at the end of your install where the customer is faced with writing a check. He is going to look for things, probe you, etc. (I think clients perceive PIP as something simple to enable with a full home theater, and that hooking it up was simply forgotten or ignored. (This has to be the case , but on a few occasions my clients mentioned something about it at the beginning, in which case I could tell him "Ill try" to make it work. You're credibility factor will be much higher if you are prepared to defend yourself, rather that having it look like it IS possible or that its even a typical practice to use PIP with HT (when you keep trying, it appears as though it should work but you just cant figure it out.) At this point, you must explain to him that you should have never tried. If he has a problem with this, have him tell you where he has EVER seen it work like this, a friend, some other showroom, whatever. You could even make a $100 bet with him!!

This message was edited by freddyfreeload on 06/06/04 10:28.

This is absolutely true. PIP is a function of a television set, not a home theater.

thank you brotha!
sorry!!!!

This message was edited by freddyfreeload on 06/06/04 19:45.

lol... Freddy... "deb1919" is not a "Miss" Hes a dude.... Doug..... I suspect the 'deb' has someting to do with his initials.....

You are correct, my friend. That ID goes back to 1994 when I first got online on Delphi and had to pick my first username. A friend advised me to choose a name that was not gender-specific, so I used my initials and the year my dad's family emigrated to the US (mom's side came sometime around 1730).

Now you all know more than you ever wanted to. ;))

Doug @ HomeWorks

And it might help to pronounce it Tee-Vee with a Gomer Pyle accent, just to make the point.

Point out thas this was thought up by TeeVee designers who were so in love with their products that they could not envision them being just monitors...if they had known that was on the horizon, all the inputs would probably be F-connectors. Remember when a Video Switching System was a black box with forty F-connectors on it?

Same guys.

This was the only audio out on the back. It only supplied audio when an internal tuner was selected. As soon as I changed inputs to Ext-1, it went silent.