On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 03:15:34 -0600, Do What?
wrote:

Speaking of your avg, run of the mill Sony, Pioneer, etc. home theater
receiver...

Why have built-in cable tv tuners never been introduced to these? (or
have they & Im just unaware?)
Again, obviously Im not talking about some ultra-high-end setup, just
your typical receivers that someone walks out of Best Buy with.

They are pretty much designed to be the hub of the entertainment
system.. with just about all A/V sources being able to be plugged
into the receiver, and have 1 output to the tv. So why not include a
cable-tv tuner?

Obviously w/ the cable co's trying to push everyone towards digital, a
stand-alone box is needed, but that was never the case w/ the standard
basic cable.

It would be a nice feature, but I agree with the other posters
that it would go unused by too many people to make it a worthwhile
inclusion. My setup's not exotic by any stretch, but between the TV,
the VCR, and the TiVo, I already have three cable tuners - I don't
need a fourth.

A feature that I think *would* be a benefit to a lot of people
would be if the average "run of the mill" home theater receiver could
convert composite video inputs into S-video outputs.

To use my system as an example, I had S-video outputs from my
TiVo and DVD player, but only a composite output from my VCR. Even
though I could connect all three components to my receiver, there was
no way to make the VCR composite signal appear at the receiver's
S-video output. As a result, I had to connect both the S-video and
composite outputs from the receiver to the TV, and switch inputs at
the TV depending on whether I wanted to watch an S-video source or a
composite source. I got tired of that in a hurry and just got a S-VHS
VCR that has an S-video output so I could eliminate all the composite
connections entirely.

As you say, home theater receivers are designed to be the hub
of the system, with all the A/V sources plugged into them, and
providing one output to the TV. Too bad you can't do that unless all
of your sources use the same type of output.

Scott Gardner