I have my flat panel TV mounted over the fire place. All of my components are located in my Utility room 45' away. My house was pre-wired for component connections and audio connections using RG6 coax, So I have 5 RG6 cables run there. I also have 2 runs of 16/4 speaker wire. One I use to pass the remote IR signal and the other is for the center channel speaker. In addition to this I also have a standard cable connection and telephone run. All of these boxes are in the brick behind the TV. (the brick is for looks only it is not a true brick fire place but it does go to the ceiling).

Currently I have a Comcast HD DVR (scientific atlantic) and a 5.1 A/V receiver. I will be adding a DVD player soon but wanted to get some ideas on what was the best setup.

I started just running the component video from the cable box to the TV and that worked just fine. Now I want to work in the receiver but really just for surround sound every now and then. Would I run the component and audio connection from the cable box to the receiver then from the receiver to the TV (my current receiver does not have HDMI) or just the audio?

When I add a DVD player will I need a video source switch or would I run it and the cable box to the receiver and let the receiver connect to the TV?

Would it be worth it to pull a HDMI cable from the utility room to the TV?

I know this all sounds elementary to you guys but I did search and read and have gotten some ideas, any help is appreciated.

Thanks

If you have more than one component input or anticipate more than one then you should run your connections to your receiver and let it switch the audio and video. If you have the ability to pull in an HDMI cable now, then I would do that just to get future proofed. If you plan to go BluRay then you will undoubtedly want the HDMI connection in place. If you did have one HDMI source, you could then run it directly to the TV through this new cable while everything else runs to the TV on Component. You would need to run the digital audio signal to the receiver from the HDMI source.

..Doyle

thanks Doyle

That is a fairly long run for HDMI, which can be problematic. Just a warning, you will want to test things pretty good before you pull a cable in there that might end up not working...