I Am So Confused As To What Gets Plugged In To The Receiver And What Doesnt... Heres A Quick Rundown Of What I Have...

Sharp Aquos 52 Lcd - 2 Hdmi Inputs

Upconvert Dvd Player - 1 Hdmi Input

Hd Cable Box - 1 Hdmi Input

Harmon Kardon Avr 146 - Has 2 Hdmi "in" And 1 Hdmi "out"
(the Hk Doesnt Process Hdmi Signals, I Am Assuming It Will Only Pass Them Through And Keep The Signal Hd)

Speakers Are Polk Sub, Center, 2 Fronts And 2 Surrounds

I Was Assuming I Could Connect Everything Through Hdmi Cables.

I Have The Tv Going To Cable Box With An Hdmi Cable. And Being That The Cables Are Little Expensive I Didnt Hook Anything Else Up With Them Yet Until I Am Sure How Many I Need....

And I Have The Tv Connected To The Receiver With Rca Cables

I Am Running The Dvd Player To The Receiver With Rca Cables

So I Would Appreciate Anyone Who Could Give Me A Few Pointers On What Gets Plugged Into What And How....i Was Assuming The Hdmi Would Be Best And Most Convenient Because You Need Less Wires Using Them.

(ps, I Read In The Hk Avr 146 Manual That The Hdmi Ports Will Not Pass Audio Through Them, Only The Video...so I Would Them Need Some Type Of Audio Connection)

I Just Checked The Connections In The Back, Because Someone Was Telling Me I Would Also Need To Use The Optical Ports...

Hd Cable Box - 1 Optical Audio Out Port & 2 Component Ports

Tv - 1 Digital Audio Output 2 Component Ports

Dvd - Only Hdmi And Rca Ports

Hk Receiver - Please Check Out The Picture Of The Back Of The Unit96710

http://www.harmankardon.com/back.aspx?prod=AVR%20146&cat=REC&sType=C&Region=USA&Country=US&Language=ENG&ImgName=AVR146B.jpg

Okay for audio:
Cable box -> AVR via optical
TV -> AVR via digital coax
DVD -> AVR via stereo rca (this sucks because you won't get surround sound would need a new dvd player for that, or an AVR that can process HDMI audio)

For video there are two ways to do this you can either run HDMI cables from both the DVD and Cable Box to the tv or run HDMI cables from the DVD and Cable Box to the AVR and then run an HDMI cable from the AVR to the TV.

You shouldn't have to be paying much for cables. Check out monoprice.com or bluejeanscable.com.

the dvd player only has an hdmi and analog stereo? :confused: you SURE there isn't another connection back there?

ps. dude... lose the caps on every word. it makes it VERY difficult to read your posts...

thank for the inputs guys....yes the dvd player was cheap....35 bucks.... got it as a gift..there is only one hdmi port and a set of red/whire/yellow rca cable ports....hmm i know cheap stuff....thanks ericm83..i am going to try that....noiw here is a stupid question...you had said to connect the tv to avr via digital coax....but the tv doesnt have that port, the avr does...the tv has a digital audio output....the coax looks like the rca port.....the digital audio looks different...

also, there is no way to get surround sound through that dvd player? i am so confused with all this stuff...i thought an hdmi port was the best...get excellent video and audio through it....so i am wrong? and you also wont get it through the rca ports?...i never knew that...so which ports will give you surround sound?

i just rechecke the dvd player...it does have the orange coax port also......can someone please address this as well as my last 2 post on here....i am lost!

Well it sounds like the output on your tv is an optical output then. But thinking about it some more, do you ever watch over the air broadcast tv? If not you won't even need to hook up the tv digital out to the avr like I suggested in my previous post.

As far as HDMI being the best picture and sound. Generally speaking this is true. The audio over HDMI isn't going to be any better or worse than any other digital connection until you start getting into the new audio formats on Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs, which can't be transmitted over optical or coax digital connections. The problem you are running into though is that your AVR can not process audio from an HDMI input. A lot of the entry level receivers do this though I don't know why. Kinda of ruins the point of having a video and audio signal on one cable.

So, bottom line is that with the current DVD player and AVR that you have you won't be able to get surround sound. HDMI will send surround sound, but your AVR can't process it. A digital output (either optical or coax) can send surround sound, but your DVD player doesn't have these. That leaves you with the stereo rca outputs. These will only give you two channels though. The red one is the right channel and the white one is left. Bummer.

edit: I just saw your last post there. That coax output is what you will want to be using it is a digital connection that will give you surround sound. So just use an digital rca cable to connect that orange output to a coax input on your AVR.

eric..thanks so much for all your input....so i am basically screwed with connecting the tv to the avr to get surround sound then? cant i use the hdmi for the video and a digital optical cable from the tv to the avr for the audio? this wont give me surround sound?

and what do you mean by over the air broadcast tv?

ok i am preety stupid when it comes to this...but i just rechecked everything...the tv, hd cable box and the avr does have and optical port....should i use those for all the audio? and the coax for the dvd player? if so, which goes to what...thanks

I'm far from an expert but what he means by asking whether you watch OTA TV is do you ever watch the TV without the use of your cable box? Most people who have cable or satellite don't. If that's the case then you don't need to run audio from the TV to your AVR, you just need to run coax or optical cable from the cable box to the AVR for digital 5.1 surround.

ETA: Video and audio are both carried via a single HDMI cable so if you choose to connect a source such as your DVD player to your AVR you don't need to run any additional cable for audio.

gotcha....so i only use the cable box to watch tv...so i only need an optical audio from the cable to the avr...dont need any audio from tv to cable right? great thanks

In the end, your setup will actually be quite simple.

Video:
HDMI Cable box -> TV
HDMI DVD -> TV
-or -
HDMI Cable box -> AVR
HDMI DVD - > AVR
HDMI AVR -> TV

The video choice should be based on two factors: (1) Do you want to do all of your switching in the receiver, which is simpler since you'll have to switch audio in the receiver anyway. (2) Does the receiver switch cleanly and reliably without any loss of picture quality. It should, but the only way to know for sure is by trying it. The HDMI and HDCP handshaking cause problems sometimes.

Audio:
Optical Cable box -> AVR
Coax DVD -> AVR

You will need two or three HDMI cables, depending on which video choice you make, one optical audio cable, and one coax audio cable. From a place like MonoPrice, you're looking at about $30 plus shipping.

BIslander..thanks so much....that is a big help...with your 2nd video choice, you already know my avr doesnt process hdmi signals, only passes them through...so will that setup cause any loss in picture quality?

BIslander..thanks so much....that is a big help...with your 2nd video choice, you already know my avr doesnt process hdmi signals, only passes them through...so will that setup cause any loss in picture quality?
It shouldn't. But, you won't know until you try.

thanks to all.... by the way, www.monoprice.com is out of stock of some of the things i need...is there another webiste that has the same low prices on cables?

Dear Bislander,

Enjoyed your post and how you helped jaytucci. I have a similar situation but don't have hdmi connection on my dsp-a1 yamaha receiver. Do I just run an optical connection and s-video connection from my dvd to receiver and again from my receiver to the tv if I want to have the benefit of switching? Seems like I'd get better performance in my case if I used video option 1, your first recommendation w/ your audio recommendations.

hope you can help.

docster

Do I just run an optical connection and s-video connection from my dvd to receiver and again from my receiver to the tv if I want to have the benefit of switching?
If possible, avoid using S-video and use instead either HDMI or component video for your video connections. S-video gives lower quality, and will not pass HD video at all. If you have a choice between switching video in your receiver or your TV, probably doing it in your receiver will be more convenient (since that's where you'll be switching audio).

Since HDMI carries the highest quality video and audio signals, it would make more sense to use HDMI cables for all connections. Unfortunately, this current generation of hardware will not yet let you do that.

Dear greg, nice solution but I don't have that option. What if I hooked up my cable box to tv with hdmi and dvd to tv with hdmi and ran my cable box optical to receiver and coax from dvd to receiver for audio connections. what would be the downside to that config? I can't quite see it.

docster

Dear greg, nice solution but I don't have that option. What if I hooked up my cable box to tv with hdmi and dvd to tv with hdmi and ran my cable box optical to receiver and coax from dvd to receiver for audio connections. what would be the downside to that config? I can't quite see it.

docster
That will work. It's the way I have mine hooked up: the TV switches the video and the receiver switches the audio. The downside is that to switch from one audio+video source to another, I have to do two operations: switch the receiver and switch the TV. (It would still be possible to do the switch with one button press using a programmable remote, but I don't.)

thanks greg you have given me hope. Does that config. enable you to upconvert dvd's to 720, 1080i etc.

No, unless of course the DVD player upconverts.

Dear Bislander,

Enjoyed your post and how you helped jaytucci. I have a similar situation but don't have hdmi connection on my dsp-a1 yamaha receiver. Do I just run an optical connection and s-video connection from my dvd to receiver and again from my receiver to the tv if I want to have the benefit of switching? Seems like I'd get better performance in my case if I used video option 1, your first recommendation w/ your audio recommendations.

hope you can help.

docster

That's quite a receiver you have, for audio. But, from what I can tell, it pre-dates even component video. That means you have to connect your DVD player and cable/satellite boxes directly to the TV using HDMI. HDMI will also enable your player to upconvert SD discs, which is not allowed over component for the most part.

For audio, use optical from the cable or satellite box to the receiver. If your HD-DVD player is an XA2 or A35, you will get the best sound by using the 5.1 analog outputs from the player to the receiver's multichannel inputs. That's the only way to get the full Dolby TrueHD and DD+. If you have any other HD-DVD player, use the optical path from the player to the receiver. That will give you 640kbps DD or 1.5Mbps DTS, which is pretty darn good.

You are now faced with switching inputs on both the TV and receiver along with whatever commands you need to send to the source device whenever you want to watch something. A good universal remote like a Harmony will do the switching with a single button push.

DVD Player HDMI -> TV
Cable/Satellite HDMI -> TV

Cable/Satellite Optical -> AVR
DVD Player Optical -> AVR
-or- Analog 5.1 -> AVR