Help! What cables needed for setup

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post #1 of 5

1/5/07 at 4:26pm

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392 Posts. Joined 10/2006
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Hi guys
I have a LCD HDTV, an upscaling DVD player and a Cable Box. I'm about to buy a receiver (non HDMI switching) and 5.1 speaker set. What cables will I need to get all this together?

I presume the following:

Connect DVD to TV using HDMI.
Connect DVD audio to Receiver using Optical cable.
Connect Cable box to TV using DVI-HDMI cable.
Connect Cable box audio to Receiver using Optical cable.
Connect Receiver to speakers with speaker cable.

To watch DVD, I select HDMI 1 on the TV and select the appropriate Optical input on the receiver. Do I need to turn the TV volume down to zero to prevent the sound coming from TV also?

To watch Cable, I select HDMI 2 on the TV and select the appropriate Optical out on the receiver.

Is this going to work? Will there be any lag between the video and sound?

I'd rather not get HDMI switching due to handshake issues I've read about and the higher expense of the receiver.

Have I got it right?

Thanks!

post #2 of 5

1/5/07 at 4:46pm

2,189 Posts. Joined 11/2005
Location: West of Mt Diablo
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To watch DVD, I select HDMI 1 on the TV and select the appropriate Optical input on the receiver. Do I need to turn the TV volume down to zero to prevent the sound coming from TV also?

Yes very likely you will.

To watch Cable, I select HDMI 2 on the TV and select the appropriate Optical out on the receiver.

Almost. You select the input on your AVR that corresponds to the optical jack into which you plugged the Toslink cable from the set top box box.

Is this going to work? Will there be any lag between the video and sound?

It should work although some people are reporting sound lags with some equipment when using HDMI. In the worst case you can switch to a component video connection.

Have I got it right?

Yes. In fact for other reasons I have a similar setup, although the single HDMI connection is to the DVD player. When I tried HDMI with my Moto DVR I did not have any sound lag problems.

post #3 of 5

1/5/07 at 5:58pm

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Thanks for your reply.

Is there any need to buy expensive Optical (TOSLINK) cables?

I know speaker cable is all about price/quality but I thought digital signal cables are much the same...

post #4 of 5

1/5/07 at 8:18pm

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Toslink is the Toshiba trademark for this style of optical connector. The generic name is EIJ optical I think.

I've never had problem buying what ever is cheapest. Currently I have only one connector in use and that is an on-sale Radio Shack brand. For long optical runs, there maybe some reason to get a more expensive cable (glass vs plastic, quality of the cut and polish on the strand ends).

Both optical and digital coax (SPDIF) carry the bitstream equally well. In my, unscientific comparison of the one pair of Monster interlinks that I've had for 25 years and a variety of commercial off the shelf SPFIF, composite video cables, RCA audio pairs, homemade RG6, and optical connectors, all used for digital, I personally, speaking for no other person, state categorically that I cannot tell them apart without looking at them.

post #5 of 5

1/6/07 at 8:57am

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