[brandylucy]

Forgive my ignorance, I'm really new at this. I have just purchased an early X-mas present for my husband: SAmsung 50" DPL TV, Onkyo receiver with 5.1 surround speakers and a progressive scan DVD player. I will get my HDTV through Bright House. They use a cable box with a DVI connector which I have on the TV.


I want to hook all this up correctly and am very confused about which component goes to which. I've read putting it all through the receiver and then I read putting it all on the TV. There is no DVI on the receiver. The TV has tons of different connections. Can someone tell me the best way to hook this mess up and if I should buy Monster Cables or something else?


Thanks so much. This is suppose to be a surprise for my husband so I want to hook it all up myself. I do know that I should replace the speaker wire with 16 for better sound. But that's all I have figured out so far.

 

[AcuraCL]

BL, I recommend hooking video into the tv directly, and audio into the receiver. Direct connections result in better audio and video quality. This means: DVI cable from cable box to tv, optical audio cable from cable box to receiver. I would also connect a set of analog audio cables (red+white) from the cable box to the tv, so that you can pop the news/weather on quickly and have sound without having to fire up the receiver.


Component cables (1 set of 3 cables) from DVD player to tv, optical audio cable to receiver. Speaker wires for front right-center-left and surround left-right from receiver to back of speaker.


DVI is a single cable. Component is a set of 3 cables, color coded Y/PB/PR or red green and blue. Optical cables are single cables, and should not be bent sharply. Audio (analog) cables are a set of 2, red and white. SPeaker cables are dual cables, usually black and red or white and clear, depending on manufacturer. Just keep the colors straight. The speaker will have a black and red terminal, as will the receiver. Just make sure you run the same wire from the receiver to the speaker.


Get all your cables at Radio Shack or an online vendor like Pacific Cable. Don't spend your hard-earned money on Monster, it is good but extremely overpriced.

 

[brandylucy]

Thank you AcuraCL,


That is exactly the advice I was looking for. You made it so simple. I forgot to ask one thing. My receiver manual says to hook up audio connection cables for each speaker (5) and a subwoofer cable to the DVD. Does that sound correct?


Brandylucy

 

[AcuraCL]

Hmmm, that doesn't sound quite right ... I'm not sure what they mean by that ....


Most times you run speaker wire to each of the speakers, but a single "signal" cable to the subwoofer (not dual speaker wire).


It is possible to run a cable from DVD to receiver but that would generally be if you ran ALL the outputs analog. That could be from 2 - 7 cables, but you would usually only do that if it were a DVD-Audio / SACD DVD player.


If the DVD player has an optical audio (digital) output, then you'll be fine running this cable from the DVD Player to the receiver. It will carry all the audio information. Then you run speaker wire from the receiver to all the speakers except the subwoofer, which gets a signal cable (this would be if the subwoofer is powered, which most are).


Pretty complicated huh?

 

[brandylucy]

The more I learn, the more confused I get. The DVD does have one coaxial for digital audio out. My receiver has a coaxial and an optical. So I will hook up the coaxial between the DVD and receiver and that will take care of my 5.1 Dolby digital audio, right?


The Bright House cable box (I'm talking to them right now) seems to have the DVI, S-cable, component cable and regular audio in/out. The DVI will be hooked up to the TV. For audio, I would then hook up the regular audio in/out to the receiver? I guess the cable box doesn't have optical/coaxial.


Thank you so much for your help. I think I'm starting to see through the fog! =)

 

[brandylucy]

CORRECTION.....BH says they DO have optical. So I hook that up to the receiver as well? Sounds good to me. I'm glad they called. She had to run around and ask for help, but I got my answer.